And Chongqing Still Glitters
Trip Start
Jan 09, 2009
1
44
Trip End
Feb 23, 2009
Kunming, Yunnan, China
Friday, January 9, 2009
Yongchuan in Chongqing's Municipality was semi-mired in muddy pavements as I made my way to the '25' bus station to wait for the bus to Chongqing's airport to catch a five pm plane to Kunming. One disabled woman with deformed hands was painting some Chinese characters on some paper spread on the ground. One Yuan bills were scattered by passers-by. How bizarre!!
The vehicle moved along steadily and slowly merged with heavy traffic as it got closer to the airport. The Chinese press, TV anchor presenters - and the Western media - are all full of glamorous tales about how marvelous everything is in China, and an annual 10 % GDP growth which is nothing more than a stuck gramophone record. If anyone has lived in China for several years as I have, they'll see the reality is quite different: smoggy polluted skies where the sun only glimmers, and where anything environmentally beautiful, such as Tiger Leaping Gorge, is being sidelined for greater economic development. China will end up like Japan where all its lakes have been given way to hydro-electric dam projects. Stunning spots like the Gorge have no place in the great Chinese boast - only the 10% GDP!! This is also forcibly being capped due to the current economic meltdown. What a crying shame!! They'll pay the price in the long run, so Chongqing is thoroughly spoilt; a desert of sterile skyscrapers; a sort of ubiquitous boom city where the sun hardly shines. Normally, the atmosphere here has the thickness of grey soup. But that's what most of China is - a base to play at games, at doing business. But wonders will never cease - the sun came out - so Chongqing still glitters. On one of those days - today.
The plane was delayed, then canceled. I had to hurry to re-check in, to be put on another flight - one at a stopover from Shijiazhuang. This inefficiency had me exploding which I soon regretted, made worse by Chinese lack of queuing- more like clamouring. Don't they ever realize that there is some tangible animate object in front of them?
It is time to travel south and try somewhere different. To go where the sun gets a look-in. Where it actually shines.
Kunming's city centre was reached after a rather confusing taxi ride. The driver did a detour to accumulate more on the meter so I'd have to pay more....ripper off, cheater. You can't play these games forever.
The Hump hostel. "By Gum it's noisy:" incessant soul-rap music blaring in the main lounge.
I wasn't sure about creating another unpaid travel blog, but it helps air and keep your thoughts, to have a place to archive the trip.
Going off traveling on my own, at first, makes me neurotic: nervous, dreading, gut worry. It's as a Canadian friend described it: "you've been taking your job as an oral English teacher too seriously," and it's also the result of being attached to a comfort zone.
The Hump is slap bang among a load of bars and discos, and there's a nice cheap noodle bar just next door. I ordered a bowl, and as it was quite late, the cooks and waitress staff were playing at tickling each other in a small back room; a welcome respite from hard work - to have some fun.
The Hump is quite old, the dormitory rooms are dingy, shabby - though lived-in. The Internet corner's a fabulous joke: PCs are painfully slow. Someone spilt beer near the mouse and keyboard of one, paralyzing the arrow on the desktop, and they expect you to pay 4 Yuan an hour! I hate Net bars. Otherwise, the staff seem down-to-earth, pleasant and helpful.
A notice on the noticeboard in pink curvy handwriting said two more passengers were needed to make up a car load that was heading for Luang Prabang and Vientiane - 300 RMB for the drive down. I headed for the sack.
There is a nice story about a more traditional way you can get to Kunming from the central parts of China - namely Guizhou. Chek it out at:
http://www.gonomad.com/destinations/0103/taylor-china.html
