Anyway enough of my troubles I hear that we are all off to hell in and handcart in the UK with students rioting this week. Anyway I'm sure the lovely autumn weather climate is doing much to cheer your mood.
This was the last week before our Chinese Visa ran out so into the deep south we go. We picked out a mountain village called Yuanyang. This place is described in ‘The Lonely Planet’ as: “A grubby but friendly place ideally located in the mountains for exploring the terraced rice fields known locally as the dragon’s backbone”
Ooooh, sounds good, we envisaged sweeping views across the valleys and a restful stopping place before the long complicated slog down to the border. “Grubby” well yes Yuanyang certainly was a wee bit tatty and scruffy. The keep China tidy campaign hasn’t really taken hold of China yet. But I don’t mind a bit of grubbiness me............ leave it, just leave it. OK?
“Friendly” yes we met some very personable young students who wanted to practise their English and spent a couple of hours chatting with them. “Mountains” now this is where it starts to get a bit trickier. Mountains of course, mean altitude, cloud, very low temperatures, rain, fog and low to no visibility. In this relatively remote part of China the torrential rain meant potential landslides and treacherous roads. At one stage, the town square turned into a Norwegian fjord.
I would love to be able to confirm that Yuanyang is “ideally situated to explore the terraced rice fields” indeed every restaurant and shop we went into had stunning pictures of these rice fields. I have to admit they did look impressive. However, the truth is that for most of the time we were there I could barely see my hand in front of my face. Add to that one hotel room that smelt of raw sewage and another with a busted bed and well things were looking a bit ...... Well, Help!! I’m a westerner get me out of here!!
After 2 and a half days of continual rain, we gave up and boarded a bus 8 hours back to where we’d come from to catch another bus for 10 hours to get us to the border. A round trip of approximately 30 plus hours, if you include all the little stops and border control. Don’t worry folks one of the buses was a sleeper bus. Passengers pay a premium to get a nice comfy bed to “sleep” in. Only thing is the driver and his co-pilot keep themselves awake by chatting loudly all through the night. They also have sole control of the air horn. Air horns a piece of modern technology that I personally feel should be referred to the United Nations to be discussed alongside cluster bombs and mustard gas.
Nevertheless, after all of that we arrive neatly and in good time at the border crossing. What could possibly go wrong now. Well, I’ve got a good one for you this week. It goes like this, an English woman, a Scotsman and a black woman hand in their passports at border control…….
I’m sure you can imagine but if you want to see the punch line read the attachment. Same shit just a different country. (This story in the next installment!)
In any case Goodbye China, Hello Laos.
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