Running out of money

Trip Start Aug 24, 2008
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18
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Trip End Jul 07, 2009


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Flag of China  , Sichuan,
Tuesday, November 4, 2008

We left Emei Shan early in the morning and headed to Yibin on the bus. Yibin was the biggest dive we had ever seen,with no actual roads just piles of mud.We tried to buy bus tickets at the station but the woman just rambled on at us in Chinese. When we didn't understand she wrote it down for us, in Chinese.Again,very helpful. Eventually we worked out that we had to go to another bus station across town to get to Shunan.We were on the bus when suddenly it stopped by the side of the road, and we were told to get out. The bus then rode off without us,leaving us in the middle of nowhere.However a friendly lady came over and offered to drive us to Wanli (the village we wanted to visit) for 6 yuan. We said yes and drove off in her little car, stopping occasionally to take photos of the amazing scenery of rice paddies as far as the eye could see. When we arrived she dropped us at a 5 star hotel which we had to leave immediately due to ridiculous prices. The woman then told us to give her 60 yuan for her lift even though we had agreed on 6. The drive was only 10 minutes so there was no way we were paying that much money. She started yelling at us in Chinese so David yelled back in English that he would give her 20 yuan or nothing but she refused so we walked off. She continued to rant at us and chase us down the street but eventually she agreed to 20 yuan. Next time we will use a proper taxi.

Anyway Shunan Bamboo sea is a huge forest of bamboo that David has seen in his Kung Fu movies. We checked into a nice little hotel surrounded by rice paddies, ducks, pigs and of course bamboo. The next day the owner of the hotel agreed to take us on a tour of the park so off we went. There was some breathtaking scenery including waterfalls, gorges, bamboo and a temple on the side of a cliff. It was all very misty and atmospheric.We had to take a bamboo raft across the lake at one point. Unfortunately there are no ATMs in the middle of a forest and we were seriously running out of cash. At lunch we tried to order the cheapest thing we could find but unfortunately David managed to choose some rare mushroom delicacy that cost 100 yuan for a plate full. We didn't even have 100 yuan by this point so we had no idea what to do other than to offer to do the washing up. Eventually they reduced their price to 50 yuan, leaving us with 20 yuan for dinner. We spent the afternoon gazing at waterfalls and watching brides posing for photos, and then headed back through the rice paddies and water buffalo to our hotel. We explained that we had only 20 yuan and could they give us some food for such a small sum (about 1.8 pounds). We expected a bowl of rice, but they gave us fried egg with moss (a speciality), rice, vegetable soup and a plate of mushrooms. We were so grateful that we didn't have to starve that we ate the whole lot.

The next day we left Shunan for Chongqing.
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