i must say, from all the places we've visited this week, chaozhou was the most disappointing. nick painted this idyllic little village where we would find peace and tranquility. maybe it's where we stayed: downtown chaozhou. but it felt like any other chinese city. cleaner than wuhan and wuxi. but dirtier than shantou. plus the people still talked all nasally. and didn't understand me. i was not happy.
the bus ride over was....really dirty. for the whole hour ride, i was trying desperately to not touch anything. unfortunately, i still had to sit. so i sanitized my butt afterward. it didn't make me feel any cleaner.
hotel was actually quite expensive. four stars. brand new hotel. with lots of bright lights and red lanterns and decor all over the place. i think they were trying to open before the new year. whatever they did, it succeeded in catching our eye. and lots of other foreigners because they all spoke english there. not a lick of chaozhou anywhere in the hotel- not even the bellhops.
dinner was a disaster. went to a place right by the hotel and bus station. wanted to go to a shop that had fresh pulled noodles. but the guy wasn't there so we ate next door. big mistake.
we ordered beef noodles and bitter melon soup. (i got winter melon soup AND bitter melon. nick got double winter melon.) sat down and noticed the table was dirty. nick called the waitress over. she wiped the table with a really nasty dishrag. got our food. i saw a container right next to nick. thought it was the pepper shaker. it was for toothpicks. and i don't know why i continued eating after seeing that, but i did. needless to say, i ended up getting sick last night. and it lasted the rest of today. luckily, we decided to go back to shantou so at least the food is better.
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