Day 35

Disaster struck this morning. I headed into the shower with my towel, shower gel, flip flops and digital camera. I wanted to take a picture of the pipe coming out of the wall that this hotel was passing off as a shower. The drain in the shower was just a six inch hole in the floor and I could only just get that and the pipe in the same shot. I flipped the camera on, and it made it's familiar start up sound. Steve heard this from the toilet next door and started giggling as he knew what I was up to. I started giggling too and managed to drop the camera on to the wet floor. The camera had previously survived a fall while I was on horseback in Mongolia so I was hoping this would be just a scare too. Bad news followed as the camera displays old pictures ok but can't get any new ones in focus! This is a bit of a set-back because I've been using my brother's camera on this trip and he is expecting it back. That means I'll have to buy two new ones - one for him, and one for me to continue using!

1 That "Shower"

I wondered around Kaifeng looking for digital camera shops but found just a few models inferior to what I'd been using - I'll just have to wait till the next big city Chengdu. That means Steve is going to be my photographer for the next few days during our Yangzi river trip.

2 The Kaifeng night market

Today was a spare day as Jason, our guide from yesterday, managed to get us train tickets to Yichang leaving at 1.48am tonight! So, as with so many or our spare hours we headed to the internet cafe. I needed a fix of football so I signed up for Liverpool FC's online highlights package and sat back in the chair watching all the goals I'd missed in the last month. I got on to Skype too and made a few video phone calls. There was a fat Chinese kid who'd been lurking behind me whenever I'd been in that internet cafe and it was pretty annoying. So when I was on a video call with Haydn I quickly swiveled the camera round to focus on him and when he noticed he ducked below my chair to get out of view - Haydn, me and the kid all had a good laugh about that.

3 Unidentified Testicles

We had a traditional Italian tonight - or so that's what we were told. The restaurant looked Italian but it felt funny being waited on by a Chinese man in an Italian restaurant. That said they've got Polish waiters at the Italian in Horfield, Bristol so I suppose anything goes these days.

Around 1am we headed to the train station and got on. It was nice for the trains not to be fully booked for once. But this time in our sleeper cabin people were already asleep and snoring as we arrived. It was dark but we found our beds, put our bags underneath and got some shut-eye as the train set off to Yichang.

4 More Night Market Fodder