Arrival in Anshun
Trip Start
Apr 05, 2007
1
3
9
Trip End
Apr 13, 2007
Anshun,
China
Saturday, April 7, 2007
The second thing we did, at the same counter, was buy our tickets to Anshun, for this morning. We've heard the bus trip is long and bumpy and the train claims to take under one and a half hours, so we'll go by train at least one way. Tickets were about the price of a local MTR ride in Hong Kong.
There were three hotels near the station in Guiyang. The first offered rooms for Y100, but when we actually went up to the lobby we found gweilos were not allowed. The usual excuse - not "hygienic" enough for foreigners. The next one, at Y128, was acceptable but it was hard to communicate with the staff. We ended up at the Hang Do Hotel, a two-star hotel opposite the station, with nice rooms for the special price of Y158, including breakfast. The room reminded us of City Garden, where we lived for two years in Hong Kong, but the only non-Chinese TV channel was French, presumably because they get a lot of French tour groups in this part of the world.
We are now on the train, waiting to leave for Anshun. Though we came half an hour early, the train was already full.
1 - Buffet breakfast
Just as well we have numbered seats.Breakfast this morning was the standard Chinese fare, watery rice porridge, with lots of pickles and other strange items to put in it. There were some very nice tofu strips, something like noodles made from tofu, boiled eggs, real noodles, various breads and cakes, including a nice sponge a bit like a pandan cake, and hot milk. Not bad, but there are also plenty of noodles and dumplings in the streets. Food is never a problem in China - except for vegetarians perhaps.
* * *
The short train ride was pleasant enough. We sat next to an old couple who offered us mandarins to eat. We took one to share and tried to give them some of our chocolates but they signalled that they couldn't eat them.
We looked at a few hotels and settled on the one nearest the station, which may not have been the best choice. It was Y60 for a very bright room, but it is cold and they do not provide towels. They did give us a couple of small ones after a bit of persuasion.
We have arranged for two different shoe shops to make me a pair of shoes, to be picked up on Tuesday. It is hard to find shoes my size in either mainland China or Hong Kong, and I did manage to get some made on an earlier trip to Songpan, though they still turned out to be a little tight. One of the shops is charging Y120 and wanted a Y50 deposit. The other is Y65, no deposit, but didn't measure my foot. She said she could judge just by looking at it.
2 - Self serve porridge
We'll see what they produce. I could do with some shoes right away as I only brought sandals, not expecting this cold, rainy weather.We ordered a basket of ten delicious dumplings at one of the many dumpling specialists and they were so good we got another ten. We sampled a few other offerings from various stalls, including some potatoes cooked on a stick and then tossed with several condiments, and tried some local cakes, which were just okay. We have booked with another hotel for the tour to the waterfall and other attractions. A full-day trip tomorrow, including lunch.
We did an hour's e-mail at an internet cafe. People on the train paid Y20 an hour at their hotel's business centre and complained it was very slow. We told them they'd be better off at an internet cafe for Y2 an hour. In our experience, the business centre connections tend to be so slow as to be unusable. Most of the e-mails waiting for us were notices that I had YouTube comments. I seem to be building up more and more of an audience. Most of the comments are positive, with a few nasty ones. I only delete the spam and the threats, such as one guy who wanted to hit me over the head with my guitar and strangle me with the strings. And that's not as bad as what he wanted to do to my accompanist with his tin whistle. I even get advice on how to improve my song-writing skills and what other singers I should emulate.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel room to escape from the cold and rain. It cleared up in the evening so we went across the station square for dinner. There were rows of eating houses, all of which would be worth a try, but we settled on one that had very fresh green vegetables, cauliflower and mushrooms. We had a dish of greens, a dish of cauliflower and mushrooms with garlic and other spices and a few bowls of rice. The lady who cooked for us was very pleasant and so was her ten-year-old daughter, who tried out some of the phrases she is learning in her English class. Her mother pays Y100 a month for her English tuition, but we couldn 't work out how many actual lessons this represented. Yoong managed to have a reasonable conversation with the lady, using her limited Mandarin. The mushrooms were probably the best we've ever tasted. Our understanding is that they grow all their produce themselves. We've ordered a steamed fish for tomorrow night as we are fairly confident that she will do it well.
After dinner (which set us back Y15) we went for a walk along the main street. Lots of interesting sights, including a large group of people dancing on a square outside a department store. We hope to explore further during the day if only the rain keeps off. The little girl assured us though that it will rain for the next two days!
Our impression of Anshun is that it's a pleasant, friendly town - no beggars sighted so far, too.
Raymond's Travel Page
