Kaifeng.. Chinas' capital during the Song Dynasty
Trip Start
Sep 16, 2006
1
10
117
Trip End
Feb 28, 2008
Kaifeng,
China
Monday, October 16, 2006
Well at about 10.45 on the 16th of October 2006 we arrived at Luoyang train station ready to board our next train to another destination.. Kaifeng... It feels like we have been in china a long time now and to be honest i really wanted to be heading south as then at least it would seem like we are nearing our next country, but for now we were heading west to the historic capital of the Song Dynasty Kaifeng..
When we arrived at the station we didnt have long to wait so we just joined the cue (well, mass of) people in the aisle, we were soon pushing our way to the front once it all got moving and came out the other side of the barrier - split up but having completed phase one.. The 4 of us didnt have beds together this time as it wasnt possible but at least we were all in the same carrage, so we made our selves at home and the train departed on time
????
. I was a bit pekish at the station so i bought some pineapple flavoured biscuits which did fill a hole but i have to say tasted nothing like the reason i bought them in the first place and they were more like big ritz biscuits thus meaning i got more over myself and my bed than in my gob!! The journey wasnt a long one really but i was glad of the room to stretch out, listened to some music and read up on Kaifeng.. Malin and i fell asleep a few times squished together on my bunk which was nice and was obviously needed and before long we arrived at our Destination.. :)When we got outside the girls wanted to investigate buying their onward tickets to Shanghai as they only wanted to stay for 1 night so we headed along to the tickets office. The stare ommiter was maxing out and i was very aware of the eyes here i have to say but we marched over to the ticket office and took off our bags whilst the girls went on in to have a gander. Got chatting to a guy from Beijing who was in Kaifeng visiting his girlfriend.. His english was really good and it was i nice change to have someone who could not only understand what i was saying but also talk back with near perfect pronounciation!! As we were talking, a group of about 20 people were crowded around us just watching us chat; they must have been only 2 meters away!! The more we chatted the more the group seem to increase in size
An old abacus in Shanshaangan Guild Hall
. The girls came out of the ticket office having had no luck with buying their tickets but were accompanied by another english speaking guy who we later found out was called Jason (well his manufactured english name though anyway)!! He was very helpful and was very knowledgable about Kaifeng city as he had a rickshaw and often took tourist around.. He is quite well known in Kaifeng as "tourist rickshaw man" so we decided to trust him and take our first rickshaw ride in China!! He ran off to grab another rickshaw driver as there was 4 of us so we followed down to the road and left our now massive group of groupies behind.. A big "BONJOUR' was uttered and i left. :)His mate had an electric powered version of his peddle power rickshaw so he made a point of making sure the lighter ones were in his leaving me and rob (the fat ones) to slum it in the speedy electric one.. :) As we had seen from all the cities in china, the roads are manic and rickshaw drivers tend to own the road!! We found out this first hand as we crossed a main T junction DIAGONALLY!! It was quite relaxing being driven round the streets i have to say and part of me wished i had tried it earlier, but this was to be my first so i soaked up the atmosphere with a grin on my face from ear to ear..
Jason had a book with all his tourist clients in along with pictures and comments.. I think this is what gave us the confidence to put our reservations aside and trust him, plus he had been very helpful to the girls at the station.. He was telling us we were driving along that we were his 249th tourist clients from around the world which isnt a bad stat as he later told us that only 5000 tourists from over seas visit Kaifeng per year!! (4.9million chinese tourists per year to give you a comparison).
Breakfast time
. Jason also did tours of his city for 50 yuan a head so because we had never paid for a guide pre kaifeng, rob and i said we would take him up on his offer the next day.Anyway after about 20 mins on route we arrived at out hostel (well hotel really) parked up the rickshaws and checked in.. The price was 30yuan each which was the same price as in Luoyang but i have to say the standard was NOT up to scratch this time!!! The Guide book said that this place had been recently renovated - well it had but the renovations were in the building next door, we were in the slum quarters!! Our rooms (2 twins) were absolutly discusting.. The walls were filthy, the smell was stale, the beds were dirty but it did have a tv.. Bonus.. :/ Right then, on to the bathroom and shower room... The toilets were opposite mine and robs room and the facilties included one western toilet and 1 dive bomber.. Each cubicle had a rodeo style door which was useless as it had to stay open as otherwise even on the western toilet you would have to stand, so the door stayed open.. It was filthy in there and the smell was 2 times as bad as a uk public toilet smell!! The showers were next door again and were even worse.. To cover the tiled floor they had a mosaic of mouldy shower mated which were curling up at the edges, there was nowhere to put anything down so all you could take in were the essentials. They didnt believe in having shower heads, oh no
Bye bye to the girls
. They just had bits of conduit pipe strategically bent so that when you turned it on the pressure of the water would take a testicle clean off.. You may laugh but i got one caught and i can tell you it was not a pleasant experience at all!!Now the tour is over i shall continue.. :).. By this time we were getting hungry and sick spending time in our s*** hole of a room so we ventured out to have a bite to eat.. We walked for about 30 mins getting starred at alot (another alien landing had occured but this time in Kaifeng) until we found the classic restaurant sign... Red lanterns hanging at the front of building!! We entered a nearly empty restuarant as workmen were doing some minor mods to the exterior, not the best advertisment for a quality establishment but hey we were hungry and on a mission for chinese delights so we headed for a table and parked out bums!! Shhhh****t no english menu!! This always happens when we just want to eat something we recognise and then leave contented!! We spent a very frustrating 20 mins ordering using our rough guide s "handy restaurant phrase section" which seemed to work and the waitress toddled off and left us feeling releaved that we had finally got through and that the next stage would be us enjoying a drink and filling our faces at race horse pace.. :) Our beers came but they had no coke like beverages, so they brouight out thier equivalents which were milk!!
Chrysanthemum display as part of the festival
! and carrot juice i think - not on my shift landlord!! Be gone we said, beer is all we need!!Food time.. This was a nice surprise, our chicken and cashew nut phrase had landed us a winner, it was really tasty. The noodle accompniment was also of a high standard albiet not "stir fried" as we had ordered!!! After the race to the finish we were all feeling full and fairly contented although rob and kejsa still seemed on edge, nothing a good walk around wouldnt cure.
Rob needed to get his visa extended as there was agood chance that it would expire before we got to Kunnming. Kaifeng is good place to get this mod done as the PSB (Police) have a good view on tourism here and offer a quick and afordable extention option. It was too late to get it done when we went in but they said that he could complete the process from 8.30 the next day so we left and hit the internet cafe (after getting lost)!:) I wanted to break the back of my phot uploading so i stayed later than the other 3, i got what i wanted to get done and left to join them back at the slum. On route i walked through the "Night market" which was highly recomended in the guide book as a must see. It is basicaly lots of street food venders all in one place but with places to sit down and tuck in instead of the usual - walk off muching as you stride.. There werer all sorts of delights on offer from the "on a stick menu".. All of the usual stuff but at this place some of the venders had full crabs on a stick, bugs on a stick, whole fishes on a stick and i think there was definatly testicles on one of the stands!! I didnt fancy any of it to honest as my guts were still playing up so on returning to the market after i had met back up with the crew i bought some dry hot sesseme bread to aid in the solifying process!
Chrysanthemum.. :)
! The rest of the our first night in Kaifeng was spent drinking beers that we had bought from a shop back at the slum as it was definatly going to our last night with the girls as they were booked to leave for Zhengzuo the following morning!!!The morning came after our first night at colditz and i was glad to get out of bed and have a shower as i had noticed the day before that my hair was black from having the window open on the train!! (Thanks to my off white pillow now being a shade of grey)! The girls packed up and we all went down for our free breakfast!! "What would this be like" we thought - our hopes wernt high!! We were right to have reservations as it all looked scanky and the menu was what we would eat for tea so we really wernt feeling that.. Western breafast was needed, some coffee and toast.. yum.. Our new chinses guide friend jason directed us to a little coffe place accross the street so we were happy to finally have a nice and straight forward breakfast for once......... In true chinese style this was of course not the case as it turned out!! I think we woke up the staff as we walked in (which is never a good sign for a speedy food delivery), once they got them selves together and served us (which was nightmare) we got to order 4 rounds of toast and 4 coffees. About 1 hour later we recieved our coffees which were very nice i have to say albeit that they were luke warm
Dragon wood sculpture at shanshaangan
. The toast came out in 3 stages and didnt resemble anything i would recognise as toast in the UK.. It was doorstep slice of bread (about 2 " thick with peanut butter on the top, lightly toasted!!! We ate it up i have to say but the wait kind of peed us off!!After breakfast it was time to kiss fairwell to the girls for the last time.. I had sorted out with jason that he would drop them at the bus station and then come back to take us on a tour of the city, so we said our goodbyes and watched as the girls were peddled off down the road into the caos!!!
When Jason got back we headed out for a tour of the city by foot.. It turned out to be really usefull to have an english speaking guide especially one that is friendly and willing to bend over backwards to help.. We visited many historical places around the city non of which i can remember the names of and i cant be arsed to look them up now but it was really interesting and we spent 5 hours snaking the city by foot and by bus. One thing i havent mentioned is that we had arrived in Kaifeng just as the Chrysanthemum Flower Festival was about to kick off which is another stroke of luck on our part.. The city is covered with all differnt colours of these flowers and was really nice to see. Jason also helped us to arrange our onward travel tickets to Yichang!
Everything on a stick
! He took us to a differnt ticket office where he knew we would have more luck booking sleeper train tickets. He did all the talking and came up with the jackpot - two tickets leaving to Yichang in the eaely hours of thurday morning... sweeet.. What a guy. He took us into a muslim eatery for lunch where they make the noodles in front of you. It was a fairly basic restaurant (greasy spoon type) but the food turned out to be delicious. Three portions of noodles with beef bits and veg bits plus a beer each cost 17.5 yuan (just over 1 pound).... :) If youa speakady lingo you geta gud price..
We left our man at about 5pm after we had written some comments next to the photo he had taken of us earlier in the day and departed for some western food.. Good old KFC!!! The internet cafe called again and did alot of blogging (the massive turd of a blog i did for Luoyang), it was then time for bed around 12 midnight..
Today (yippee i made it) we got up late as there was no rush so we slept in until 11am.. Dragged my sweet ass out of bed to pack my bag and hit the shower for one last time (thank the good lord). Oh forgot to say, i had to say bye bye to my nipple piercing this morning as i lost one of the balls on the end, so in a dramatic burial ceremony i pulled the fella out and threw it down the drain!
Jason and his special book
! booo.. I have had that puppy in for about 8 years now so i was sad to see it go but i wont miss getting it caught on everything i can tell ya!! Well the rest of today has been spent walking around the city, buying street food and blogging.. The time here now is 7pm (12 midday uk time) on the 18th October 2006, i am sat on my ass at this damn PC beavering away wanting this blog to come to an end as my body need to pee and be fed...!!
We are boarding our train in a few hours and between now and then i shall be mostly eating, drinking and blogging so thats bye bye from me until Yichang and beyond..
Steve, Beeky, Sneeky, Arr Trace. xx
Comments
Funkyness
Hey bro
Just read the mammoth blog :| it was very interesting though :) I'm sat in my hotel room on my own mini adventure in Ghent.. glad everything is so cool, keep smiling!!