Stopping off in Pingyao
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
27
349
Trip End
May 14, 2009
Pingyao,
China
Friday, June 27, 2008
This place is really cool, it's like a quaint village that is fully walled. The guesthouse that we stopped at was called xxxx. This had the most awesome bedroom with a bed that took up half of the room. The shower room was the best so far and there was even free Wi-Fi. Outside there are about 5 different courtyard areas where you can sit on a swinging bamboo seat and chilll out with a cold beer and a book - so relaxing.
After breakfast we had a cycle ride around the town. It is a beautiful place, almost like a film set. And as it happens, as we both were cycling round near the town wall, we rode straight into a film shot!! It was some Japanese film being reccorded and we nearly rode straight in front of the camera! I had my Forest top on and thought this would be the last chance one of these tops would ever be shown on tv, whereas Lorna just kept saying "How does my hair look?" and "Make sure they get my best side" - Backside would be more accurate
Entering Pingyao
!Anyway, after our energetic morning we grabbed some lunch at the Sukara Café and it was that nice that we arranged the rest of the group to come there in the evening as well. They have another one of these places in Beijing and one in Laos which will definitely pay a visit to.
After lunch we carried on cycling for about an hour or so, but decided to go outside the town walls!! Ooooo! We didn't know what expect, disease, poverty, zombies, who knows, but alas, it was just a normal Chinese town - people spitting, farting and sh*tting in the street!
We did find what looked like Pingyao football station though. However, on closer inspection, it was revealed that the inside of the stadium had been turned into a building site for some flats and shops. This made me think that this was a view into the future of Field Mill and the demise of the Stags! Sorry Dan & Webby.
As mentioned earlier, we went back to the Sukara Café for the eveningg and had a really goid night, but I did endure a surreal moment in a local shop. I had decided that in my chilled state, and whilst listening to No Woman No Cry, I would indulge in a crafty cigar. I went to the shop across from the bar and just said "Cigar". I was offered Malboro Lights. So I pressed on, "No - Cigar" gesturing with my hands as if it would make a difference
Electric transport
. Amazingly this seemed to have done the trick, but something didn't seem right. Firstly, he sent one of his staff outside on what appeared to be "lookout". He then went to a top shelf in the middle of the shop and removed half a dozen or so boxes of cigarettes. He then removed some polystyrene that was behind these boxes and then finally shoved his arm into the dark depths of the upper shelf and produced a plastic box the size of, lets say an Xbox 360. He opened the box to reveal a bounty of every illegal substance that you can probably imagine and in his broken English said "You choose". Astonished and dumbfounded that such a stash could be found in such a quaint little town, I repeated my previous response "No - Cigar"! At this point his wife (I think) had come in and gave him a barage of abuse in Chinese, ordered him to re-hide the stash (I assume), and then produced a fat Cuban for me to suck on (Cigar of course, not a wandering South American). 5 Yuan later, I was back in the bar with my cigar trrying to understand what had just occurred.After this, it was a few more bevvys at the hotel and then to bed.
