It rained, I went home early

11.04.2014

I woke up a little grumpy today because I couldn't sleep. I got a crap hotel room on what I thought was a quiet street in Nanchang. It wasn't. I was first woken up by a terrible nightmare and then I was subsequently awoken every hour after that until about 5 am. At which point I broke out of the hotel. These places are always secured with some sort of bike lock on the door handles, so I had to wiggle it until it opened to get out. I got my deposit from the sleeping manager, he deserved the rude awakening, it was him who was waking me up usually, drunk talking with his friends.

I then promptly found out the bus station was closed. At 6 am really? So, I went to another bus station that about 10 people helped me find and bought a ticket to Lushan. The bus wasn't leaving for two hours, so I walked around randomly, but all the stores were closed at 7:30 a.m. I actually needed to buy some shoes before this trip, i didn't really want to attempt it with sandals. I didn't get a chance to do it on Friday, and whaddaya know, a Wal Mart came out of nowhere, the only store open so early on the street. So that was kind of lucky. I bought the best ones I could find and headed out on the bus.

I fell asleep right away only to wake up to a sea of white. I almost thought I went blind, or i was having another nightmare. But oh no it was almost worse than that. The whole sky was completely overcast. So much for views of the valley down below. That made me a little more grumpy. <br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.666666984558105px; line-height: normal;">Then the bus driver drove right past Lushan! We had to make a half hour detour to drop some people off in Jiujang before we went up the mountain. I would've been better off going straight to Jiujiang from Changsha. It was very confusing for me because when I asked why we passed the place that was on my ticket, all anybody could tell me was "wait 10 minutes".... Ummm ok I guess I didn't have a choice to not wait... but OK... <br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.666666984558105px; line-height: normal;">Anywho, when we finally paid our astronomical entry fee of 180 yuan, and took the long windy road up the mountain, I went and did the main hike in the park while it gently sprinkled rain. It was actually quite refreshing for a time.

I remember thinking, "This isn't so bad why are you whining about the rain and clouds? None of the spectacular views were visible, but there's fresh air, some relative solitude and some good hearty exercise to be had!" all these things were running through my head when suddenly the skies opened and it started pouring!

I was halfway through the hike and then even longer than that from the bus station once i finished it. I had an umbrella, but it doesn't work when everyone is constantly jostling for space on the trail, so I inevitably showed up to the station completely soaked and the lady there simply said "mayo" when I asked whether there were any buses back to Nanchang.

"Are you kidding? I took a bus from nanchang here!"

"Mayo"

"What about Jiujiang?"

"Ming tian" (tomorrow)

"What? are you serious, why are all those buses constantly leaving???"

As i pointed to the busy street in front of the station.

"Ming tian, SORRY"

And with that she grabbed her purse and literally ran away, leaving me all alone by the wood stove, which was still burning. I wanted to stay and get warm, but I had to go back out in the rain again at least to find a place to stay and at best to find a bus home.

Luckily I saw a random bus waiting for passengers. It was going to Jiujiang. Fine, I got in the bus, soaking wet and freezing. There was no way I was going to stay in Lushan for the night, feeling this grumpy. Attempting to get back home was better than not attempting to get back home at this point.

The driver drove the whole way down the mountain with the windows down. Fffffff..... Come on REALLY?! Then he dropped us off at least a 20 minute walk from the train station, which I did in some more pouring rain.

When i got there, The ticket woman yelled at me in Chinese because I had the audacity to ask how to get to Changsha. She said I had to go from Nanchang. When I told her I didn't know how to get to Nanchang, she got angry and sold me a ticket there with as much spite as she could manage. <br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.666666984558105px; line-height: normal;">I got a good night's sleep in another crap hotel room in Nanchang (really I did), and took the fast train home early in the morning.

Qilun Lake