Shenanigans

31.05.2014

Wow this weekend was full of shenanigans. I took the train and used Ranald's phrasebook because my iPod sat in a puddle for two days and I can't get a new one until Indonesia. Actually a dictionary would be better. Anyway I was playing around with the book and made a fun friend on the eight hour ride to Guangzhou. Sitting up. Because it's a holiday. And there were no more sleeper cars available. Agh. Then, I took a bus to Quingyuan because all the trains were sold out. When I got there, it was pouring rain and I got a cheap motel room with a giant picture of people in underwear making out on it. The picture is attached for proof that this actually happened, or titillation of my readers also, I suppose. The manager of the motel told me I could just walk to the dock and get a boat to the temple I wanted to go to, Feixia. It was supposed to be dark and spooky inside, but actually I never made it. Here is the story. First, the man at the motel told me there would be a moto-taxi that could take me there for 10 yuan. I tried walking but it became complicated with spaghetti-like highways, so I hopped on the back and showed him some Chinese characters and he said 10 yuan was OK. I got off and thanked him, but then when I went to the boats, it was the wrong place. Screwed over again by a moto taxi. I asked a woman security guard from a posh apartment to help, but she wasn't any. Then, I decided to wait for the next random bus I could find. I showed a bunch of people at the dock and they said they didn't know, and THEN the coolest thing happened. There were SO MANY awesome strangers this weekend. I will tell you about more later. I just walked to the next bus stop and i was going to show the driver the paper I had from the motel, but before the bus came, this old man (stranger #1) on a bike came by slowly, just like a ghost, stared at me for a long time while coasting VERY SLOWLY. "Take..... bus...... two.....zero.....eighttttttttt." I was like, WTF is this??? and then he turned around and went back to his friends, I suppose and played mahjohng, I don't know. So, the bus came, and I got on and got to the next dock Then, these people were like "Yeah, we'll take you there, 600 yuan please." "Ummmmm....I have only 400" So I went and took the bus back and a wonderful young lady who spoke perfect English (stranger #2) told me how to get to ANOTHER dock. Then when i got there it was only group tours, so I hitched with a random group tour, but they were eating lunch before leaving on the boat. I was like... "Are you going to Feixia temple?" "Oh yes feixia temple!!!" (stranger #3) "Come with us! eat lunch 15 yuan!" (stranger #4) "Hahaha ok!" How can you say no when people are doing that? So, they charged me 15 yuan for the lunch and let me ride for free. As we were going along the plot thickened. There was supposed to be two stops and we silently glided by the first temple, I thought no biggie, I'm sure we'll stop at the second one. Nope! They boated out and TURNED RIGHT AROUND! Nobody went to go and look around at the temple, they just took a picture from the boat. The whole thing was about 30 minutes, maximum. After this, I had zero enthusiasm for staying around there any longer, or trying to hike to the temple, which also was a possibility that I learned about on the bus. I went back to the bus station, which the bus driver helped me find (stranger #5) and emailed Lisa, (stranger #6) who I would be staying with that night. It seemed like the bus was leaving at 2:30 so I told her and she said no problem, she will come and pick me up. Way too nice. Then, we didn't leave until 3 p.m. actually and I was too late for her, she had to take her daughter to the doctor. She sent me directions to her house and I waited for her outside a convenience store, maybe for 45 minutes. Not bad with an umbrella, a little table and a notepad to write out all my frustrations. Finally she came right when she said she would. I was getting anxious because her building's security guard decided to follow me around after he turned me away the first time. I was exhausted but we went out to get some food at the market and I tried to help her cook it. After dinner she showed me some of her pictures and I think I was cranky, so I just went to bed after that.

Sexy poster?