We went to Zhengzhou, which
is east of X’ian and about a third of the way between Shanghai
and Beijing.
From there, we went to Luongyon, or something like that, which was a 30-minute
high speed train ride from Zhengzhou.
(Checking off “take high speed train while in China” box on this one.)
It really was fun, but oh, man, it was just solid travel. First
of all, we’d gotten the ticket because it was a cheap DragonAir flight from Hong Kong. Since it left at 1 p.m. and technically, Hong Kong is another country, that meant we had to be at
the airport at 11 a.m., which meant no morning train would work. That meant we
had to leave Friday night and stay in a hostel in Hong
Kong. (And, all told, since December 2013, I have now left China 22
times.)
And that was just the start of the travel. We flew there,
then got on a one-hour bus ride to the wrong train station (who knew the high
speed rail didn't leave from the high speed station?), bused another hour to
the right one to the right one, took the 30-minute train and another bus for an
hour. Next day, it was busing to the place and then the last day it was a long
round of travel for sightseeing and then returning home, which was Hong Kong,
and then here. Just on the go constantly.
But traveling with Vicki was fun. There were a few minor
downsides, but really, it was a great travel situation. I felt bad for her
because even more than the last time, she was assumed to be local and my guide,
to the point that when I tried to speak in English, they'd just look from me to
her and wait for her to speak. She speaks Chinese and is a Chinese-American but
California
through and through. She had a hard time with some of it because people would
assume she was just being stupid when she would say, "I don't understand
that word." or whatever (in Chinese, of course.)
We only met two nasty people, the last one being when we
were trying to find the airport shuttle. The people at this ritzy hotel (not
where we stayed) kept telling her the place was “right there,” and she had no
idea what they were saying, and they were honestly yelling at her. It was
insane.
The other nasty one was worse, though. Once we did the
airport-bus-train station-bus-train-bus thing and arrived at the hostel, it was
about 10 p.m. Vicki had made a reservation at this hostel and we had a rough
time finding it, but got there in due time. However, the person at the desk –
seemed family-run – told her that since we did not arrive by 9 p.m., our
reservation was canceled. And Vicki went postal at this, because they did NOT
tell us that, plus we tried to hold it with a credit card and they refused.
They’d given away our room and there was another couple there trying to claim
the last “room.” Vicki was like, no, that’s ours, you owe us a room.
It was pretty ugly, honestly, but Vicki stood her ground.
They found her name in the reservations thing and she kept telling them that
she’d tried to solidify the reservation and the girl wouldn’t let her, so
finally the pop of the operation was like, show them the room. They won’t take
it anyway, he said.
Of course we did, even though it was basically a storage
closet/office with a double bed, desk and a ton of cubbyholes that stored all
the extra pillows, sheets and blankets in the place. It didn’t even have a
number on the door! But then they tried to not only charge us for the original
room (250 RMB a person for a two-bed room with a bathroom), they tried to
charge us that per person. Vicki was like, no, you were just going to charge
those other people (who’d left in disgust) 150 for it, so that’s what we’re
paying. It was really kind of amusing.
Every time something like that happens, I think, “Sheesh,
I’d never have managed that on my own. Good thing I am traveling with someone
who speaks Chinese,” but then I realize that if I was not traveling with
someone who speaks Chinese, I wouldn’t be traveling in China.
But we ran into far more helpful people than rude ones.
Since we took the bus constantly (the whole trip was pretty cheap), Vicki would
ask for confirmation we were going right, when to get off, etc. Early on,
that’s how we learned we were going to the wrong bus station – the lady she
asked about it said wait, did you know the high speed train doesn’t leave from
the high speed train station? Surprise!
But she was great. She looked up all these options on her
phone, then not only told us in explicit detail what to do upon arrival of the
wrong station but also decided to go ahead and walk us through it and explain
it to the powers that be. She tried to get them to exchange our tickets for
ones from that station, but they were out, but she still showed us exactly
where to go and how to go about it in this HUGE train station. And she wasn’t
even going there herself. It just happened to be her stop.
She was a great help, as were others. One guy Vicki peppered
with questions asked for a pen and paper at the end and gave us his phone
number. Just very helpful people, which was nice.
The sights were cool, and once I get my disk back from Vicki
(no power in the storage room to charge her phone for that day) I will post
some. The city is famous for what is a temple or something carved into a
mountain, Petra-like.
Back in Zhengzhou,
we went to two temples that were cool, and I say that being overly sick of
temples. We also ate some good noodles on the street, but that was all they
had. That’s the food to eat, and that’s all they had, really. But it was good.
DragonAir, the cheap offshoot of Cathay Pacific, was
awesome. The line to check in was really long and this guy came and helped us
do the self check-in thing, which doesn’t usually work for international
flights. Then on the way back, Vicki asked for seats together – we made our
reservations independently – and specified near the front. The lady said oh, we
don’t have anything in the back, so I’ll just upgrade you to business class.
That was awesome. The seats recline almost all the way, and
the food was fabulous. I even had a shot of Jack to go with the Hagaan Daaz. It
was quite awesome. I’d fly that airline again, but not for such a short time.
And in an ideal world, I would vacation in the city that I landed in as opposed
to the whole train thing, although it was nice to look up and see that “302
kilometers per hour” sign. (That’s almost 190 miles an hour.)
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