the End of China

FENGHUANG AND THE EPIC JOURNEY OUT OF CHINA
Fenghuang is a very cool town with guesthouses and restaurants on stilts lining the river. During the day, we enjoyed the shops, the wonderful homemade peanut and ginger candy, the food vendors, and all the interesting animals, reptiles, and insects in the front of all the restaurants. From our balcony we would watch floating candles of all shapes, colors, and sizes float down the river each night. The streets and river were beautifully lit by red lanterns and lights. Karoke music could be heard coming from many of the touristy bars and restuarants. Except for the touts, the area was more relaxed than the bigger cities and we enjoyed 2 nights in town.

When leaving Fenguang, we headed to where our guidebook told us the bus station was located. When we arrived on the corner where the station should be, it was not there. We asked several people where the bus station was by pointing to the word "bus station" and "Jishou" we had written down in Chinese. We got several finger points to keep heading down the street. Tommy and I walked about 5 minutes before asking someone else the same question. They pointed further down the street where we were heading. About 5 -10 minutes later, we once again asked and were pointed further down the street. At this point we were heading out of the city with less and less people, shops, and cars around us, but we kept walking. We got pointed further and further up the same street, then directed to take a left, pointed up a hill, until about 1 hour later, when we are totally out of the city, we found the bus station. We were instantly rushed onto a bus to Jishou and took off.

Once in Jishou, we waited in line for train tickets. We asked for 2 night train, hard or soft sleepers to Guilin, but were told "no", without any explanation of if they were sold out, if there was not train to Guilin, or if she just didn't understand what we were asking. After a while, a university student came to our rescue and enquired about our ticket when it was his turn in line. He learned that there was no direct train to Guilin. So, we bought tickets to a town where we would be able to get a connecting train to Guilin. We had to buy tickets for the following night since that night they only had standing seats on the 8 hour night train. Once we checked into a hotel, we began to realize that our tickets for the following night were standing tickets as well. We decided to work it out in the morning.

In the morning, we headed down to the tourist office in the hotel where no one speak English. They called a girl, who seemed to be a student and not a travel agent, to talk to us. After a long time of trying to help us, she decided to just take us to the train station to talk to the ticket attendant. Once there, she confirmed only standing seats were avaliable for that night and the next several nights. With only a little time left in China and the need to be heading out of the country, we decided we had to leave town that day, going somewhere. Our new friend hopped into a taxi and went with us to the bus station. We decided Kunming should be our next destination, from where we could head south to the border of Laos. Since there is no direct bus there, we had to go to Guiyang first, but there is no bus to Guiyang, so we had to take a bus to a smaller city that is several hours away. We got a bus ticket to this small town and had to go back to the train station to sell back our train tickets. We hopped back into a cab, sold our tickets at the train station, stopped for lunch, said good-bye to our friend, taxied back to the bus station, and arrived just in time. Once we get to the small town, we immediately found a bus (the last bus of the day) leaving for Guiyang in literally 4 minutes. We arrived around 11pm in Guiyang, exhausted by the long day, only to wander around looking for several hotels in the guidebook that we never found. Finally aroun 1am, we found an affordable place to settle in for the night, that was not listed in the guidebook.

From Guiyang, we flew to Kunming where we saw more foreigners the first few hours than we had seen our whole time in China. We stayed by the university and enjoyed the college feel of the area, with all the fun shops, great restaurants, and relaxed vibe. We stayed 2 nights and took a flight to Jinghong. Then after several bus rides, a night's stay in a scary place, and another bus ride, we finally made it to Laos!!!

A FEW THOUGHTS ON CHINA
Tommy and I enjoyed our time in China, but wish we would have had more time to travel at leisure and to soak up the cities we were in. Especially for the last week in China, we felt that we were bogged down by travel difficulties and delays due to being off the main foreign tourist track and in the end, did not really get to experience the cities as deeply as we had wanted. Several times we became frustrated with situations because we were under such time constraints that we really did not get to relax and take in what was around us. We hate that this happened and took on a slower and more meaningful way of travelling once we came to Laos.

China had its moments of frustrations, but overall, the people there were so genuine, curious, and kind. We were often in situations where we needed help and an English speaking student would come to our aid in order to help us, with no strings attached. We even offered to pay them at times for their help, but they would decline. Not only the many students we met, but the other passengers on the train who felt it was their duty to look after us, help us with our bags, and tell us when to get off the train, made trips easier. On many occasions Tommy and I entered a restaurant where it not only had an all Chinese menu, but no one spoke English. The owners and staff at these restaurants were more than happy to try and accomodate us. We were even taken into the kitchens where we could point and select what we wanted to eat. Many times someone else in the restaurant would be able to speak enough English to help us order. On one occassion in Xi'an, we sat with the police captain of the south district of town and the owner, who was a detective. Being that only the police captain spoke English, he helped us order food and carry on conversations with the owner and curious patrons. They even called in another officer, a young, new man on the force, to come and practice his English with us.

We had so many positive encounters with people and their excitement upon meeting us was infectious. I very, very rarely felt uneasy about who we were talking to or their motivation for talking to us. Our conversations with locals were out of sheer interest about one another and not about what they could sell us or how to scam us out of money. This has been even clearer in hindsight after our experiences in Thailand and India. I cannot think of one time that I felt unsafe, even walking around at 1 a.m. in an unfamiliar town. Despite some annoyances that every city has, anywhere in the world, it was such a great and unique experience to visit China. One final note, we definately saw less cats in Bejing than elsewhere in China, but I don't think there was any less spitting.