Back in Tangkou in the wang3ba1 (internet cafe or bar, ba1 is a transliteration of bar, and wang3 means web) that has a spotty connection, or maybe my blogs are getting censored : ) I'll try a few pics, but this may end up being text. Hopefully, I'll be able to post pics tomorrow or the day after. Tomorrow I catch a 6:40 am bus direct to Hangzhou, ariving around 11 am. Then it's over an hour cab ride to Hangzhou airport, and then a 10 pm flight to Guilin (for $80!!). So I probably won't feel like posting when I get to my hotel in Guilin. Hopefully I can find a wangba in the airport, because I'll have some free time. The only other flight to Guilin leaves at noon. I saw on the news (CCTV has an English channel, hurray!) that now that the Spring Festival (New Year's) has ended, the airlines in China are in big trouble. They've received a big bailout and have slashed prices up to 70%. Mr. Hu informed me that my ticket was 60% off.
Start with the end of the day. I'm talking with Mr. Hu and it turns out the direct bus Tangkou-to-Hangzhou only goes that direction. So the route I took getting here was the best. (More worry for nothing.) Then on top of it, I mentioned coming back in the summer so I could actually see the mountains, and he said he could pick me up in Tunxi (where the bus from Hangzhou finishes) for 120 yuan. You may recall from a previous post that I paid 150 yuan...I could have bargained the driver down about 20%, but that amounts to about $4.50. (More worry for nothing.) Mr. Hu also arranged a bargain hotel near his place for 140 yuan, but it is a bit more basic than the Defu that I paid 200 yuan for when I first got here. The extra $10 was reasonable. (More worry for nothing.) Sooooo it seems like the Universe is trying to teach me something but damned if I can figure it out.
Back to the beginning. I slept in the inexpensive dorm room for 100 yuan. I can now sleep through snoring. I just remembered to be like I was in a college dorm. I could sleep through yelling, loud running, door banging, music, other *ahem*sounds, and yet wake up instantly to my gently beeping alarm. I was out late, first dinner in a hotel a half kilometer from my hotel (the guidebook said they had a good buffet - they probably did, but it was all carnivorous), and then I walked through the night to another hotel whose wangba was still open. There is just something holy being alone at night in a wild place. Returning at 9:30 pm to my room, I find my two roommates, professional photographers, watching the movie Juno on TV with Chinese subtitles. The more things change...
I wake up at 5:30 am to try to catch the dawn. I have a broken crampon that I fix by running duck tape around my boot. Is there anything it can't fix? (a broken heart?) I discover I have moderately pulled the tendons of my left hamstring, which will affect my plans for the day. I am headed to Refreshing Terrace, supposedly the best viewing spot for the dawn. I end up at Dawn Pavilion, which is also nice. However, today it should have been called Daylight Waxing Pavilion because that's about all I saw. I make my way eventually to Refreshing Terrace, where I run into my roommates.
...okay, the pictures aren't working. I resume this tale tomorrow or the day after. But in the meantime, a few things I forgot to mention on the hike up Nine Dragon Falls and Huangshan. I'm standing in Nine Dragons Pavilion and I can see three routes forward. The map, which may be graciously called notional, shows one route forward. As I'm trying to guess the route, two men notice me, yell "Huangshan?" "Dui," I reply, and they point the way.
Aside: actually they said "Huangshan" at lightspeed, so it came out "*?" He repeated, "*?" A few seconds later, as if a marine animal rising from the deep at its own speed, "Huangshan" surfaces into my conciousness. So while studying helps, the part of the brain that processes speech is below (above? beside?) the part of me that thinks of itself as me. But if "I" can't penetrate into something as basic as speech, is conciousness the end all be all? Who's to say that "me" might not be down there in the deep too, some part of me beyond the knowingness of conciousness.
I'm fairly peeved right now because I just lost four paragraphs due to this lousy connection. Oh, BTW, as of today at 4:30 pm China Standard Time, I have been on the road a week.
After dinner, I walked out into a rainy dark night on a sidestreet in a small town in China. It was just really cool to do that.
Dan
Start with the end of the day. I'm talking with Mr. Hu and it turns out the direct bus Tangkou-to-Hangzhou only goes that direction. So the route I took getting here was the best. (More worry for nothing.) Then on top of it, I mentioned coming back in the summer so I could actually see the mountains, and he said he could pick me up in Tunxi (where the bus from Hangzhou finishes) for 120 yuan. You may recall from a previous post that I paid 150 yuan...I could have bargained the driver down about 20%, but that amounts to about $4.50. (More worry for nothing.) Mr. Hu also arranged a bargain hotel near his place for 140 yuan, but it is a bit more basic than the Defu that I paid 200 yuan for when I first got here. The extra $10 was reasonable. (More worry for nothing.) Sooooo it seems like the Universe is trying to teach me something but damned if I can figure it out.
Back to the beginning. I slept in the inexpensive dorm room for 100 yuan. I can now sleep through snoring. I just remembered to be like I was in a college dorm. I could sleep through yelling, loud running, door banging, music, other *ahem*
I wake up at 5:30 am to try to catch the dawn. I have a broken crampon that I fix by running duck tape around my boot. Is there anything it can't fix? (a broken heart?) I discover I have moderately pulled the tendons of my left hamstring, which will affect my plans for the day. I am headed to Refreshing Terrace, supposedly the best viewing spot for the dawn. I end up at Dawn Pavilion, which is also nice. However, today it should have been called Daylight Waxing Pavilion because that's about all I saw. I make my way eventually to Refreshing Terrace, where I run into my roommates.
...okay, the pictures aren't working. I resume this tale tomorrow or the day after. But in the meantime, a few things I forgot to mention on the hike up Nine Dragon Falls and Huangshan. I'm standing in Nine Dragons Pavilion and I can see three routes forward. The map, which may be graciously called notional, shows one route forward. As I'm trying to guess the route, two men notice me, yell "Huangshan?" "Dui," I reply, and they point the way.
Aside: actually they said "Huangshan" at lightspeed, so it came out "*?" He repeated, "*?" A few seconds later, as if a marine animal rising from the deep at its own speed, "Huangshan" surfaces into my conciousness. So while studying helps, the part of the brain that processes speech is below (above? beside?) the part of me that thinks of itself as me. But if "I" can't penetrate into something as basic as speech, is conciousness the end all be all? Who's to say that "me" might not be down there in the deep too, some part of me beyond the knowingness of conciousness.
I'm fairly peeved right now because I just lost four paragraphs due to this lousy connection. Oh, BTW, as of today at 4:30 pm China Standard Time, I have been on the road a week.
After dinner, I walked out into a rainy dark night on a sidestreet in a small town in China. It was just really cool to do that.
Dan
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