Tuesday 16 October 2007

Day 5 - October 9th

Rough night last night. The Singaporean old guy was snoring all night. Some how I managed to sleep straight away, but when I woke at 4am I just couldn’t get back to bed! I had to go get my ear plugs to shut out the noise!!! It was a sort of two-tier snore - the first part was heavy breathing, but at the peak of his breath, it was like all the flappy skin inside his nose was vibrating!

I braved the communal showers and didn’t manage to get raped or anything… phew! Then I had breakfast with Sam who was really surprised how cheap you can get food for in China. We went to a scummier looking restaurant then she usually does, which doesn’t have an English menu. Pays to be in the know ;)

Even with all the savings and food, I couldn’t convince her to stick around and go to the Shaolin Temple and go to Kaifeng together! So I walk her to the station and we walk past sooo many sex shops!!! The whole street opposite the station was full of them! How strange!

I got on the bus to go to see Guanlin Temple and the Longmen Grottoes where a man sits next to me and decides to start a conversation. He catches on that I’m not Chinese-Chinese and we just chat about stuff. It’s a shame, but I wish I had videoed it, but I played my first Chinese ‘what’s in the bag???’!!! It turns out he owned a fruit cart and had just picked up some fruit from the market and was taking it back to his wife to sell. So he had fruit in the bag!!! Wouldn’t have guessed that! Then I did one of the most dangerous things ever! I told him I was going to Guanlin Temple and he tells me that I’m actually on the wrong bus, I should take the no.55. We chat for a bit more where he decides to see if I know much Chinese and shows me his ID with his address for me to read. He also tells me how he has a kid who is in a Wusu school next to Shaolin Temple! He is about to get off the bus and then I ask him, would it be easier for me to get to Guanlin Temple if I jump off here and get a cab? He says yes, so I jump off with him. He then tells me that he will take me there as it is near by and it was his day off work after he drops off his bag. So he makes a call and his wife comes peddling along on her bike/shop. He then takes me across the road and says, oh, you can buy clothes over here if you want. I’m like, errr, no, I’m okay, can we go to the Temple now? So we jump into the nearest motor taxi and drive to the temple. Then I think maybe it wasn’t the best idea to go off with a stranger who I met on the bus! My reckoning was that the guy showed me his ID and his address, no one would do that if they’re about to rape you! We drive past a church! I carry on chatting with him and he says to me that ‘your father is in a business, and so am I, but mine is a little smaller!’ which I found very humbling. In the end we arrive at the Temple and HE pays the driver Y2. I buy my ticket and then I try to give him some money for his troubles. This was what I thought I should do. A man did a service for me, so I should repay him. He wouldn’t accept it and in fact I think I might have offended him! He says that he doesn’t want my money and that he has loads… which I did see he did! So I suppose the moral of the story is… sometimes there are random acts of kindness and that not everyone is after the foreigner’s money!

The Guanlin Temple was pretty cool. In the gardens of the grounds is an earth mound which is where the severed head of Guanlin is buried. I move on to Longmen Grottoes where I am in two minds whether to stay until dusk when the lights light up the Buddha. I decide to leave around 4pm as I get bored!

Early night tonight, going to climb a mountain tomorrow and hang out with the monks!!!

Miles walked: 27.822m
Steps taken: 70,795

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