Upset stomach still today. I think it may be all the greasy food I’m eating. I decide to go to the White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple on Chinese soil. The bus journey was long and my mind wondered. I thought about things like, if ever you needed to go for a poo, you can eat two apples and that usually does the trick! I haven’t done that since I was a kid, so maybe that’s not true any more? For some reason I also thought back to the time when I playing for KCC in the tournament in China and there was an upside down face man. The best upside down face man I have ever seen! I also remember my old statistics teacher, Mr. Jones also having a pretty good upside down face!
I went to the temple and helped some whities (European) burn incense. They were burning them one by one so I told them that they should do it in threes. I also bumped into the guys from Gansu again! Didn’t know what to say really! My Chinese small talk sucks!!! There are many giant spider webs in this temple but I can’t seem to get a good picture of it. I walk to a pagoda in a different part of the grounds and walk past a building where monks were knocking on their wood blocks and praying. Was pretty cool.
Another thought came to me whilst I was walking in the temple grounds. It’s more a thought from Gary actually! There are sooo many fit Chinese girls walking about and they’re always, always attached to a dooch bag boyfriend! Gary was right! They all look pretty good looking and have boyfriends who just look like complete tools!
I return to the hostel after taking a wrong bus (should have taken no.56, not 58) and check out. I walk to the bus station with all my gear and look at the sex shops again. There are actually brothels in between them. Still doesn’t explain why someone needs a blow-up doll in the morning!!! And surely business for the sex shops would be pretty crap considering you can get sex just next door?
I take the bus to Kaifeng. They show Twins Mission on the bus. Only four people on this bus… I think buses are the way forward! I see fireworks outside. The most bizarre music video was shown after the movie was finished. There was some woman singing an old Chinese folk song. The videos backdrop is Tibet with all these Tibetan people running around being happy and a fat woman (the singer) in what I can describe as a Jimmy Saville-esque track suit. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the video goes on and the Tibetan people start greeting the Han (Chinese) railway workers and they’re all smiling and happy and loving the Chinese. Good propaganda I would say!!!
I arrive in Keifeng and it’s pissing it down. The first things I see is a little shop with pink light and then loads of homeless people sleeping outside a department store. I make my way to the hotel suggested by the Lonely Planet. It is DIRTY!!! Minging as hell!!! I change my room once as the windows didn’t seem to lock, so they moved me to a room where the window had a metal grill around it.
I decide to go eat and treat myself to Chinese-style steak. I’ve only been gone a week and I’m starting to ‘treat’ myself! I find myself scoffing the food down, not eating, but scoffing! Though I passed on the bowl of fruit with ketchup in! The restaurant was playing songs which I learnt in singing class in Beijing Language and Cultural University!!! Didn’t stay in that class for long… no, it wasn’t ‘cos I was rubbish! There wasn’t enough people in the class… yes, I did scare them away!
I decide to go look for an Internet bar… I walk for ages and find nothing!!! No internet bar??? In China? The fuck am I? I decide to walk back to my hotel when I get to this local bar and there are three people standing around in the car park “chatting”.
Retire to my room and turn on the TV. Watch the most degrading thing ever… no, not animal porn! It was on the kids channel… basically it was a game show where there are five kids. One of the rounds had this American guy who was supposed to be the ‘boss’. He then orders each of the kids in turn to do his bidding as all good Americans should order their Chinese lackies! It was a disgrace. He’s done his country no favours by just publicly humiliating the kids and treating them like servants! I would be so embarrassed by this man's behaviour if I was from the States!
Miles walked: 43.498m
Steps taken: 10,682
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