Wake up and check out. Internet is down at the hostel, so don’t get to check up on my Facebook before my long train journey! I get in a cab for the train station and pass the bus station which I arrived at. The meter showed Y10… I paid Y72 on my way in… fucking cowboy taxi driver!
I feel that in Qingdao, I’ve been neglecting my blog entries, so 8 hour train journey with no reading material should help me with some good blog material! I get on the train (1st class baby!!!) I decide first class IS the way forward! It’s clean and plenty of leg space… important factors for 8 hour journeys! And I get warm water on demand! Wow!
A steward walks pass with her hair tied up in the back with a hair net… looks like a bollock! We pass the Qingdao Malting Mill… I’m annoyed that I went Qingdao and didn’t have a single beer… I was offered two free ones and all!!!
Hour and half into the journey, I decide to go check out the facilities! I press the button for the automatic door for the toilet… it flings open and there’s a Chinese guy pissing… ARGH!!! Pretty embarrassing! I don’t stick around to say sorry!
I notice there are less people to watch in 1st class compared to my last train journey! Though the guy who’s seat should be next to mine keeps moving away, but moving back as more and more people board our train. Past Jinan and Tai Shan… I hate back tracking!
I chat to Matt Earley on the phone… maybe I should have taken a trip up to Beijing. Korean saunas sound interesting! I have a thought; have I learnt more then I would from reading a book? Maybe I should talk to more people? Don’t really feel like it!
Pass soo much countryside! I see new sprouts in the field. It’s such a contrast from 2 weeks ago! I notice I’ve taken a lot less pictures this week. Suppose everything looks pretty much the same now! I decide to go to the restaurant car for some luncheon and pass the peasant’s seats! They don’t look too bad and maybe it doesn’t look like a Y100 difference, but I’d rather be where I am than with the common folk!
The train crew are cute. I test the water; "do you have any English magazines?" … they’re not digging it! I eat a shitty microwave meal for Y20. A thought comes to my mind… do I get food in my moustache when I eat? Would any one tell me?
I return to my seat to find the business man sitting next to me studying the safety manual pretty intensely! He’ll know all the safety exits very soon. Maybe I should start a conversation with him…
Speak to him after an hour of twiddling my thumbs! He asks me if there are poor people in UK. Odd topic we talk about! We exchange business cards after a while. Shit! I didn’t study his intently enough as he did mine when we exchanged. He must think I’m a barbarian! Turns out he’s a salesman for machinery which makes glassware. He’s been in the industry for 30 years and at his current business for 20 years. The job he had before was before the industry got privatised and he was working for the state.
I pass wind.
The man gets off the train an hour and a half before me and then a really camp guys sits next to me! I decide against talking to him! I take a nap but wake up to him trying to chat up a steward (girl). She is not impressed… he’s old enough to be her father!
Why do so many Chinese people smell of preserved cabbage?
The train had been playing the same music over and over again, but then a new CD gets put on and I get to hear the BeeGee’s ‘How Deep Is Your Love?’. The train passes a bridge which is one of Nanjing’s tourist attractions. It’s dark outside so I see nothing! Get off the train and into a taxi. The taxi driver is rubbish! I tried making conversation and he just ignores me. Bastard! It also takes two phone calls for him to finally find the hostel I am staying at. The worse bit was when he pulled over to call the second time. He was there for a good 5 minutes talking to the girl from the hostel before he told me to get back in the taxi where we proceeded to turn around and drive 30 metres and arrive at the hostel! To be fair, there were no signs at all saying it was a hostel!
The staff at the hostel are pretty crap too! It takes ages for me to check in and the girl needed a calculator to multiply 35 (cost of the room) by 2 (nights I was going to stay). She then forgets to get me to sign my signature and give me keys to my room!
I put my things down and then head to the common area. I kick a puppy by mistake! He was under my feet and I didn’t notice him! He’s the cutest thing ever! Name is Simon! Hostel looks pretty nice, but empty. Not a single whitey yet! Maybe I will be speaking Chinese again! I order food and some hot milk. I’ve really got into it! I bet I get a layer of milk on my moustache!
I meet an Aussie couple who are travelling to UK via the rest of the world! Then I meet an Indian guy, Joe and we proceed to play pool… it was the worst two games ever! A group of Danish guys then come in and put on a Guns ‘n’ Roses DVD. We hang out and play a card game called donkey. This carries on till 1 in the morning when we decide to go get some food. I feel a bit bad as whilst we were eating, the conversation gets started on weird foods in China and I give them all the stories I have heard and experienced (monkeys, seals penis etc.). I put them off their food and they don’t finish their food! Return to the hostel to find an American girl in my dorm. Try to make conversation, but she seems really weird and non-talkative!
Miles walked: 113.960m
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