Day 4 - October 8th

Decide to sleep in and have a late check out. I needed the sleep to catch up on the last few days. I eat at the hotel, a bowl of rice, some veg and two fried fish. It was a really good meal and only Y25 and I didn’t even finish it because there was sooo much fish! Not bad going I think for a hotel, though I did go in the restaurant and basically asked for the two cheapest dishes on the menu! They must have thought I was such a gypo!

I get to the bus station where I find cleaners putting sand on the floor and mopping it up. How very strange! I think I get over-charged on the bus, as I read in the Lonely Planet that it costs about Y20 whereas I pay Y40. Bus journey was really good though! First notable thing to mention is the Y2 porn DVD shop we drive by - shame that the bus doesn’t stop for you!!! We drive for about an hour out of the city. Big contrast! The first thing I think about is how different it was from the fields down in the south of China. I remember driving past a rice paddy on my way to Guangzhou airport and seeing lots and loads of green. The fields in Henan are pretty much empty. I suppose the harvest has just been collected a few weeks back. It seemed a barren place. Then I notice that what I thought were bags in the middle of fields were actually people with ploughs and such. There were loads of people, just in the field ploughing and digging. Now to me that seems so very, very strange. I mean, I never lived in the countryside or anything, but when ever I see such big expanses of fields, you would see maybe a tractor or two and a combine harvester to collect all the crops. In China, there’s just a bollock load of people with hand ploughs and a ton of elbow grease.

I arrive in Luoyang at 5pm. It seems even colder here and looks miserable. I book into my first hostel (Y40 a night), where at the counter the girls are squabbling. One’s complaining to the other to stop playing solitaire and do some work whilst she retorts back “do your job properly” when the girl serving me makes a mistake. Seems like a barrel of laughs here! I meet a girl called Sam who has been travelling China for the last two weeks and seems to have a very similar route planned as me. Shame she is leaving tomorrow morning and I plan to spend two days here. I walk into the toilets and to my horror… COMMUNAL SHOWERS!!! I’m relieved as I don’t have soap, but have shower gel!!!

I explore the surroundings and find a wet market down some back street. It was like walking back in time! Back with the salt of the earth! I also find a place which sells sunflower seeds. I tell the shop assistant that I want Y5 worth, she turns around and gives me the biggest fuck off bag of seeds. I wish Matt (Early) was here to finish it all! I have dinner in a side of the road restaurant. I order a portion of dumplings and I get a strange look. Turns out there are sixty dumplings in a portion! So I order half a portion for Y6!

I drink my first Luoyang beer and get started on my seeds! I’ve hardly made a dent after 2 hours!

Miles walked: 19.607m
Steps taken: 49,892

Day 2 - October 6th

Wake up bright and early to go see my Nan. It was a sorry sight. I don’t really want to talk too much about it, but let’s say that I don’t think there’s much of her left in that body. She was like an empty vessel. The date on her name tag said she was born in 1916, but my uncle says she is probably a few years older than that.

The plan for today was to meet my friend Gary who was heading up from HK and go to the safari in Guangzhou. He slept in and doesn’t arrive until 5pm. We get massages instead and then go on a cruise up the Pearl River. Go out to a bar and finish a bottle of whisky between us. The rest of the night becomes a haze, although I remember Gary getting on stage, and a man knocking over our drinks and coming back with a fruit platter and bowl of chips to show he is sorry!

Miles walked: 8.784m
Steps taken: 22,353

Day 1 - October 5th

So only had 3 hours sleep last night. A mixture of worrying, getting stuff ready and digesting the all-you-can-eat sushi and seafood! I meet my Uncle and we make the journey to the border crossing to Shenzhen. From Shenzhen my uncle decides to take me to a place called San Xuang, where I later find out that he owns properties for rent. It was a pretty odd two hour bus journey. I saw at least five car crashes, including one really bad one where it looked as though a truck carrying logs caught fire!!! I think this may be the most car crashes I’ve ever seen in one day!

We leave San Xuang at 2pm only to be caught in more traffic behind yet another car crash. I’m beginning to think that if I wanted to stay in traffic jams, I should have stayed in Hong Kong. My original plan for the day was to go visit my Nan at an old people’s home in Guangzhou, but we don’t arrive in town until 6pm. My uncle suggests it may be too late to go see her. I feel I have wasted the whole day and I could have stayed in Hong Kong for a few more hours’ kip. Fuming!!! We stay in my uncle’s holiday home in Guangzhou. I didn’t sleep well that night.

Miles walked: 2.223m
Steps taken: 5,657