We
were up and out early and made it to the bus station by 8:10, half
an hour before our bus to Yangshou was due to leave. Fortunately, a
lady from the bus station came and asked us where we were going and
we then found out shy the woman who had sold us the tickets
yesterday had told us to be there are 7:50. Our bus leaves from the
other bus station on the outskirts of town and the free shuttle bus
to get us there left at 7:50. The lady helped us get a cab and we
got to the right bus station and on to the bus with time to spare.
Having added “fast” to the list of bus ticket buying questions, a
new one “luxury” gets added to the list after today’s experience, as
does “does this drop you at a bus station?”. Even though our bus
looked smart from the outside the inside was well and truly worn.
The seat cushions had been compressed and moulded from endless hours
of being sat on and when a chap across the aisle got up he took the
seat next door with him it was so loose. They were also firmly
clapped out in the fully reclined position and we both spent a
pretty uncomfortable seven hours getting to Yangshou.
Leaving Wuzhou you are very quickly and very definitely in the
countryside where people are poor. Agriculture is the main activity
and terraced rice fields lined most of the route. Bright patches of
green yielded salads and vegetables but they were in the minority.
Dirt and rubbish lined the roads; the first time in China I have
noticed this. IT was not quite on a par with India but then
cartloads of rubbish are not tipped out onto the streets here to
provide food for the cows. Small communities lined the road with
people living in what looked like very basic conditions. Even where
newer blocks were going up the rooms inside looked soulless and bare
with large and garish light decorations hanging down from the
ceilings.
Limestone karsts, like the ones we had seen in Zhaoqing, lined
the route increasing in number the further west we went. They are a
really unusual sight to and to me looked like huge dragons teeth. I
could believe them being the source of a whole range of myths and
legends especially if they had caves with hidden secrets. Neither of
us knows the process of their formation and we are intrigued. I just
hope that they retain the beauty of the region as it (inevitably)
develops. Roads are being built all over the place to bring
expressways to the area. SO far just the concrete supports are
visible. They should be an improvement on our journey which was part
good road and part bad.
The change in road surface seemed to be the prompt for natural
breaks in the journey. At the start and end where the roads were
good we had a pretty crazy driver who liked to overtake anything
pretty much regardless of what else was on the road and what was
coming in the other direction. The middle section was more of a
windy road and the road surface was pretty poor. Thankfully the
driver on this section was more careful, almost overly cautious.
Half way through the bus pulled up for a fifteen minutes break, a
long stop because lunch was thrown in as part of the fare. Not
trusting my stomach on a bus with no loo on board I declined food
but Stef tucked in heartily declaring it to be very good. As the
others passengers also tucked in visions of pigs scoffing away
sprang to mind. I know chopsticks are not the easiest of implements
to use but the slurping, chomping and snorting sounds that accompany
twenty Chinese people eating are almost on a par with them retching
and spitting on the street.
I decided in South America that travelling by bus is one of my
least favourite modes of transport. The seats are invariably
uncomfortable and/or broken and you are subjected to endless noise
either from the other passengers or from films and music blaring out
from the TV. That said the first film on this bus was not too bad,
romantic boy falls in love with girl and they get married at the
end, although the second film was pretty violent. Stef’s romantic
visions, notions and ideas of travelling by bus also waned quite
quickly as the discomfort set in.
Taking a break on the long bus ride
We finally arrived in Yangshou at about 4pm. Having assumed we
would be dropped off at a bus station we were both surprised to be
bundled out at a road junction with nothing around to help us get
our bearings to see which was to go to get to the town centre.
Lonely Planet warms about touts in this area, as it is a big tourist
spot, and unfortunately our experience for the first fifteen minutes
of being off the bus was a bad one. AS soon as we were on the
pavement a tout latched on to us. Initially it was just the usual
“where are you from” but then the increasingly persistent “where are
you staying? You have reservation? Look my hotel very good” type of
questions. We tried to get the girl on the bus to help us get a
taxi. All she did was turn to talk to the tout that we were trying
to get rid off.
She pointed vaguely in the direction of the other side of the
junction and off we set, tout in tow. We repeatedly said to hi that
we did not need his help or a hotel but he would not take it. And
then he turned very nasty and aggressive. I had seen a police car
back the way we came so we headed for it but they drove off before
we reached them. With no taxis in sight, and the tout still on our
heels, we made our way into the nearest hotel and asked them to get
a taxi for us, itself a difficult process due to the lack of a
common language. The tout was still outside ranting to other people,
watching us in the hotel. The taxi finally arrived and took us to
the centre upping his initial Y2 for the fare to Y15 and also
getting nasty when we refused to pay more than Y10. It was not a
great started and left us both feeling a bit shaken. I for one did
not really feel inclined to stay and spend money here if that it was
we will encounter.
It is really hard to think when you are being hounded like that
and neither of us really got our bearings before we started to look
for our chosen hotel, the Morning Sun. As such we walked the full
length of West Street before we realised we were on the wrong road.
When we got to the hotel a Dutch lady was checking out and as we
chatted she told us she had got her room for Y120, useful as we were
able to bargain them down to that too. We had a friendly welcome and
the hotel was charming. Set around an open courtyard, dark wooden
balconies and stairways lead you through to the rooms. Our room was
tastefully decorated but we again found it cold and to have solid
beds. Spare duvets helped to soften the mattress but the only way I
could keep warm in the room was by getting into bed.
We chilled out for a while to recover from the bus journey and then
headed out for dinner. The main street is pretty much full of bars,
restaurants and tourist shops and even relatively early in the
evening music was blaring out. We were glad we had not gone for a
hotel on this street. We opted to go to Le Votre Café, a French
restaurant where we had great Chinese food. The building looked like
it was an old meeting hall and it was packed full of statues, sedan
chairs, old furniture and other trinkets. A heater under the table
kept us warm, much needed as it was a cold night. As we finished
eating Stef pointed to the ceiling where a couple of rats were
running around totally ignored by the staff. I was glad we had seen
them after we had eaten and not before!
