I gave a big hug to the guys as the bus pulls up and I get on it to go to the bus station. I got really good directions to get to the station. Stay on the bus till the end and the station will be across the road. Shouldn't be too hard.
When I got there I just followed the crowd of people heading towards what I guessed was the station. There were still a lot of people travelling because of spring festival.
I found Cassie inside the station and we sat waiting for our bus. The bus station was even very efficient. They had different gates that the buses pulled up to and boarded through it. It was almost like being at an airport, we even had to put our bags through an x-ray machine. Every so often one of us got up to look at the gate numbers to see if our destination had come up. When we finally saw it, we then realized what one of the numbers on the ticket were for. And then we guessed that the other ones were our seats numbers.
I only had my small bag with me as I left my big one with Vanessa. But Cassie was heading on from huangzhou so she had every thing with her. I didn't want to leave my bag on the floor of the bus as I heard stories from Vanessa about Chinese people spitting on the floor. So I had it on my lap the whole time. We weren't so sure how long it was going to take to get there. We guessed about 5 hours so when we arrived after about 3 hours, we weren't sure if we were in the right spot. But we were being kicked off he bus and we had no choice but grab our bags and leave.
Cassie said we were in the right spot even though the place was called Tunxi (pronounced tongue she).
She said this was the place to stay and you get the bus to the mountain from here. I had to make sure I got my ticket back to hangzhou, before I left the bus station. I didn't want to get caught with a fine if I overstayed my visa. So we wandered into the ticket office and tried to get me a ticket. It was the hardest thing I had to do in china the whole time I was there. There didn't seem to be an English speaking counter, especially since most travellers tend to take the trains in china. So I wandered up to a counter to try my luck.
I said “one ticket” indicating with one finger and pointing to myself, “for hangzhou on the 6th” and I rolled/twirled my finger to say in a few days and gave the sign for number 6 that they use, which is closing my hand and pointing the thumb and pinky up. But what ended up happening was she kept charging me 6 tickets for the next bus to hangzhou. So I then shook my head and said no, just one ticket for the 6th and I got a ticket for 6 O. clock. So I tried again and got 6 tickets for 6 O. clock. I just didn't know how to get it across. She wasn't getting that I needed a ticket for Friday the 6th. So I finally remembered that I had a translating book and I took it out and looked up Friday. And showed it to her. Finally she nodded her head and I showed one finger pointing to me and the word Friday in the book and finally I was only being charged for one ticket on the day I wanted. Now I just had to choose the time. I went for a late morning one so I wouldn't have to get up too early and also so I wouldn't arrive too late back to Vanessa
Once we had that finally done we just had to make it to our hostel that cassie had booked earlier. We looked in the lonely planet to see if we could walk there. But we couldn't figure out where we were. So we decide we would grab cab. And I'm glad we did. It would have been some walk. The map in the lonely planet was showing the old bus station and the new one we arrived to was outside of town by a couple of miles.
Once we had settled into our hostel. We headed over to the train station to get a ticket for cassie to her next destination. She couldn't get one for her preferred date. But she was lucky enough to get one for the next day. So she wasn't stuck to long in tunxi.
We decided to go exploring around. The lonely planet didn't give tunxi a good wrap at all. So we wanted to find out for ourselves and to get something to eat.
Wandering around tunxi wasn't to bad. It seemed a little run down. But that was it. I can imagine not wanting to hang out there for too long. But a couple of nights were OK.
We ended up coming across the old street, where there were shops and old style buildings. We came across a restaurant that was really busy. So we decided to go in and check it out. There were people waiting around and also people wandering down to have a look at the food where it was being prepared. So we thought that maybe it was a buffet restaurant. But we were handed a pad of paper and pen. And pointed down to where the food was being cooked. We wandered down, wondering what we needed to do and we noticed the other diners were writing down things on their pads.
They had all the food displayed out with we guessed was descriptions of the food, how much and reference numbers. So we wandered up and down, looking at all the food trying to guess what everything was. We tried our luck at a couple of breaded items and got some fried noodles and dessert. At least we knew what the dessert was. Truffle.
We then had to wait for a table to be free. We were given a number when we arrived and now I was relying on cassie to know if our number was being called out.
We finally got call and handed over our page of what food we wanted and waited. It all came out quite fast. And it wasn't too bad. But the food ended up being quite greasy. But after eating ducks tongue. A bit of grease was nothing. Cassie seemed a bit more picky and I was thinking that by the end of her trip she wouldn't be so picky either. As I had learned to eat a lot more things along my travels.
After dinner. We had a walk along the old street. Some of the stores where still open. We got to the end and came across a river that seems to flow right through tunxi. Well if it flowed, we weren't to sure as the water was as still as glass and there were some awesome reflections off the buildings and bridge as they were just full of lights. It was a pretty spectacular site. We wandered along the river for awhile before deciding it was time to head back towards the hostel to pick up food for our walk up the mountain the next day and to get an early sleep as we were up at 6 to get our bus.
Bus early the next morning. And are brought to tunxi. And dropped. Where do we go?
Walk up and try to figure out what we do. Buy tickets for another bus to bring us up the hill. To starting point. Silly really. Off at drop point. And can walk up or get cable car. We decide to walk up. Cassie says that it is suppose to be 7 km up. I was thinking that was enough for me. Very cloudy day. Foggy can't see very far in front of us. But gives it a mystic quality. A couple of times on our way up the sun breaks through but not for very long before it closes in again and we are surrounded by void. It seems to be just the two of us at some points. We arrive at what we thought was the top but was really just the start. As it was the point that the cable car stopped at so only the start for a lot of people. And their were different look out spots. We were looking at the map and trying to decide what to do first. A gentleman happen to over hear us and gave us and idea of were we should go and see with only having one day at the top. There were restaurants and hotels and little villages at the top of the mountain. We passed several workers also. Who were carrying heavy loads. Up and down the mountain. I was fascinated by their huge calf muscles from lunging heavy basket over their shoulders. Full of wood and bricks. Either for the hotels or for fixing the path that went all around the mountain side. As we got further up the mountain there was snow at the top. And was getting chillier. We finally reach bright summit, which was the tallest part of the different mountains there. With paths connecting them all. We powered up on food and snacks there and then we climbed the last few feet to the top. There we saw all the Chinese taking photos of at the top but there wasn't much to take a photo of as there was still heavy fog cover and not much of a view.
I noticed a Chinese girl trying to take a photo of us without us noticing. When she saw me looking at her and since I smiled. She nodded with her camera, indicating that she would like to take a photo. Since she asked. I couldn't say no. she was so delighted. I was trying to ask her if she would take a photo for me using me camera. But I guess my indication wasn't as good as her. Cause she smiled and laughed and grabbed her boyfriends arm and posed for me so I could take a photo of them. It wasn't what I was looking for, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I went ahead and took the photo and thanked them. So now I have a photo of a Chinese couple posing for me at the top of huangshan mountain.
Well I didn't want to make the same mistake twice so in the end. Cassie and I got our photos taken separately by each other. Of a hazy view in the background. While when I china!
But we ended up feeling like celebrities as we were asked to pose in a couple of more photos with a group of young students. And on the way down, I was grab quite forcefully by an Chinese girl to get her photo taken with me. Maybe she was a afraid I would go running off before the photo could be taken. And not just by her but by her friend also. The 2nd girl saw cassie behind me and did a double check I guess to see if she wanted to get her photo taken with cassie instead. But she got one taken with me. Maybe cause I was a bit taller. Who knows?
We wandered around and did a big loop. Seeing a few highlights of huangshan. Like the paintbrush lookalike rock. At one point there was a sign that said stop climbing cliff! Am? Wasn't that the idea. I also learn a new English word. Comity? Never heard it before in my life and at least cassie was able to give me an idea of what it meant. Wow who would have thought I would have learned that there. But the signs made me laugh and the longer I stayed in china the more I was taking photos of signs and the translations into English.
Well we were pretty pooped by the end of our walk. And we decided we would get the cable car down. Since we saw the walk on the way up there was no need to walk it down. That was our excuse anyway.
Getting back to tunxi wasn't easy. Nothing was told to us about how we were suppose to get back. Cassie said she read that we were just suppose to get it on the main street. But where? We asked at the bus terminal for the mountain and they said no. down there pointing towards the main road. We walked down and looked around. Didn't see any bus stop or anything to show where we should go. We walked towards the spot we got dropped off at earlier, hoping there would be a bus there. But no luck. We walked back around to the terminal. Asked again and got the same answer. I felt like I was back in southeast Asia.
So we walked back down to the main road again. We were nearly at the road when a bus pulled up and we went running towards it, hoping that it was going where we wanted. They nodded to say they were going to tunxi and we jumped on the bus. At this point we didn't really care how much they were going to charge us. At least it looked like we were all being charged the same amount. Foreigner and native alike.
But since the bus wasn't full it had to drive around huangshan looking for more passengers, that were just standing on the side of the road. So when they just just stand on the road and a bus would come. They actually meant it literally.
It was good to get back to the hostel. We were too tired to go out for food so we ate there and went to bed early. And I was waking up in time to get my stuff together and head head to the bus station. Saying goodbye to cassie, wishing her luck for the rest of her journey around china. She needed it. It would definitely we an adventure. I almost wish I was going with her. But my time was running short and I need to find my way out of china and into Hong Kong.
