Train Bunks, China (Photo: M.Griffiths )
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 1, Beijing here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 2, The Great Wall here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 3, The Forbidden City here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 4-5, Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 6, Lost and Found, here.
My Crazy China Trip -
(Day 7-8)
Xi'an to Guilin
Day
7, Train to Guilin
I
woke in the middle of the night sometime. A businessman
was snoring in one of the other bunks. I lay there for the most of the night
listening to him. I tried climbing down and giving him nudge to roll over but
he didn’t stop. I listened to the train wheels going clackity-clack and I must
have dozed off eventually but I felt a bit dozy when I woke up in the morning.
He was still snoring when I ate my snacks for breakfast. I bumped my head on the ceiling again. Eventually he woke up,
sat on his bunk and started playing video games on his laptop which seemed to
involve an old fashioned looking Chinese warrior chopping the heads off lots of
enemy soldiers. At least he had a good night’s sleep.
As we got closer to Guilin more and more people go off. I noticed the staff
didn’t change the duvet covers when people got off, they just folded them up
ready for the next person. It didn’t really matter since people wore their
clothes to bed anyway. Very smart. That way everyone saves on laundry costs.
The
student and her grandmother sat near the window and I sat near the aisle
watching the other passengers go past and looking out the window. The student
was pretty and we started chatting. Her Grandmother didn’t speak English. The
student was keen to practise her English with me. Her Grandmother interrupted
occasionally, asking what we were talking about. She seemed to be keeping an
eye on me, or her granddaughter, or both.
A mother
and child sat nearby. The kid was cute, climbing the bunks, and running up and
down the carriage. When she needed a rest she played video games on a tablet. She
spoke some English. I asked her name and age and then what food she liked. She
said ‘chicken’. Me too I said. KFC.
The university students were busy
playing with their phones - calling, texting, playing games or listening to
music.
A few people stopped to talk to me
in English. Later an old man sat down on the aisle seat near me and asked me
where I was from. He was a retired teacher and spoke good English. He was going
to visit his son in Guilin. He told me to be careful with my valuables, just in
case. I told him I didn’t have much that was valuable. He said I would have
even less if I wasn’t careful.
It was late afternoon
when I got to Guilin. On the way to my hotel I walked past a big park. I saw a
man lifting his leg up against a tree. I thought he was going to pee but he was only stretching. There were groups
of people dancing and singing and doing different kinds of tai chi. I stopped
and watched some ladies doing it with fans. One of the ladies came over gave me
a blue fan. I tried to say no and give it back to her but she insisted. I
decided it could be a little gift for my sister. We can put it in the lounge. On
the shelf above my little terracotta warriors.
Day 8, Guilin and the Pointy Hills
Today I went sightseeing around Guilin.
First we went to
Elephant Hill. I could see how it looked like an elephant. It must have been a
really big one though. After that we went to the Reed flute cave. It didn’t
look much like a flute, it was too big. I didn’t see any reeds inside either.
The Chinese like to give the stalactites, stalagmites, and rocks fancy names
like: Pines in the Snow, Mushroom Hill, Dragon Pagoda, and Sky-Scraping Twin.
The caves were lit up by different coloured lights. The guide said tourists
began to visit here in the Tang Dynasty, 1400 years ago. The guide didn’t look
that old though.
I was busy
looking at the pretty lights when I ran into a huge spider web. And I mean
huge. It wrapped itself around my head and I freaked out. I tried not to
imagine the size of the spider that would be racing toward me. I’m not fan of
spiders. I closed my eyes and ran away from the web trying to get it off my
face. I took a wrong turn and had to stop when I ran into a stone wall.
I finally opened
my eyes and found myself in a dark branch of the cave. I could see the lights
in the distance so I slowly made my back, keeping a very close eye out for
spider webs. To take my mind off it I made some fancy names for the rocks
myself: teacher with bushy eyebrows, lion tamer running for his life, really
run-down apartment block, and worried guide trying to find missing tourist.
That one moved. Actually it wasn’t a rock, it was the guide trying to find me.
I stayed close to the group after that. I figured it was their turn to find the
spider webs.
In the
afternoon we went to see some of the famous pointy hills. They are made of
limestone and look very pretty. It must be hard to if you live on the top of
one though. They are very steep. The view was bit hazy but I took out my camera and
tripod and took lots of photos. A bus load of Chinese tourists arrived and
started taking photos too.
After a while I needed to go to the toilet.
It was a bit rough, a concrete channel with a bit of water running down it
divided into cubicles with 3 foot walls and no door. I squatted down and tried
to do my business. Squatting is hard work if you’re not used to it. When I had
nearly finished I heard voices. I looked up and saw several Chinese tourists
looking at me. Well not me exactly, well, you know. They were talking to each
other and pointing. I’m not sure why they were talking such an interest but I finished
and pulled my pants up as fast as I could.
I went back to the lookout to take
more photos. To avoid the crowd I moved my tripod to the edge of the platform
and set it up on a rock at the side. Next thing I know I just about fell off
the mountain. Some dirt slipped away and I reached out and grabbed a small
bush. Some people came and hauled me up. My back hurt, I think I pulled a
muscle grabbing the bush.
The tour guide helped me back to the
bus. It started to rain so we couldn’t take any photos anyway. It rained all
the way back to Guilin and then kept on raining. The rain was nice since it
cooled things down a bit. I decided to stay in my hotel for the afternoon and
rest my back.
After a while I got a phone call. It
was the guide. He said he could take me to a place to help my sore back.
Chinese medicine very good he said.
He took me to large building a few
blocks from the hotel. The sign said Traditional Chinese Medical Hospital. When
we walked in there was strange smell. People were queued up waiting for
packages of all kinds of weird stuff. ‘Chinese medicine taste bad but works very
good.’ said the guide.
He took me up stairs to room with
massage tables. I noticed that some of they had big holes in the middle though
which seemed a bit odd.
A guy in white coat made me lie down
on my back with the sore part over the hole. Then he fiddled with something
under the bed. I felt my back getting warm. ‘Steam help your back.’ said the
tour guide. The steam got hotter and hotter until I almost couldn’t stand it.
But it did seem to make my back feel better. After about half an hour the
doctor got me to lie on my stomach on a massage table. Good, I thought, a
massage might help too.
Then I saw the assistant lining up
some little glass jars. I asked the tour guide what they were. ‘Ba gua’ he said, make your back feel
better. I wasn’t so sure. The doctor came over holding a flame on a stick.
What’s that I asked. No worry, he said, the doctor knows what he is doing. The doctor
put the flame in a jar and then plonked it on my back. I could feel it pulling
my skin. Ouch I thought. Then he did several more. They hurt. I tried not to
make a noise. Then he touched me with the flame. That really hurt. Finally the
last jar went on. The guide asked me if I felt better. I said not yet. I
thought about one of my mottos – don’t play with fire. Unfortunately it was too
late.
After about ten minutes the doctor took off
the jars. My back suddenly felt better. Maybe that’s the trick I thought. Add
pain and then take it away so you don’t feel the original problem.
The bit where he burned me hurt though, a
lot. I suppose that was just an accident, though it did help me forget about my
sore muscle.
‘Feel better now?’ asked the guide. Yes I
said. And I did. Sort of.
********
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 1, Beijing here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 2, The Great Wall here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 3, The Forbidden City here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 4-5, Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 6, Lost and Found, here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 9-10, Lijiang river and Yangshuo, here.
Tell me what you think. Constructive comments welcome.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
********
MORE STORIES:
Trial by Fire - When a woman in Tibet self-immolates two witnesses face a dangerous dilemma.
(4 parts)
Arrested Development - A development consultant in China finds life getting out of control. [Rated R]
Beijing Private Eyes - Drama, Romance, Karaoke, Kidnap! A foreign teacher in Beijing meets an attractive stranger and offers to help, then things get complicated. (A long story in 8 parts)
Tell him he's dreaming - An engineer has an environmental epiphany but things don't work out as planned.
Trial by Fire - When a woman in Tibet self-immolates two witnesses face a dangerous dilemma.
(4 parts)
Arrested Development - A development consultant in China finds life getting out of control. [Rated R]
Beijing Private Eyes - Drama, Romance, Karaoke, Kidnap! A foreign teacher in Beijing meets an attractive stranger and offers to help, then things get complicated. (A long story in 8 parts)
Tell him he's dreaming - An engineer has an environmental epiphany but things don't work out as planned.
Love at First Flight - A foreign teacher arrives in China and falls in love with a local, but the path of true love is anything but smooth. (5 parts)
Entries in the post-industrial / peak oil short story competition:
My story 'Promised Land' has been selected for the forthcoming anthology "After Oil 2: The Years of Crisis". You can read the other entries here.
A previous set of stories was published in 2012 in a book entitled After Oil: SF Visions of a Post-Petroleum World, available from Amazon (Amazon) or in Australia from Fishpond (Fishpond).
Stories set in China:
Winds of Change – In 2022 a migrant worker struggles to realise his dreams and fulfil his family obligations.
Outside In – It's 2050, the country and economy have changed. A recycler studies for an exam to improve his prospects, and an indentured servant plans her escape.
Seeds of Time – (Sequel to Outside In). In 2055 rural China prospers again after a period of dramatic changes, then things are complicated by a strange visitor and a hidden object.
Stories set in Australia: A North Queensland Trilogy
Robots on Mars – 2025. A space-mad city boy adjusts to life in the country and tries to solve a mystery. (Note: no actual robots or Martians involved)
Promised Land – (Sequel to Robots on Mars). It’s 2050 and development threatens the rural district. Is it what they really need and if not, how can they stop it?
Heart of Glass - (Sequel to Promised Land). The year is 2099, high school graduates prepare to step into adulthood and the community prepares to celebrate the turn of a new century.
Tell me what you think. Constructive comments welcome.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
Tell me what you think. Constructive comments welcome.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment