Yes, I promised to write more often. Yes, I know. But wait, I have a terrific excuse this time. This time I had a five-week long holiday and I just couldn't find the time in spite of having nothing but time. Nevertheless, I created so much new material to publish. I travelled through Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines, writing down my impressions in hotels, bars, bus stations, airports, streets. I am not sure a couple of months will be enough to type it, edit and translate it. Since everybody is stubborn not to learn Polish, there it is, all translated into English.
Here it starts.
Before it starts, I had to prepare. People who know me here are well aware how I packed the day before setting off, run out of time and panicked. Fortunately, I prepared money and visas in advance.
I exchanged one thousand American dollars by making two tours to the bank, since foreigners in China are allowed to exchange five hundred during one day. I wiped my Chinese account clean and took the rest with me in RMB. I was optimistic that this is enough for budget travelling.
Visas: you can get visa upon arrival in Vietnam only if you fly there, that is why I visit this country first. I had prepared the document that allowed me to get the visa at the airport.
Luggage: change of clothes for a week, no make up, no nail polish, nothing. Small bottles of liquids, one moisturizer for everything. Sleeping bag, plastic flip-flops (I'm not staying in hygienic hotels), sandals, shades, kindle, Lonely Planet guides on kindle, mobile, camera, that would be all. Medicines. The bags are light.
The journey starts at the bus stop near my house. The adventure starts there too, as Ningbo is not some normal city, where stations are in the same place all the time. If a student had not helped me to buy a train ticket, I might have not noticed that the name of the station is different. I might have gone to the old station and wondered, why is nobody here?
That would be hilarious.
Young people, who speak good Mandarin, assure me that I am going to the right place. I ask a lady on the bus, she doesn't understand and laughs at me. Well, she is the one who doesn't understand Mandarin, I wouldn't laugh. Fortunately, I can also read and I get off at the right stop.
First, I go to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province. There I meet Lois and we spend three hours walking around in the cold and rain. That is what we consider fun. We would have spent more time this way, but we were invited to dinner to Jason's parents' house. Jason is Lois's boyfriend. All three of us met in our previous job. We have time to remember the old times and have a look at how China changed our lives. A year ago we were very different people with very different assumptions about life. Only China changes people so much and gives you such opportunities to change.
Jason's parents are wonderful, warm people and we have a very nice dinner together. Lois and I try to speak to them as much as our Chinese skills allow us. At least we are trying.
Next day: wake up before five a. m. Go to Hangzhou Airport. During the check-in three people check my document that allows me to get the visa in Vietnam. Finally, they approve and they apologize for keeping me waiting.
For the first time in Asia somebody apologized for keeping me waiting. It is a shock for me.
First I fly to Hong Kong. When I see the Hong Kong airport, I almost have tears in my eyes, it is so civilized. Much to my chagrin, there are no hot water machines. Therefore, I will carry my plastic cup and green tea for three weeks in vain. Really. Did nobody tell them that hot water is healthy?
There are still many forms of entertainment here. Computers with free Internet access and all existing alphabets on keyboards. Free wifi. Hilarious announcements:
After the landing it takes fifteen minutes to get visa on arrival. It is totally pointless to have visas if you grant everybody one. Unless the point is to raise money. Forty five dollars and I'm allowed to stay for a month.
I get on the bus to the centre. It costs two dollars, they offer to take me to my hotel for five. No thank you. It is so far away. No, thank you again, I will be fine.
A Vietnamese man sitting next to me speaks fluent English. He shows me on the map where my hotel is. When the driver gives me change for my five dollars, he has a look and approves. I should get sixty thousand dongs, as a dollar is worth twenty thousand.
It is obvious that some people have just arrived in Asia for the first time. They see a Vietnamese man talk on the phone and laugh, their eyes bright with interest.
We arrive and a tourist agent comes, pretending to help, but really trying to persuade people to stay at his hotel. I ask him where to go, he again tries to dissuade me from going on foot. I ignore him, ask which street to take and I'm gone.
After a couple of minutes I see a hostel, not mine, but I walk in and ask for directions. A young receptionist presents me with a free map and draws where I should go. The walk takes me not more than fifteen minutes.
This walk in itself is interesting and it would be a shame to miss it by listening to all those people and taking a taxi. The first impression of a new place stays in memory. I can see a swarm of motorcycles that gives unbearable noise. Wires hanging above the street in untidy bundles, most of them probably useless. Narrow streets, people eating, selling, sitting on pavements. Lavishness of decorations for Lunar New Year for sale, the streets are golden and red.
One German guy stops me and complains about the motorcycles. I tell him that I just came from China and until he pointed it out, I carelessly walked in the middle of the road looking at my map, motorcycles going around me.
I reach my hostel, check in and get settled in the dormitory. I ask a guy where I can eat for sixty thousand dongs, as I don't have any more. He points to a place where I can have pho for forty thousand. Later I will cause panic in the dorm speaking about this guy because it is a female dorm only. However, it was a girl with an exceptionally low voice. Since she was one of the panicking girls, I don't mention my mistake. That is how urban legends are born.
I go to a tiny local restaurant to have a bowl of pho. It is a noodle soup with meat and grass, absolutely disgusting. Nevertheless, somebody once told me that dying of starvation is unhealthy, so I take a plastic seat on the pavement among the locals and eat.
I come back to my dorm and meet two newcomers: friends who live in Amsterdam, an Argentinian Flor and a Pole Agnieszka. She doesn't want to speak Polish to me, so I can easily guess it is her first day in Asia. After a year she would be jumping at every possibility to speak Polish. I can't understand her well either, she keeps repeating that she is from Poland and mispronounces it, saying /poland/ instead of /peuland/. I must look very dumb when I ask where she is from for the third time and still don't understand, she must think I don't know any English.
That is all I have power to do that night. I fall asleep.
Here it starts.
Before it starts, I had to prepare. People who know me here are well aware how I packed the day before setting off, run out of time and panicked. Fortunately, I prepared money and visas in advance.
I exchanged one thousand American dollars by making two tours to the bank, since foreigners in China are allowed to exchange five hundred during one day. I wiped my Chinese account clean and took the rest with me in RMB. I was optimistic that this is enough for budget travelling.
Visas: you can get visa upon arrival in Vietnam only if you fly there, that is why I visit this country first. I had prepared the document that allowed me to get the visa at the airport.
Luggage: change of clothes for a week, no make up, no nail polish, nothing. Small bottles of liquids, one moisturizer for everything. Sleeping bag, plastic flip-flops (I'm not staying in hygienic hotels), sandals, shades, kindle, Lonely Planet guides on kindle, mobile, camera, that would be all. Medicines. The bags are light.
The journey starts at the bus stop near my house. The adventure starts there too, as Ningbo is not some normal city, where stations are in the same place all the time. If a student had not helped me to buy a train ticket, I might have not noticed that the name of the station is different. I might have gone to the old station and wondered, why is nobody here?
That would be hilarious.
Young people, who speak good Mandarin, assure me that I am going to the right place. I ask a lady on the bus, she doesn't understand and laughs at me. Well, she is the one who doesn't understand Mandarin, I wouldn't laugh. Fortunately, I can also read and I get off at the right stop.
First, I go to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province. There I meet Lois and we spend three hours walking around in the cold and rain. That is what we consider fun. We would have spent more time this way, but we were invited to dinner to Jason's parents' house. Jason is Lois's boyfriend. All three of us met in our previous job. We have time to remember the old times and have a look at how China changed our lives. A year ago we were very different people with very different assumptions about life. Only China changes people so much and gives you such opportunities to change.
Jason's parents are wonderful, warm people and we have a very nice dinner together. Lois and I try to speak to them as much as our Chinese skills allow us. At least we are trying.
Next day: wake up before five a. m. Go to Hangzhou Airport. During the check-in three people check my document that allows me to get the visa in Vietnam. Finally, they approve and they apologize for keeping me waiting.
For the first time in Asia somebody apologized for keeping me waiting. It is a shock for me.
First I fly to Hong Kong. When I see the Hong Kong airport, I almost have tears in my eyes, it is so civilized. Much to my chagrin, there are no hot water machines. Therefore, I will carry my plastic cup and green tea for three weeks in vain. Really. Did nobody tell them that hot water is healthy?
There are still many forms of entertainment here. Computers with free Internet access and all existing alphabets on keyboards. Free wifi. Hilarious announcements:
- Because of the cases of humans contracting bird flu, everybody experiencing even one of those symptoms: cold, cough, shortness of breath and fever is obliged to inform the medical services.
- People trying to smuggle baby formula and milk powder will be punished by law.
After the landing it takes fifteen minutes to get visa on arrival. It is totally pointless to have visas if you grant everybody one. Unless the point is to raise money. Forty five dollars and I'm allowed to stay for a month.
I get on the bus to the centre. It costs two dollars, they offer to take me to my hotel for five. No thank you. It is so far away. No, thank you again, I will be fine.
A Vietnamese man sitting next to me speaks fluent English. He shows me on the map where my hotel is. When the driver gives me change for my five dollars, he has a look and approves. I should get sixty thousand dongs, as a dollar is worth twenty thousand.
It is obvious that some people have just arrived in Asia for the first time. They see a Vietnamese man talk on the phone and laugh, their eyes bright with interest.
We arrive and a tourist agent comes, pretending to help, but really trying to persuade people to stay at his hotel. I ask him where to go, he again tries to dissuade me from going on foot. I ignore him, ask which street to take and I'm gone.
After a couple of minutes I see a hostel, not mine, but I walk in and ask for directions. A young receptionist presents me with a free map and draws where I should go. The walk takes me not more than fifteen minutes.
This walk in itself is interesting and it would be a shame to miss it by listening to all those people and taking a taxi. The first impression of a new place stays in memory. I can see a swarm of motorcycles that gives unbearable noise. Wires hanging above the street in untidy bundles, most of them probably useless. Narrow streets, people eating, selling, sitting on pavements. Lavishness of decorations for Lunar New Year for sale, the streets are golden and red.
One German guy stops me and complains about the motorcycles. I tell him that I just came from China and until he pointed it out, I carelessly walked in the middle of the road looking at my map, motorcycles going around me.
I reach my hostel, check in and get settled in the dormitory. I ask a guy where I can eat for sixty thousand dongs, as I don't have any more. He points to a place where I can have pho for forty thousand. Later I will cause panic in the dorm speaking about this guy because it is a female dorm only. However, it was a girl with an exceptionally low voice. Since she was one of the panicking girls, I don't mention my mistake. That is how urban legends are born.
I go to a tiny local restaurant to have a bowl of pho. It is a noodle soup with meat and grass, absolutely disgusting. Nevertheless, somebody once told me that dying of starvation is unhealthy, so I take a plastic seat on the pavement among the locals and eat.
I come back to my dorm and meet two newcomers: friends who live in Amsterdam, an Argentinian Flor and a Pole Agnieszka. She doesn't want to speak Polish to me, so I can easily guess it is her first day in Asia. After a year she would be jumping at every possibility to speak Polish. I can't understand her well either, she keeps repeating that she is from Poland and mispronounces it, saying /poland/ instead of /peuland/. I must look very dumb when I ask where she is from for the third time and still don't understand, she must think I don't know any English.
That is all I have power to do that night. I fall asleep.
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