Friday, 6 April 2018

Day 21 - Xi'an / Pingyao & Nearly Sleeping On The Street



Xi'an - Pinyao

After last night's explorations through the night market, it was another late start for us today. Overnight the temperature got down to a fresh 10 degrees and looking around this morning it appears that it has rained quite a bit. All the flowers in the street have been buffeted and there are massive puddles trenching the road.

Check out in hotels here is usually 12pm, plenty of time to sleep in, pack our bags & get ready. Packing our bags is getting easier & quicker, things now feel like they have a pre-determined place, so that everything fits nice & snug. We have a few hours after check out to fill before making our way to the train station. So we go for lunch & 1 last walk to see the Xi'an wall. On our walk back a Chinese man on a scooter, stopped at an intersection and said in a strong but determined Chinese accent, "Hi, it's lovely to meet you. Welcome to China, Xi'an" then rode off straight away. It was quite unexpected, but very nice! The manager of the hotel was very helpful & let us store our big packs for 3 hours while we did all this. He also gave instructions on what bus & metro line we would need to get us to the high speed rail station instead of taking a taxi. We thought we would give it a go, worse case is we get lost & hail a taxi anyway.

We found a bus station with our bus number, 700. Then worked out which way our bus was going & how many stops till we got off at the metro. On the bus there was 3 really lovely, elderly ladies who seemed quite concerned about the size of my pack. All 3, at different times got up to give me their seats, which I politely declined. Once off the bus, we asked a few people for help and crossed a few roads at a busy intersection until we found the right staircase descending down to the metro. We brought tickets (with more help) found our line & thankfully were already on the right line/platform & did not need to switch lines (this is pretty common and very confusing). It was a 30 minute metro ride and 12 stops to get us to the other side of the city & to the train station. The pack is starting to feel less cumbersome & I'm able to wear it, comfortably for over an hour now while walking & on transport. At the train station we get our next lot of tickets & make our way to level F1, platform B18.
It's at this point we discover Tom has had a brain fart & read the 24 hour time wrong, he is trying to blame the computer.... (turns out it was the computer, which was in Australian timezone when he made the calendar event) Lucky we are 2 hours early! This platform is very busy & couldn't find a seat for an hour. We roll our packs onto their sides & eat some Maccas to pass the time.

Another thing worth mentioning, we've seen a few times before, is young kids with holes in their pants for easy toilet access. There is a few little boys on the platform, wearing pants like this & playing. In some parts of China, we have even seen small kids toileting in the street, we read this is normal & encouraged. Come to think of it there are very few public toilets around the place.

At 6.40pm we got in line for the train, where we were approached by a Chinese girl who had studied English at university. She was very shy & nervous but asked for a photo and we had a conversation about our travels. We also got a Picture with her! Tom & I, again were not seated together, but only a few rows apart. Next to me was a boy and his father, who both spoke some English. The young boy who was 10 years old, Owen is his English name & YuanChenwe is his Chinese name, was very chatty & told me about his visit to the U.S.A & about his friend who went to Canada. He learnt English at school & speaks some at home. He was also going to Pingyao with his father, mother, little brother & grandparents. We exchanged email address' and he taught me to count to five:

yī / 一
èr / 二
sān / 三
sì / 四
wǔ / 五

The girl from the line was also in our carriage & came down to practise her English (we also exchanged details) I hope the emailing is successful between the language barriers & technology platforms. It's definitely a day for English in China!

Our train left at 7.05pm, another bullet train! And we arrived in Pingyao at 9.50pm. Our initial plan was to get a bus into the ancient town & walk 200 metres to our hotel. Unfortunately the bus service stopped at 8pm, something that wasn't on the website. We caught a gypsy taxi, the driver agreed on 50Yuan to drop us at the hotel. We drove 30 minutes to get into the ancient city, our taxi driver asked a local for directions, then dropped us off at the entrance to a small lane. He told us our hotel was just down this lane. We put our packs on & walked down the lane, dodging lit incense, assuming it wouldn't be very far. Finding no signs, hotel entrance or any other indicator, we continued walking. We walk through the dark streets & lanes, asking for help several times & being shown various maps & directions, every piece of advice different. Our GPS isn't working & the Pinpoint with the hotel coordinates we had from the booking website were wrong.

At 12.30am a man who must of noticed us wandering around looking lost, asked us where we needed to go. He used his own GPS to find the place, cause our information was wrong. We got into his car & he drove us 10 minutes to our hotel. It turns out the taxi driver did drop us at the right corner, the hotel had no lights on, no English sign & the Chinese symbols were hand painted & looked very different to the computer ones we had. The entrance was a big door in a brick wall with a giant curtain of material covering the door (to keep the cold wind out). We were never going to find this! The man knocked on the door & woke the hotel owner up who was sleeping on the floor in the office. Once he was sure we were in the right place he went on his way. The hotel owner was very confused about our booking & said there had been technical difficulties with the website. We feel like it more likely that he doesn't really use that particular website or check it frequently, which is why he had not replied to the 2 emails we sent. He also said that the price was too cheap and that it was a holiday weekend. He then told us he had no rooms spare which is why he is sleeping on the floor. This was all communicated painstakingly via a translator app. At 12.30am it was going to be hard to find accommodation! The hotel owner made us tea, offered us a cigarette & started to make some phone calls. After about half an hour he located a room & organised us transport to & from this other hotel. We agreed to come back & spend the other 3 nights at the planned hotel. With an upfront cash payment we were on our way to a bed! Finally just after 1am we crawled into bed exhausted.

For awhile I was genuinely nervous we would be sleeping on the street, in the -2C, I was eyeing off shop fronts that would offer some protection & hopefully be semi clean to sleep under. I'm so proud of us as a couple for dealing with the situation, being resourceful, positive & not arguing or blaming each other. Travel can be extremely trying & it will either make or break a relationship. Regardless of if its a friendship, family bond or a couple.


Learnings:
When we make a booking, we will ask for a personal reply back from the accommodation manager as confirmation. Not just rely on the automated booking confirmation. We will be asking if the booking websites GPS coordinates/map directions are correct. Or to have them sent to us seperatly. We will also be asking for details or a photo of the entrance to the accommodation & if they have any obvious signage.  If we have no reply from an accomodation 24 hours before our arrival we will be making arrangements to have someone call them or looking for a backup.alternate solution. 

- Alli

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