The park was packed with tour groups and students going out for a day in the sun. Once we managed to break away from the mainstream groups, we found that the park was actually really big and it took us the better part of the day to walk around most of it. On our journey we came across a dinosaur park, Thai temple, zip-line, boat rides, and areas to feed the fish.
We managed to find a “trail”, or paved walk way in the woods that ran parallel to the road. We were the only people on it, because the Chinese people prefer to walk on the road itself.
After our walk, we ate an American meal of Pizza Hut and went to Walmart to stock up on cheese.
This last weekend was Labor Day and we had Monday off from school. Friday night we boarded a train with one of our students, Margret, and headed to Pingxiang, the border town between China and Vietnam. Margret’s friends from high school were coming from other universities to spend the holiday weekend together and we met up with them on the train. Pingxiang has a famous BBQ street and that was the first place we went after arriving at about 10:30 that night. We had our first real Chinese chow mein – I was starting to wonder if that really was a Chinese dish because I hadn’t had it yet! The BBQ was delicious and we were full after all the food, which included some pig snout and chicken fetus. Our friends met a Pingxiang local on the train and she ended up spending the weekend with us and showing us the best places to go. This was helpful for the most part, because none of us had been here before, expect for when it came to finding a hotel. She recommended a hotel for us that would cost about $6 a night. The hotel was probably the worst place I have ever thought about staying in, and after sitting in our room for about 5 minutes George and I decided we were not tough enough for this. There were no towels, no toilet paper, no hot water, one pillow, and the bathroom reeked of urine. The floor was so dirty I didn’t want to take my shoes off and the windows were wide open when we arrived, begging for mosquitoes to come and feast on us all night. We found Margret in his room and told him we were spoiled Americans and really could not stay here. The only other hotel he knew of was the best one in town, so we went to the other end of the scale of Chinese hotel cleanliness. We felt a little silly saying we didn’t want to stay at the first hotel, but the next morning Margret called asking if they could put their bags in our room for the day because they were going to move to our hotel too. This made us feel better about being a little snobby about the first hotel, but it was really bad!
The Pingxiang local we met on the train had a friend who was a security guard at the gate between China and Vietnam. Unfortunately, they couldn’t let us through but our Chinese friends got to go onto Vietnamese soil to take a picture. The Friendship gate was built around the 1950’s when there was a war between China and Vietnam about the location of the boarder.
Thousands of people died during the war and China built a big wall to defend the border, straight up the side of a mountain. In the end, the border was set a kilometer further into Vietnam and the wall turned out to be unnecessary. We hiked up many, many steps to get to the top of the mountain and get a good view into Vietnam. It was a little foggy, which didn’t provide for a great view, but if it had been sunny the hike would have been way too hot.
After climbing back down, we spent the rest of the day eating and shopping. The town has a lot of goods from Vietnam, including snacks, shoes, and street vendors willing to trade your Chinese Yuan for the Vietnamese Dong. The town is also famous for the wood carved furniture. I wish we didn’t have so far to travel to get home, or I would have bought some because it is so beautiful. We did buy a small wooden candle holder as a souvenir to remember the city.
We arrived back at our apartment in Chongzuo to find it being attacked by flying ants. These ants are probably about 1 ½ inches long and they figured out how to fit under our screen doors on the balcony. We spent all night killing the ones that got in to our house and filling the runner under the door with water to prevent more from getting in. The next day there were piles of them everywhere. Luckily, this seems to be a one night swarm and we haven’t seen them since. However, all the ones that died that night have now been rotting in the sun and there is a foul smell in the air when we go outside. George saw a man picking through the piles of ants and putting the live ones in a bag – I guess he is going to eat them?
We have been playing a lot of cards and continuing our motorcycle rides. We have finally seen some blue sky, which is a rare thing in China. It is nice to have a change from the gray, smoggy sky. I was starting to miss my California blue sky a lot! When the sun comes out, all the students take out their umbrellas.
They do not want to let their skin get dark because it makes them look like peasant farmers. They think it is very funny when I tell them American’s lie in the sun to get darker!
Fiona: Very well written, humerous and a real pleasure to read!
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