Below Belief

The beds here are coconut or bamboo matting and surprisingly comfortable. This morning we are headed for the docks, a convenient 100 yards away, to catch a ferry to Junshan Island which supposedly has much to offer us sightseeing chaps. On our way we are nearly bowled over by a bunch of what we now call “Sampan Lamma?” ladies – always a bad sign in China. They are trying to sell us a ride to Junshan on a small boat for 60 Y when we know the large ferry can get us there for 15 Y.
Just coming off the large boat is a one of our fellow Lau Wai’s – an American who looks just as keen to see us as we are to see him. We agree to meet up later for dinner. The 45 minute journey by boat is relaxing if not very exciting. We both day dream of home in quiet contemplation. Thoughts reconciled. Junshan, like many places of particular interest in China, has fallen foul of the tourist trap. They charge us 30 Y just to get off the boat onto the island – we are the ultimate captive audience. The “attractions”, a mixture of temples, statues and bizarre fairground sideshows, are all signposted in lavish Chinglish. However once away from the crowds the leafy peaks and views over the lake and tea plantations are quiet, peaceful and relaxing.
We have eaten only an ice-cream all day and kind of expected there to be somewhere to eat on the island. By 3.30pm we are pretty desperate, but no enterprising Chinese have taken advantage of the hungry crowds and the only thing on offer seems to be more ice-creams or noodle packs. These are definitely to be reserved for emergencies only so we return, hungry, to Yueyang.
We meet Matt, our American friend, for dinner. He turns out to be a Geology masters student at Michigan University and has been to Hong Kong like us and then Guilin, Guiyang and Yangshuo all on our pre-planned route. He is heading home in a couple of days. It is his first time travelling outside the States and he seems fairly naive in his habits but learning fast. He is the stereotypical loud-mouthed American, and clearly having travelled on his own he is glad of the chance to speak to other Westerners. We get a good ear-bashing from him but Llew and I were running out of things to say to each other anyway.
We pick a new restaurant and enjoy friendly service and some excellent dishes. And some less excellent ones like whole-fish stew. Nice and savoury, if a little grotesque and bony. The spicy bean curd is surprisingly good. After some more beers we retire to our room. Our grand topic of conversation for the evening is working out that using our student, commission-free travellers cheques in association with the preferential Chinese exchange rate we could actually make money changing pounds to Yuan and back again. In our slightly merry state we can’t see any catch and resolve to raise a million pounds and do it regularly.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 1997 at 1:55 pm and is filed under China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.