As I said in the last post, our first stop was in Yi Chang. We stayed in a business hotel not far from the bus station. The room was serviceable but not over the top remarkable. One thing that did stand out was the concessions available in each room. There were travel towels, bowls of noodles, bottles of water and tea, some cakes and yes, even condoms.
I believe I told you before about the process of checking into and out of hotels. Upon check in you pay a deposit, usually 100Yuan. Upon checkout, the desk clerk radios up to the maid assigned to that floor, requesting a room inspection. Once the maid informs the desk clerk the condition of the room is acceptable, you receive your cash deposit back. In the case where concessions are provided, the maid will radio what has been consumed and the appropriate amount will be deducted from your deposit. No need to worry about being cheated: the price for each concession is listed on a chart on the wall of your room. You know up front what you will pay and, to be perfectly fair, these concessions are cheap. The only possible dispute is that the maid might claim you ate a bowl of noodles when if fact you didn’t, and then you get to argue about whether there was a bowl of noodles consumed. But remember: this society still operates largely on the honor system. The maid wouldn’t lie.
So, this room in this business hotel did have concessions that we had no need for. We were packed for everything and besides, we were going out for barbeque. That yummy Yi Chang barbeque that I wrote about in ‘Big Girl Boots’ last February. Yes, it was just as good as the last time I had it. Why can’t they make barbeque like this in Wuhan?
We didn’t dally in Yi Chang. Our goal was to ride a ferry up the river for about 4 hours to get to Feng Jie. We did have to spend the night and we did take time to have a nice bowl of Re Gan Mian, my favorite breakfast noodle. Bearing in mind that each portion is cooked and served separately, Gary insisted I take the first bowl because he was worried about my ability to eat fast enough with chopsticks. His fears proved groundless as he was the last one done. We teased him all day about that.
We also dared each other to fall asleep. The first one to fall asleep had his/her picture taken, usually while their head flopped unflatteringly on someone’s shoulder and a string of drool dangled. As no one wanted their sleeping face posted on the Internet – both guys have I-phones with Internet access and accounts with the Chinese equivalent to Twitter. Gary was the first victim. He was photographed deeply asleep, snoring even. I shouldn’t have laughed at him so hard. He caught me asleep and posted a very funny but unflattering picture of me on his microblog. After that, no matter how sleepy I got I did not go to sleep while we were on any of the buses we took.
Feng Jie was delightful! A beautiful town set in rolling foothills by the river, with tree lined boulevards and friendly locals. Being as I was the only foreigner there, we got extra portions of noodles and dumplings at the first restaurant we stopped at and, in fact, I was quite the object of curiosity seeing as not many foreigners even venture to that town. The restaurant owner helped us get a cab after telling us of a good hotel to stay at. He even told the taxi driver which hotel to take us to.
This hotel was nicer than the hotel in Yi Chang. The rooms, although small, had a certain charm to them and the bathroom came equipped with a Western toilet – a rarity in such a remote town. We enjoyed hot pot for dinner that night.
Hot Pot is a style of meal originally from Mongolia but now popular in the Southern regions of China. It is a pot of broth set upon the burner built into the table. The pot itself is divided, one side for spicy broth and the other side for ‘normal’ broth. As the broth bubbles and simmers the patrons order ingredients and cook them in the soup, and then scoop them out one at a time. It is easy to get full eating hot pot. It looks like the meal will be paltry but in fact, for the plateful of this and plateful of that – and I’m not talking an American sized plate; more like a salad sized plate that everyone shares, you get full very quickly. We ate hot pot several times on this trip and each time pulled away from the table, groaning and holding our stomachs.
The next day we went to the giant crater. I would like to write a separate entry about that excursion. So let’s skip over it for now and we’ll go on to the next town.
I wish I could remember the name of it! Unfortunately, with the guys making all of the arrangements and I having forgotten to bring a notebook will have to leave you clueless as to the name of it.
Very strange hotel we stayed at. First, I have to tell you I learned something about hotels in China. Only some hotels are permitted to admit foreigners as guests. If an unlicensed hotel welcomes a foreigner they have to pay a fine of 10,000Yuan. It is not a matter of whether anyone will turn them in, because every person must show their identification upon registering for their room, just like in the States. So, when there is a copy of a foreigner passport at a non licensed hotel, they’re busted and they have to pay. And this is something else I learned from Gary.
Business owners must pay a gratuity to local officials every six months or so. It is called a tax but what it really is is a bribe to keep the official from unfairly or untruthfully reporting your business for some misdeed. So, officials do come by regularly and inspect such documents as passports, tariff agreements and the like so that they can levy the proper ‘tax’. Gary, being a business owner, has firsthand knowledge of such doings. He is the one that told me only some hotels are allowed to have foreigner guests. How interesting!
This hotel did not have card keys. In fact, we did not get keys to our rooms at all. When we went out for dinner we locked our rooms but then had to ask the front desk to unlock them for us again upon our return. Haven’t seen that type of hotel in a long time. Have you? Nevertheless it was a place to lay our heads. I wouldn’t recommend walking barefoot because the floor was so dirty, and previous guests had put their cigarettes out on the wall instead of in the ashtray. The bathroom had the likeness of a naked woman on the wall, artfully posed, and a Western style toilet. Unfortunately they turned the hot water off at 9PM, so I didn’t get a hot shower that day.
Funny how we were able to go from no-star hotels to a 4-star hotel in Chong Qing. My heart and body did not cry or complain about it at all. After all the backwoods-ing, it was nice to luxuriate in a full sized tub. Besides, Mask is a government employee and got a hefty discount on the room price. On EVERY room price, as I found out later. Unfortunately the tub stopper in this super fancy hotel got stuck and I had to call Gary for help. Instead of translating the note I intended to leave room service to tell them about the problem, he plunged his arm into my dirty bath water and got the stopper out himself.
Nothing solidifies friendship like plunging your arm into your friend’s dirty bath water.
By the time we were in Chong Qing we were to the point of hugging and kissing each other goodnight, on the cheek of course.
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