Water Cave was surprisingly good too. It is a very large cave featuring an underground river, mud bath and hot springs. Not that many tourists too and at some point we were left completely alone and even managed to switch off the lights for the whole cave section. Rather darkroomish. Bamboo PVC boat ride was alright. Lovely views, but the constant boat engine sound was rather unnecessary. A cheap inflatable rubber boat and a bit warmer weather would fit much better.
Russian villages are tightly built. There is very little empty space between houses, but paradoxically enough private property is fenced off from the neighbors. This style of living would make sense somewhere in Tokyo, where each centimeter is at premium, but not in Siberia. There are vast empty areas here and you can actually get land for free from government (as well as an interest-free house loan intended for building a house), but for some mysterious reason people build their houses right next to each other. Is it fear of being alone and xenophobia at the same time? Does not compute.
Vincent: Yeah baby, you’d dig it the most. But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
Jules: What?
Vincent: It’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same shit over there that we got here, but it’s just – it’s just there it’s a little different.
from “Pulp Fiction”
It is indeed fun to spot these things when traveling. Some examples 1) State of light switches is reversed in Russia. The off-state in Europe is on in Russia and vice versa. Same applies in China. 2) Direction for hot-cold water in an one-handle tap is opposite. Right for hot water and left for cold water. In some places it is opposite, more familiar right-hot and left-water, but the reverse is much more common. What is actually confusing is that in some places marking and the actual flow is switched. In China it is even more confusing, as it seems there is no one standard, so it is random guessing every time you use a tap in a new place. There are usually no markings either and crappy boilers make things even more confusing.
I could not think of any logical reason why either way in both cases is better than the other one, so let’s fill these under “little differences” department.
The next planned stop was Huangshan (aka Yellow Mountain), the most famous mountain in China, but I ended up in Yangshou instead. Only some 1200km apart from each other. It seemed like all the factors were against me going to Huangshan. First I missed my bus stop and spent almost two hours getting to the train station. Figuring out local public buses instead of taking a taxi is way forward by the way. Second, I was not able to buy a ticket Huangshan City, but bought a ticket to a similar sounding place instead (damn tones). The fact that until recently Huangshan City was known as Tuxie only added more confusion. Writing down both places in Chinese on a piece of paper was no use either. Then I walked to a nearby bus terminal hoping it would be the correct one, but no luck there. All that combined with pouring rain and the backpack on my shoulders made me less than enthusiastic to go to Huangshan. Eventually I gave up the thought and bought a ticket to Guilin instead. No problems or misunderstanding here. I have no regrets about Huangshan. Rainy weather does not go well with mountains after all, plus both Shanghai and Hangzhou are definitely places to visit again. And Yangshou is lovely so far. Looking forward into renting a bicycle and exploring surroundings tomorrow.
The next stop after Shanghai was Huangzhou and I planned to continue to Huangshan after that, but it turned out not as I expected. More on that later.
One of the most popular scams in China starts with two cute girls approaching you on the street. After a series of generic questions (where are you from? how long in China? etc.), they invite you to a tea-shop, karaoke bar or something along these lines with highly inflated prices. The price list is not advertised of course and such a visit would cost you an arm and a leg. During my stay in Shanghai I met these con artists thrice. These people are so friendly, so that I felt almost bad declining their offer and exposing their scam. When asked directly about their scam, I hoped for a “fuck yoouuuu, I hope you get hit by a car” type reaction as it happened to fellow travelers. Alas, the ones I met were pretty good actors and became all confused and defensive, but lost all the interest and the mask of niceness at the same time. Plus body language never lies.
Another practice involves purportedly deaf people over-eager to help you hanging around ticket vending machines in subway. These people “help” foreigners buying subway tickets by pointing fingers on the screen (even if buying a ticket could not be easier). When you are about to get your ticket along with change, they demonstrate you a card with the message that can be summarized as “I am deaf, give me money”. The kicker is that you already have a couple of yuan in your hands, which makes resisting these artists somewhat harder. Very smart.
In yet another widespread money extortion scheme they get you to write your name and a sum in a notebook for one reason or another. Apparently according to the local customs, once you do that, that equals to a contract and you are supposed to pay the stated sum. Of course being an ignorant tourist, you can ignore local customs altogether (without feeling bad about it). I plan to draw a comic the next time I get this request.