When we arrived at the railway station in Emei we tried to buy tickets for one of the many over-night trains from Emei to Panzhihua. We should have known it before, there were of course no sleeper tickets left because of the Golden Week. Not even the hard seat option was available. After some discussions we swallowed the bitter pill - soft or hard sleepers were still not available for the day after - and decided to stay one more night in Emei and take available hard seats for the next evening.
Finding accommodation in Emei wasn't easy either. We had just checked in a small hotel opposite of the railway station when the police showed up and checked our passports (you get registered automatically when you check into a hotel in China) . The police order was that we had to go to the big hotel just next door and ask if they had an available room for us. Only if they didn't have any available rooms, we could have stayed in the small hotel. They mentioned reasons like safety issues in the small hotel etc. So Holger went to the reception of the big hotel and asked for a triple room. Nothing available. He came back and we thought it would be alright. But the police came back and Sarah was escorted in the police car to the bigger hotel (20 m walking distance). Not surprising, suddenly the bigger hotel had a room for us: the police presence took effect. So we moved from one hotel to the other one.
The next surprise came a few hours later. While Sarah and I were relaxing in the hotel, Holger went for a walk. Somebody knocked at the door. It was Holger with a bleeding hand and leg. He got bitten by a dog while he was trying to take a picture of a banana tree! We were prepared for vicious dogs in Central Asia (all of us got vaccinated back home) but not really elsewhere. Even with vaccination against rabies you have to undergo treatment when you get bitten. Sarah and Holger made a long Emei city tour and went from one to the next hospital until they found one that knew how to treat dog bites and had the remedy. Holger needs 5 injections over the next few weeks.
The day after we checked in our bicycles. They went on the trip to Panzhihua some hours earlier than ourselves. After our first bicycle transport from Korgas to Ürümqi we were quite confident in the Chinese railway service. We prepared mentally for the overnight trip in the hard seat compartment. It couldn't be that bad to sit and sleep. We got on the train and it was worse than we expected. The hard seat compartment was packed, fully packed! A single row had two seats on the left-hand side, three seats on the right-hand side. The compartment was so full that sometimes four people sat on three seats. We squeezed between other passengers and accepted our fate. The noise level was incredibly high and sleep was impossible. Chinese love talking loudly (my uncle does so too)! When it was dinner time, Holger couldn't stand it any longer: his neighbour was chewing crispy chicken feet, spitting the bones on the ground at his feet :-)
After a restless night we arrived in Panzhihua at 5 am. It was still dark, so we checked into a hotel by the railway station. Did we mention that Chinese love talking loudly? At 9 am we were woken up by "talking" Chinese guests next door. We only could find more sleep in the evening after we had changed room because of cockroaches and ants in our beds.
Some more words about the Chinese noise level. Again they love to talk loudly, sometimes it is rather shouting. Many watch TV at full volume. Our theory is that the honking trucks and cars damage people's ears, so they have to talk louder and end up in a vicious circle.
Sunday morning we hopped on the local bus with three bicycles. The bus driver and conductor didn't like that at all and made a scene. Well, we were told the day before that we could take the bicycles with us, so we did. Sometimes just ignoring the nagging helps. The local bus took us from the railway station to the long-distance bus station where the buses leave to Lijiang. When we bought the long-distance bus tickets, we already felt that three bicycles would never fit into one single bus. So Holger was supposed to go first, we would have followed 30 minutes later with the next bus. The big problem was that already Holger's bicycle didn't fit into the trunk. So his bus left without him. Thanks to the next bus driver and additional 100 Yuan per bicycle we managed to squeeze all three bicycles on the rear bank. Happy and relieved we left Panzhihua and thereby Sichuan province. After 10 hours and stunning Yunnan mountains we arrived in Lijiang. From here we plan to finally get back on our bicycles and cycle again. So much looking forward to it after all this complicated and nerve-wracking public transportation!!
Finding accommodation in Emei wasn't easy either. We had just checked in a small hotel opposite of the railway station when the police showed up and checked our passports (you get registered automatically when you check into a hotel in China) . The police order was that we had to go to the big hotel just next door and ask if they had an available room for us. Only if they didn't have any available rooms, we could have stayed in the small hotel. They mentioned reasons like safety issues in the small hotel etc. So Holger went to the reception of the big hotel and asked for a triple room. Nothing available. He came back and we thought it would be alright. But the police came back and Sarah was escorted in the police car to the bigger hotel (20 m walking distance). Not surprising, suddenly the bigger hotel had a room for us: the police presence took effect. So we moved from one hotel to the other one.
The next surprise came a few hours later. While Sarah and I were relaxing in the hotel, Holger went for a walk. Somebody knocked at the door. It was Holger with a bleeding hand and leg. He got bitten by a dog while he was trying to take a picture of a banana tree! We were prepared for vicious dogs in Central Asia (all of us got vaccinated back home) but not really elsewhere. Even with vaccination against rabies you have to undergo treatment when you get bitten. Sarah and Holger made a long Emei city tour and went from one to the next hospital until they found one that knew how to treat dog bites and had the remedy. Holger needs 5 injections over the next few weeks.
The day after we checked in our bicycles. They went on the trip to Panzhihua some hours earlier than ourselves. After our first bicycle transport from Korgas to Ürümqi we were quite confident in the Chinese railway service. We prepared mentally for the overnight trip in the hard seat compartment. It couldn't be that bad to sit and sleep. We got on the train and it was worse than we expected. The hard seat compartment was packed, fully packed! A single row had two seats on the left-hand side, three seats on the right-hand side. The compartment was so full that sometimes four people sat on three seats. We squeezed between other passengers and accepted our fate. The noise level was incredibly high and sleep was impossible. Chinese love talking loudly (my uncle does so too)! When it was dinner time, Holger couldn't stand it any longer: his neighbour was chewing crispy chicken feet, spitting the bones on the ground at his feet :-)
After a restless night we arrived in Panzhihua at 5 am. It was still dark, so we checked into a hotel by the railway station. Did we mention that Chinese love talking loudly? At 9 am we were woken up by "talking" Chinese guests next door. We only could find more sleep in the evening after we had changed room because of cockroaches and ants in our beds.
Some more words about the Chinese noise level. Again they love to talk loudly, sometimes it is rather shouting. Many watch TV at full volume. Our theory is that the honking trucks and cars damage people's ears, so they have to talk louder and end up in a vicious circle.
Sunday morning we hopped on the local bus with three bicycles. The bus driver and conductor didn't like that at all and made a scene. Well, we were told the day before that we could take the bicycles with us, so we did. Sometimes just ignoring the nagging helps. The local bus took us from the railway station to the long-distance bus station where the buses leave to Lijiang. When we bought the long-distance bus tickets, we already felt that three bicycles would never fit into one single bus. So Holger was supposed to go first, we would have followed 30 minutes later with the next bus. The big problem was that already Holger's bicycle didn't fit into the trunk. So his bus left without him. Thanks to the next bus driver and additional 100 Yuan per bicycle we managed to squeeze all three bicycles on the rear bank. Happy and relieved we left Panzhihua and thereby Sichuan province. After 10 hours and stunning Yunnan mountains we arrived in Lijiang. From here we plan to finally get back on our bicycles and cycle again. So much looking forward to it after all this complicated and nerve-wracking public transportation!!
