The Indian Contractor visits Vietnam and China on a Shoestring

Here's why its called madness. Our train for Huangshan was scheduled for 1145am. We had yet to the see the interior of the Forbidden city. So we had a super tight schedule.
We were to return to the hostel by 1100 latest to finish check out formalities and take a slow walk to the station.
Did we make it? Read on and find out the final fiasco at Beijing!

We left the hotel at 0800hrs. The Forbidden City opened at 0900hrs. So we were going to be the first few inside. We took the subway train to Tiananmen square and walked inside the Forbidden City. The entrance ticket was a forbidding RMB60/ person!
And each open space was like 3 football fields! Simply Huge! This place needs atleast 4 hours to do it complete justice! We had only an hour and a half. So we walked briskly and took only the most important pictures.

Sadly, many of the main buildings were under renovation and hence covered up with scaffolding!

The crowd was just as bad as any other time of the day. It seemed as if half of China's population is on a guided tour at any point of time! But the wide spaces kept them well spaced so our walking pace was not hindered. Guys, this is really a bad way to see any place so please plan Beijing properly before you get there. All monuments close at 1630 hrs and open at nine in the morning.

Another problem we faced was that everytime we wanted to shoot structures in the absence of people, we would have to wait. Till everyone had finished taking their pictures in front of buildings. Hence the pictures you see here which have no people in front are a product of patience and teeth grinding endurance! And the fact that we were on a dead tight schedule did not help!

The last photos had been snapped. We did a time check. It was 1015. Just enough to walk back, outside, then take the train back to the hostel. But on the way back, we found some irresistable photo opportunities as the sun finally showed up and this led to small delays which snowballed. We left the complex around 11. This was not good. We walked briskly to the station. As we turned into the subway entrance, we entered the wrong station. We were supposed to enter Tiananmen East. We entered Tiananmen West. We thought the two stations were on the same line and bought a ticket. We got on the platform and saw the route map. We were flabbergasted! The two lines were not the same and the nearest interchange was three or so stations away. We ran outside the station, and towards the correct station. We took the train to our station and then took the wrong exit out. More precious moments wasted. We reached the hotel at 1130. We ran to our room and packed our bags hurriedly. Then we carried our 20 kg luggage and ran out. We reached the reception and got our refunds from the deposits. We then ran to the station. Yes, with those heavy back packs two people were seen sprinting to the Beijing station amidst the packed pedestrian walkways! People probably thought we were part of the "Amazing Race" or something! We reached the station. There was a baggage scanning going on. Only that day did I realise how terribly slow X ray machines were!

Time Check: 1137.

We ran to the boarding area. The ticket checker told us to goto platform 7. We rushed down the escalator to find the train waiting on the platform. As we ran to our compartment, I realised that the train was packed to the brim. There were people standing at the doors! Our compartment, sadly, was no different. Two people with huge bags., a jam packed train. No way to enter the compartment. The guard outside the compartment checked our ticket and asked us to get in. But how? My friend stepped in and could only take one step more. I could only put two feet on the footboard. Every other part of my body and baggage dangled outside.

Its times like this I wish I had my camera to take a picture of what I am describing. The guard signalled that I must go in. But how?
And here's where I used my indian railway boarding skills. Rubbing against people and just squeezing my way through the crowd. We checked our tickets. Seat 50 and 51. All the way at the other end of the compartment! Another problem(which is actually an effective safety feature) in Chinese/ Vietnamese trains is that only one door is opened in each compartment to prevent illegal boarding and thefts. This worked against us as we were struggling to even get beyond the toilets! The train had already started moving.
My buddy more or less managed to reach the seating area. And with a little more squeezing I managed to keep up. At this stage both my bags (one huge back pack on my back and one camera bag in my frontside) was seriously impeding my progress. Another guard squeezed his way behind me and signalled me to carry my bag on my head. Lame as it sounds ,it was a fantastic idea!

I carried my 15kg backpack on my head and negotiated the remaining crowd. By the time we reached our seats we were wet. Wet with Sweat! And our seat was taken by someone else. My buddy took care of that and we were seated finally. The lady and her daughter, seated opposite to us, smiled at us.

And thus began our 19 hour journey to Huangshan. On a hard seater compartment without any sleeping facilities. No push back seats either. Woohoo!!

MY buddy started chatting with the lady and her daughter. All this was happening in Mandarin, so for once, the indian contractor was quiet. As the chat progressed I got drowsy. The lack of sleep, the mad rush in the morning and the fantastic train entry had taken its toll. I dozed off for a while. I woke up to find my buddy still chatting with the lady. Then I was enlightened as to the contents of their conversation. I said hi and they returned the greeting. After I was introduced to them, they said they had never seen an indian before. I was not surprised at all. My buddy told them I could understand and speak an eensy weensy bit of Mandarin (Chinese). So I told her,"Wo Bu ming Bai!" (I don't understand) At which the lady and her daughter were surprised. Then I said,"Wo Mei yo Du Shu chinese"(I have not studied Chinese). At which they laughed. They did'nt quite understand the "chinese" and thought that I was illiterate. My friend corrected me and I repeated after her,"Wo mei yo Du Han yu"(I have not studied chinese) (the correct english spellings may be different for the chinese words I have used here). The Chinese call their language Han Yu (though Singaporean Chinese call it Hua Yu). This only applies to Chinese Mandarin mind you. Cantonese, Hokkien, Teo Chew, Hakka, and Hainanese people will have no idea what you're saying if they do not know mandarin (Chinese).

The Chinese call the above mentioned languages dialects although they sound completely different to me(its like calling French a dialect of English!). If my geography is correct then the southern Chinese (Guangzhou and Hong Kong Chinese) speak Cantonese. The Taiwanese speak Hokkien (I swear fluently in this language thanks to my army training in Singapore!).

This started a "learning journey" for me as well as the daughter, in every sense of the words.

The guy sitting on my left was starting to get hungry. He took out a packet and uwrapped it to reveal a chickens leg. He then bought a small bottle of drink from the catering cart that passed our seat. I bought a bottle of water. He started munching on his chicken leg. This is the closest I have been to a chickens leg. It was uncookedfrom what I could see. Then he opened the bottle to take a swig. The smell made my head spin! He was drinking rice liquor with 56% alcohol. The smell wafted through the entire compartment and he was relishing every moment of it. And It was getting a bit uncomfortable for me. My butt hurt beacuse of the prolonged seated posture. So I stood up and strectched myself and sat down again. The moment I sat down, the man coughed and a piece of his chicken popped out of his mouth and landed on my thigh. I looked at him and smiled. He just munched away. I shook the piece off my leg. Its not easy being a vegetarian in China.

My friend was now dozing off. Earlier, I had dozed off on the table in front of our seat. But now it had all kindsa eatables on it so I could not nap anymore. My buddy had the window to lean against. This sleeping problem would plague me for the rest of the journey. After staring into oblivion for an hour or so, it was dinner time. My buddy followed me to the restaurant car which was the next compartment. We sat down and read the menu card. They had about 4 Vegetarian items from what my buddy translated. I wanted the mushroom soup and the rice with vegetables. The waiter came and showed another sheet of paper on the table. He said that was the new menu. It had handwritten names of items that were far fewer than those on the original card.

The waiter was not exactly bothered about serving us as our orders were pretty small. The others were guzzling down on beer and had atleast ten items on order.

The waiter returned a while later and said one of the items we ordered was not available. So while my buddy was thinking about what to order, he chose the item for her. He did not even bother asking whether we would want the item he had chosen. So much for service.

Unlike the service, the rice and vegetables I ordered tasted good and the garlic flavouring was just nice, not too strong at all.

We left the pantry car once the smell of tobacco became intolerable. We returned to our seats and watched the sun set from the window.

Once it was dark, there was nothing to see outside. We turned our heads to the lady and her daughter seated opposite. My buddy taught her a few sentences in English. Then I took out a paper and pen and my buddy started writing out simple english words.

She started off with a simple abbreviation, "FAMILY" which was elaborated as "Father And Mother, I Love You". Then went on to introductory phrases. Although she could tell the girl the chinese equivalents of the english words, she had trouble writing the correct characters for them. The little girl just took the pen from her and completed the sentences in Chinese for her! (Chinese is written using an Ideographic script whereby each word/idea is represented using one character. Hence being able to speak the language is miles away from being able to write the same!)

And then my friend wrote out the english transliteration for the chinese words. SO I spoke the "englishised" chinese, the girl spoke english and thus this was a nice student exchange program. Except the other student was half my age. But it was a nice experience and I learnt a few more useful chinese sentences. The girl was a fast learner and she picked up all the phrases and said them out without looking at the paper.

The guy seated on my left went out for a smoke. The little girl sat next to me and started playing with my hair. She still could'nt believe the curls and the thickness. Then she put her hand next to mine and was astonished at the tonal difference. I laughed and told her the only parts of my body that could match her colour were my palms, eyes and teeth! She burst out laughing. There was no need to translate that. Even the mother understood what I meant. She was not insulting me mind you, if she were she would not sit next to me and touch my hands.. She was just facinated thats all. And unlikle some of the kids I saw at Shanghai, later in the trip, this girls curiosity was innocent and not at all offensive.

The mother untied her daughters hair before tying it up again. She offered her services for my hair, I politely declined the offer.

People were starting to doze off and we thought we should do the same. And thus started the long battle with the forces of sleep. It would last all night. This entry is getting too long so I ll write about this in the next sub chapter.