The Indian Contractor visits Vietnam and China on a Shoestring

The following Dialogue took place in Singlish (A pidgin version of English used in Singapore)

Time: 0000hrs:

Gilbert says: nanda, go hangzhou later....

Nanda: Never Sleep le! cannot la...

Gilbert: Okay, see how later.. (We see how it goes later)

This dialogue took place at a roadside foodstall that sold some fantastic noodle soup called "ma la fen si" literally translated to mean "spicy crystal noodle". Spicy wasa serious understatement here! The Chilly was tongue numbing! The shop was a road side stall with all kindsa vegetables and meat layed out. You just chose the items you want and passed it to the cook who'd make a soup out of the whole thing and add some glassy looking noodles.

While we were huffing and puffing with the noodles we tried to find a plan to see hangzhou before my departure on Friday.
Time 0100:

We drove back to Gilberts place and took a look at train timetables to Hangzhou. There were many trains that did the trip in a hour plus. I dont know how I agreed to go but there was this urge to get back to the backpacker lifestyle. So we decided to take the 0440 train and reach hangzhou by 7. So there was going to be no sleep today. Neither gifford, nor my travel companion took up the offer.

Time 0230:

Gilberts dad went to sleep. Its amazing how he wakes up in time for work with hardly a few hours of sleep.
I had'nt showered the whole day. I would not do so until after Hangzhou. We had a few fruits to eat and at 3 am we each took a multi vitamin tablet.

Time 0325:

We set out for Hangzhou. First came the ride to the railway station. We reached, once again, at the nick of time. The train was to depart in 7 minutes. We grabbed our tickets and ran to the waiting hall. We reached the waiting hall only to find out our train had been delayed by ten mins. For a moment I felt like I was going to go through the Beijing ordeal again. We caught our breaths at the waiting hall. We were groggy.

We got aboard the train and dozed off promptly. Its not easy to sleep on an upright seat so we kept waking up. After an hour we were completely awake thanks to a crazy vendor who kept walking through the train for the next hour saying the train was reaching hangzhou soon and that he was selling maps of hangzhou. It was free seating so I envied those who took up 2 seats and slept soundly by lying flat on them. We looked out of the window and it was still raining just like the day before. Neither a downpour nor a Drizzle. We were optimistic about the whether in Hangzhou, but our optimism faded as we reached closer.

We reached Hangzhou a while before 7. It was still raining. 200km away from shanghai and no change in whether. We took some pictures of the train and decided to let the rain have its fun for some time. So we purchased our ticket for the return journey. A nice soft seater train with a double decker compartment like the one you see below.

Our train was scheduled for 1215hrs. We bought an early ticket as we felt there was no point hanging around a rainy town. We went to a KFC nearby and I had a cup of horrendous coffee to keep myself awake. Gilbert did the same but added a burger. We waited for the rain to stop but after an hour we found it pointless to wait. SO we went to the market and bought ourselves and umbrella for 25RMB each. The shop had only two colours/designs. It was either blue or purple. We took the blue. Two guys with the same colour umbrella. It looked weird.

We took a taxi to the first pagoda. It was a huge one. The rain had kept the tour groups out so we had ample time and place to move around. We climbed to the top of the pagoda and took some pictures of the city. It was not so good as the rain had made everything look hazy.

We left the pagoda at around 10 am. We flagged down a cab and asked him to take us to the next pagoda. But instead we got into yet another scam. The taxi driver offered to take us to three different places for RMB50. We accepted, it sounded like a good deal.

He left the meter on and started talking to Gilbert(in chinese) about the history and culture of Hangzhou. Then he brought us near the tea plantations. The tea grown here was supposed to be the best in China and even Hu Jin Dao got his tea from here. He then brought us to a village which survived completely on tea cultivation. It was a hilly road full of ups and down. Then came the second stop. Next to a well. We got off and a lady with a bucket "happened" to be passing by. The driver stopped her and asked her if we could borrow the bucket. Washing ones hands and face in the well apparently brought good luck. I am a hardcore skeptic but hey, i could use some cool water to wake me up. So I went ahead and washed myself in the 1000 yr old well. Now this lady also "happened" to own one of the tea estates here so she invited us to her place. We went in while the driver waited for us outside. The lady told my friend about the importance of tea and how it was like the blood of the people there. While this lecture was going on we were given a cup and it kept filling up as the lady continued to talk. We had gulped down 6 cups(tiny cups). Then came the punchline. Now Gilbert was a chinese tea drinker, and I did'nt like any tea but the Indian brown teas from darjeeling and Assam. Back to the punchline, she asked us to choose between the RMB500 and the rmb200 tea.

We had drunk a lot of tea already. Don't you hate it when people corner you like this and play with your conscience! Gilbert bought some of the RMB200 tea.

We walked back to the cab. This time the driver started talking about pearls and dropped us off at a community where pearls were sold. We did not get off the taxi and asked him to carry on to the next destination. The driver talked his way to the next destination and abruptly ended the trip ended there. Not surprisingly the meter showed RMB50. We thought he would drop us off back at the place we started. Apparently not.It was the second pagoda we were supposed to visit. we had one hour to reach the station. We decided to skip the train and take the next one.(and what a beautiful blunder it was). We walked up to the pagoda and this one was a reconstruction of the original pagoda. It was nice but the huge elevators on the flanks of the pagoda spoilt the traditional appearance of the place. The escalators and elevators took people all the way to the top so just about anyone could reach the top floor. Inside the remains of the original pagoda were encapsulated by a glass panel. Very little of it remained and the new structure was built around it so as to protect the remaining structure of the old pagoda. People would throw coins over the glass panel and make a wish. My wallet was heavy so I threw some coins into it too. I cant remember if I made a wish though.

We took the lift up and every floor was beautifully decorated with carvings and filigree works on wood etc. The entrance fee of 60RMB was worth it. We reached the top and took photos of the ceiling lying down. The moment I walked away three other people followed suit and layed flat on the floor shooting the ceiling. I had become a trend setter.

The view from the top floor was nice but the hazy weather ruined it for us. We took a few more pictures and then prepared to leave. We had three more hours to kill thanks to our extension of the trip. We decided to take a bus ride around the town and see what it had to offer. We boarded an unknown bus and payed the fare of RMB8 for two people. It went all around the city and we learnt (I should say I because Gilbert was asleep by then) that there was much more here than what the brochures mentioned. This place had a zoo and nature park. It also had other theme parks that we did'nt know about. The journey was pleasant and we we passed by the bridge near the first pagoda. I woke up Gilbert and asked him if he wanted to get down. He said, "lets just see where the bus goes and get off at the last stop" From then on we the journey got more and more uninteresting. The places looked more run down and the activity level also went down. The last stop was at a nondescript town on the edge of the city. We got off the bus and found ourselves in no man's land. I wanted to take another bus back to the station. As this was a bus depot there was definitly a bus that would reach the railway staiton.

But Gilbert gave me that look which implicitly said, "Both of us are sleepy, c'mon, lets just take the cab". So I agreed and we took the cab. On the way to the station we passed by a small area that had many steam engines (really old looking too). It must have been some sort of a railway museum. But it was too far away from the station and there was no way we'd make it back on time if we went there.

At the railway station we went to the booking hall and found a long queue for every counter. Gilbert and I each stood in a queue and hoped to by tickets for the super fast bullet train leaving at 1440. We waited for about half an hour in seperate queues and my queue moved faster. So I asked the lady at the counter for two tickets to Shanghai gathering all the words that I knew in chinese(not many mind you). The train number was beyond my limited vocabulary but Gilbert came to the rescue and asked her the available timings.

Much to our disappointment, the only time available was the 3 pm train which was the slowest train amongst them all. Then came the worst part. They only had hardseaters. The journey that took one and a half hours in the morning would take 3 hours by this train. It was one of those super long distance and super slow trains. This one went from Hangzhou to Qiqi Haer which is north of Beijing. We bought the tickets and thought about what to do next. We had an hour or so to kill. We decided to have lunch. We walked aruond the station area and were not very happy with the eateries there. We were also suspicious of the massage parlours that looked very dicey. So we left the station and walked in the nearby area. We walked past atleast 10 foodstalls and all sold exactly the same items. There was a selection of veges and meats that were served with rice. So we walked into one of these places and chose our items. When the food came, we lost our appetite. It was pathetic. The rice was cold and the vegetables were even colder. Nothing on the plate was fresh. So we ate only a part of it and left halfway as it became increasingly diffult to swallow the cold and semi raw vegetables. We decided to eat at Shanghai instead.

We went back to the station and entered the waiting hall. And thus, we fell victim to the second scam of the day.