Harbin surprise
Jul 21st, 2007 by Peter
16th July 2007 Harbin
Up and about at 2.55am. Well, actually one Tour de France horny friend of mine woke us up earlier with some sms messages about some Dane being in the lead at the moment, but guess we had to get up and swat mosquitoes anyway.
That’s a daily deed in C’s sister’s apartment: killing small bloodsuckers. There’s no air-condition, so we have to open the windows at night to be able to breathe/sleep. This of course means free access to fat rich laowai blood and the little buggers take full advantage. The main problem with this is that it ruins our sleep. We have to get up at least 2 times a night, but this is not the only time the mosquitoes bother us. It takes a least 3 or 4 half asleep moments of annoyance before you realize that you better get up and do something about it. That means full lights on. I have never been good at falling asleep again after such a séance.
Since we already had been up twice because of mosquitoes/Tour de France horny friends, I was kind of busted when we woke up. At least there was a chance to catch some sleep in the bus to Harbin. I was wrong.
At 3.10am our “private” taxi driver arrived to take us to the bus. C asked her the day before if she wanted to take us there even though it was a ridiculously early. She would get extra payment for the ride being early as it was, but still an enormous gesture from her to say yes. We are talking about a girl who already drives her electrical 3-wheeled bicycle from at least 7.00am to 22.00pm every day. That’s the times I remember we’ve used her, so stretching it to get up at shit o’clock and drive us 10 minutes is a big favor in my book. This girl is just a gem. I know C paid her extra, but not sure how much. Money matters are handled by C here, just like the situation is almost the opposite when we are back in Denmark. What I do know is that C pushed some extra cash into her hand when we were dropped of and that she refused to take it. C was stubborn, so she of course got her way.
Sad to say it, but many Chinese taxi drivers we’ve used could learn from this girl. Since we used her first time, she has had all our business if possible and it has to add to some sum by now. A sum that others would have gotten if they were polite, modest and honest too. The rude weiguren questioners and the overpricers all got sorted out by C. I would have done the same if I understood Chinese I guess.
We got into the bus and found our seats. C had purchased them a few days ahead, so we were pretty sure they would be okay. They were, if you compared to the poor suckers who had to sit on tiny chairs in the middle of the bus. At least we got regular seats. The problem was that we got the lousiest ones of those. You know the seats second last in the bus. In this bus all seats are placed a bit skewed so when you get to the last seats, someone had to loose out on space. And guess who? People who have seen me would agree that I do not have long legs. Wide would be a term used more often. Still I had to tilt them to sit there. The room was so scarce. Combine that with us having some luggage to sit with, you’ll get: shitty seats and crappy prospects of sleep.
I couldn’t catch a wink. C could after some time when we finally squeezed all bags and my laptop on my lap. She then rested her head on these. I, on the other hand, could sit and enjoy the beautiful scenery passing by. I enjoyed that and the people constantly clearing their throat behind me, in front of me and beside me. These are the times you just don’t want to know what happens with the end result. This would normally be spat on to a street or close to someone’s sandals. In the bus what would people do with their spit? Unfortunately I found out as I did watch a massive throat-clearer at last. It’s like watching the sun. You know it’s bad for you, but you have to look at least once, right?
A bloke sitting on the seat rows besides us did a double throat clearing sound and let a long slimy string of goo leave his lips and fall into a napkin. That’s the one I saw, but I would bet my right ball, that some others let theirs paint the floor. I’ve seen worse things here, so why not.
The time crawled slowly ahead. Most people slept, but some either couldn’t or didn’t need too. On the backseat a mother and her 7ish years old daughter was placed. They had one seat, but the daughter was crawling on the back of the seat in front of her too. She was shouting for her niece or whatever the other little brat was 3 rows ahead for about 1 hour. Now I’m no genius at raising children, but wouldn’t it be a good idea for the mother to tell the child to shut up be quiet when people in the bus are sleeping? I could see that the guy in the seat in front of her hoped for some sort of action. He had bags under his eyes and tried to catch some sleep in the most awkward postures with no luck. Not only did this child make too much noise, but she also jerked the back of his seat. He turned politely 2 times and got eye contact with the mother, but she either didn’t care, or had a hard time adding 2 and 2 together.
I see these things a lot here and even though I know that I’m a guest here and other “laws” are in play, I really hate it. It’s so egoistical and narrow-minded. Have some respect for other people and stop being selfish assholes. Raising children is where I really get annoyed, but I also see it in other situations. It bugs me that I am worn so fast. I still have 13 more days to go before I can get normalized. Have to start biting my tongue harder. Harder I say. Harder!
40 minutes before arrival time and just outside Harbin, the bus stopped to let of some people. These guys were the ones unfortunate enough to be in need of transportation, but also be the ones who was late for the ticket office. The bus driver put them off there, because he was worried that the police would stop him. It was against the law. What bugs me is that it’s alright to play with my life, as long as the police don’t see it. I discussed this with C, who didn’t see the problem before I explained to her about our slim chances to survive. If we had a collision, we would surely be doomed sitting in the back of the bus with far to the exit.
Inside Harbin we were dropped of near the bus station. We both needed to use a toilet so we headed down an underground shopping mall where C once worked. After doing our business, we went on to get some breakfast. Cheap and good. C told me that when she worked in Harbin, this was her favorite spot to eat breakfast, but she rarely did. It was too expensive. We paid about 12rmb for both of us. C told me that where she used to eat, it was only 3rmb.
After eating C dragged me to some sort of manicure school. C had an idea that she could take a class in how to make fancy nails with flowers and so on in 2 or 3 days, while we were in Harbin. I guessed it would be ok to check it out. As expected it wasn’t possible to take the class in only 3 days. I already turned down C’s request for 14 days in Harbin to take the class. We were here so she could be with her family, not so she could learn how to polish nails. Actually she bought it and had to agree that it would not be polite to her family. Instead she opted for plan B: Securing the tools needed and getting a brief introduction to the different stuff from an employee. Meanwhile I hung around pretending interest in fake nails and hair extension tools or whatever those things were.
When C finally was done sucking the employee dry for knowledge we were on our way to do some shopping. Notice this was not what I had expected. C friend would not be home before 2pm, so meanwhile we had to drag our luggage including my 3½kg laptop around while shopping. It was pretty warm and I had absolutely no energy. I just needed a short rest and then maybe go shopping. This is what happens when things get lost in translation. When C asked me if it would be ok to take then bus at 3am, I initially expected that we would go directly from the bus station to her friend’s home to drop off our stuff and maybe catch a few Zs. I’m not good at sleeping in planes, trains and busses so had I known this beforehand, I wouldn’t have agreed to 3am. C actually gave me a few options where one was 8am and one even later. Should have picked one of those instead, but its always so easy to be wise in hindsight. I thought one thing, asked one. C thought another, answered another. Result: bad communication.
7 hours, 1 new haircut to me, 2 new suitcases and some nail beautification stuff later were finally ready check in at C’s friend’s apartment. C had planned for us to stay with there which were cool with me. I looked forward to meet her and her husband. Also I looked forward to getting some rest. I was worn. Very worn. The lack of sleep and rest ate my energy and fatigue was showing it’s ugly face easier than one week ago.
We waited 10 minutes at a gas station close to where they lived. My feet were killing me and I was dead tired. I also was seriously thirsty so C wanted to buy some cold water for me. Unfortunately they had none, but could manage a coca cola. I thanked yes. I’m not much of a cola drinker, but what the hell. I was thirsty and it was cold. A funny thing happened. As I had finished the coke and searched for a trashcan, the owner of the gas station looked strangely at me. I bitched to C why China never had any public trashcans and how this might have helped on the whole dirt problem they had here. The owner asked C what I said but C only translated it politely as always, which is ok with me most of the time. This way I can let off steam and still come off being polite. She said: “He wants to put the can in a trashcan, but he can’t find any”. The owner made a big happy grin and started rambling on to the already gathering laowai gazers. I picked up the essential part: “Foreigner very good, Chinese very bad!”. Then he rambled on to the onlookers and even though I didn’t understand the words, there were no doubt that I was made an example to follow.
After this episode I almost wanted to hug the guy. Finally someone who appreciates common decency. He then waved the crowd away and that’s when I noticed that this might be the cleanest gas station in China. It was not the newest or the prettiest, but it sure was kept clean. My deepest respect to this guy.
C’s friend arrived and there was a glimpse of showing feelings that I so rarely see here in China. They actually exchanged a hug.
We climbed the stairs to her apartment and installed our stuff and relaxed our legs a bit. According to C it was a pretty normal Chinese apartment. It had a living room, 1 bedroom, one office room/kids room, a small kitchen and a bathroom. The bathroom included a western toilet (bad flush of course) and a showerhead, but no cabin to shower in. I was happy to see the western toilet. Since the few attempts to use squatters I have to admit that they will never be my favorites.
We dropped off our stuff and rested a bit before the husband of the home arrived with their young daughter. I could see why C wanted them as friends. They were very polite and friendly. I felt at home instantly. That’s a funny thing. I actually always do here in China. Even though I do feel a burden, I never feel unwelcome or not at home. The Chinese I’ve met are experts at making you feel this way. I’m not sure Danes are quite as good at this. Maybe there’s a lesson in there for me.
For dinner the husband drove us all to a 4 floored grill restaurant. I like meat. Most Chinese would categorize me as eating too much meat. Well, me and all other Danes. This restaurant didn’t hold back though. I’ve never seen so much barbecued meat on sticks before as I saw in there. The air was filled with the smell of barbecue and when I looked outside I could see thick smoke blowing away from the restaurant. The meat was great though, but it got a bit too smoked after a while. I ate too much as usually and was full when we returned at the apartment.
It was soon time to go to bed, well floor actually. I had turned down the host’s offer to borrow their bed so they could sleep on the floor. I know this is common hospitality in China, but I just can’t take advantage of it. They already opened their homes to us, so why should they sleep bad too?
A few blankets were laid on the floor and we tugged in.