Make New Friends

Traveling throughout Southeast Asia has allowed me to see things I never dreamed I would. I remember watching “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” on the TravelChannel a few years ago and thinking that I would never in my life see those things. And now here I am! Every morning I wake up and am shocked to remember that I’m in Laos.
What’s almost more exciting than riding elephants, swimming in waterfalls, and visiting Buddhist temples is meeting other travel junkies like myself. A few days ago my travel companion, Caroline, and I had the “pleasure” of taking a slow-boat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang, Laos. For two straight days we were squished into a small boat with 124 fellow travelers for at least nine hours each day. Each person had only a small wooden bench where they could make themselves “comfortable” during the journey.
This could have been a terrible, terrible experience. And while it wasn’t the most relaxing trip, it was a fun one. Caroline and I were able to meet some very interesting people from all over the world. We meet an older British couple who are on their fourth trip to the area, a middle aged American traveling alone, as well as a young Canadian couple who are on their fourth month of a year long trip around the world. These people had fascinating stories to tell of their travels in Southeast Asia and other places. The boat trip could have been deathly boring, but instead became fun and interesting with the help of the other tourists.
As this is my first time “backpacking,” I didn’t expect me meet so many interesting people. It has been a most welcomed addition to my travel experiences. These people have really left a mark on my trip, as I hope I have on theirs.

Getting to the "Big" City

Imagine it. You’re living in a small town in the Hunan countryside and you want to get to the larger city of Zhangjiajie. You don’t have access to a car or a motorbike and it’s far too far to walk or ride a bicycle. As your town is more like a village than a real town, it isn’t large enough to warrant a train or bus station, or for that matter even a bus stop. So, how are you going to get to the “big” city?

As always, I’m here to help you out. There is a quick and easy solution to your problem; one that is used by many villagers all across China. Go out to your local freeway and wait along side the road until a bus going the direction you’d like to travel in come by and flag it down.

Can’t imagine doing something like this? Neither can I and I witnessed it first hand. During the 5 hour bus ride I took this past weekend from Zhuzhou to Zhangjiajie the bus stopped numerous times to pick up more passengers. At one point I went to sleep and the bus was perhaps half full. I woke up about an hour later and the bus was so full that people were sitting in the isle on small plastic stools. Although I’m sure these people know the bus schedule and thus are more than likely only waiting a short amount of time, I don’t think it would be all that enjoyable to wait along side of a busy freeway in the hopes that the bus will stop for you. People got on the bus all along the journey carrying precious cargo ranging from a live chicken to huge plastic bags filled with who knows what. Often there were no longer free seats and, as I mentioned before, the newcomers were forced to sit in the isle regardless of the fact that they were carrying a tiny, crying baby or were rather elderly. It seems that the rule on city busses that seats be given up to the aged, pregnant, handicapped, and passengers with small children doesn’t apply to long-distance busses. It seemed that the disregard for this rule was hard and fast. Even when I tried to give my seat up to a woman who couldn’t be much older than I am who was trying to breastfeed her baby while perched precariously on a case of water in the middle of the isle, her family told me that she didn’t need it. Can’t imagine that either.

Part of me feels lucky that Zhuzhou is a city of over 4 million people, and thus warrants a train station, as well as multiple bus stations. The other part of me feels like I’m missing out on an interesting Chinese experience. Ok, maybe I don’t feel all that bad about it.