Thus far, noodle soup has not been given the time and space it deserves. I feel the need to correct this:
It started as a love-hate relationship – easily available, cheap and healthy, but my body was still conditioned to crave western breakfasts. As SE Asia is accustomed to western tourists, western breakfasts are easily available. Occasionally I tried to “eat local” for breakfast but my body just didn’t want it. Then I came to China. She’s not used to western tourists, so toast and eggs weren’t available. Noodle soup it was. Didn’t take long for my body to adjust and it now wants a nice bowl of noodle soup every morning.
It works like this: you choose your meat (of which you get very little, of course, because this is Asia and their diet is predominantly carbohydrates), they lower the noodles (you might get to choose which type) into some boiling water for a minute or so, the noodles are dumped in a bowl and various bits are added (meat, beans, peanuts, leafy veg – each place does it slightly differently), the bowl is topped up with stock, you add extra bits (again, it varies, but chili sauce, small green beans chopped with chili, coriander and spring onion are almost always offered) and finally you eat it (maybe wishing you hadn’t gone quite so heavy on the chili). Wherever makes it, it’s basically a bowl of fresh noodles – the rest is to make it more palatable. I’ve had it for breakfast every day since arriving in China, the Hilton buffet being a notable exception when I made the most of some western influence. So anyway, after noodle soup:
… we got on the bus to Guilin (actually we were in a tuk-tuk going to the station when he waved down a bus, pulled over, chucked us out whilst pointing at said bus saying urgently “Guilin, Guilin”, and snatched our fare out of my hand (despite the fact that we’d only gone half a kilometre down the road)).
We’d paid 22Y to get here, so I knew the bus fare. Short changed. I signalled more. Straight away she gave me more and continued down the bus without a word. I’m getting very fed up of this – it makes the travelling less enjoyable no matter how much I try not to let it. One of the things I’m looking forward to when I go home is not having to be on constant guard for overcharging – it started in Dubai and hasn’t stopped. I’m not even safe in supermarkets that have displayed prices as their tactic is to not “beep” it but put the value in manually. I’ve got wise to that one, too. And our hotel owner in Yangshuo had massively overcharged us for our bamboo raft tickets – I mentioned it politely, and she made excuses. I let it go as I’d made my point. I’ll let TripAdvisor do the hard work 😉
On a positive note, when I told the bus conductor that I needed the toilet, we pulled over at a petrol station less than five minutes later. That’s the Asian way.
From the bus window I saw lots of buildings. All single skin with no apparent damp proof course. Black damp was already crawling over even fairly new ones. It’s strange that cavity wall insulation, central heating and double-glazing hasn’t reached here yet, despite their climate being very similar to ours.
I spent much of the trip exploring Rudy’s music collection, tunes that I hadn’t heard in a long time, many of which brought back memories, and new stuff: Dire Straits, Aerosmith, Paul Kelly, The Eagles, Melissa Etheridge, Dream Theatre, Enya…
Walking the city streets later, we found those pizza bases again – must be a local delicacy – and “orange hand grenades”:
Then to the bus station where my latest app is coming in very useful by providing Chinese translations – technology can be wonderful.
And the photos – some sneaky, some requested. Sitting outside near a transport hub of some kind we were people-watching and noticed a group of young girls a few seats away.
“They want a photo,” said Rudy.
“Why don’t you go up and sit next them – it’ll make their day?”
“No, I want to see how long it takes them to summon up the courage…”
About five minutes later, one finally approached: “Can I take a photo?”
“Yes, of course you can.”
I think we made their day! Her English was pretty good so we chatted to the group for a while which was really nice – but again we forgot to ask them why they’d wanted a photo with us. Next time, I’ll remember next time.
To end, some clever packaging (I told you there weren’t so many interesting sights in China) – this yogurt packet had an air-filled compartment:
I think it’s to protect the main compartment so that, when under pressure, it doesn’t burst. Ingenious. If, indeed, that’s what it is. If you can confirm or deny, I’d be most grateful – I’m intrigued.