On the train from Xi'an to Sanmenxia, an older couple walked over to our empty side of the car and started talking to us in Chinese. When we said we did not understand, which is one of the 3 things I know how to confidently say, the man and his wife sat down next to us and, for the next 3 hours, talked with us and tried to teach us Mandarin.
When we arrived in Sanmenxia, a city not in the guide book, we first tried to find accommodations by the train station. We figured we could pay a lot less, around 60-80 yuan (9-11 dollars), because the area did not have any tourists, The first room we were showed in one hotel was 120 yuan. It had 2 twin beds and a private toilet and shower. There were cheaper rooms but the manager said we could not stay in them. We thought we could do better than 120. At the second hotel, the room we were shown was 40 yuan. We were told there was no shower and, when I asked where the toilet was, she led us to an alley that was full of bricks and pointed down the alley. There didn't seem to be anything on the other side and the alley did not smell pretty. That was a deal breaker. At the third hotel, the room was bigger even though it looked a little dirty. We were told the shower was on the third floor and, though the bathroom looked like it had not been cleaned in months, we just decided to take it for 50 yuan (7 US dollars). Using that bathroom was a traumatizing experience and it certainly made us realize that we do have certain standards and semi- clean toilets is one of them.
On the train from Sanmenxia to Luoyang, the guy sitting next to us traded seats with a girl who spoke some, but very little, English. Her name was Cao Pei Pei and she was 23 years old. After chatting for a few minutes, she recommended a cheap and clean hotel that was in our price range. When we learned it wasn't close to the city center, we declined the offer. A few minutes later, she told us to move our plans for the day to tomorrow and invited us to her house. She seemed to be saying that her mother would cook for us and we could spend the night. S and I were not so sure but she was really friendly and decided that it might be cool to get a home-cooked meal. We got on the bus with her and she said she was calling her mother. After she made a few phone calls, she pointed to some blue and red building up ahead. We got off the bus and she said it was the hotel. As we couldn't really communicate that well with her, I assumed there had been a change of plans and that we would drop our bags off at the hotel and then head to her house. But something seemed weird. She walked into the hotel like she owned the place and got us a nice room in this business hotel for 50% off the rack rate. After she walked us to our room, she gave me a hug and said " bye bye" and left. We were very confused and we could only assume that her parents completely rejected her plans to hang out and, due to her limited English and wanting to save face, she was too embarrassed to say anything. We imagined the conversation went something like this, "No, you cannot bring over two American strangers that you met on the train. And I will not come home after a long day of work and cook for them and they most certainly cannot stay at our house. We don't even know them. What are you crazy?"
At the Longmen Caves in Luoyang, which was quite a sight yet overpriced, S and I decided to take a break and sat down by the river. There was some commotion behind us and, when I looked over, a man was holding his baby close to the ground and the baby was going to the bathroom in the street. They cleaned his behind with baby wipes, and walked on. This is a common sight in China as babies here don't wear diapers. There are slits in their pants that open from below the belly button to the top of their behinds. These are very common until the children are potty trained. We have only seen one diaper on a baby in our 3 and a half weeks in China. The child is just taught to tell the parents when they need to go to the bathroom and it happens, sometimes in public.
Kaifeng had an amazing night market. There were hundreds of stalls on the street, selling kebabs, bread, dumplings, soups, dessert and other snacks that we did not recognize. Most of the stalls were run by Muslims and they were selling kebabs with every type of meat, meat parts, fish and veggies you could imagine. The grossest looking kebab was one with bugs that looked like cockroaches on it. S and I ate dinner there one night, paying about $2 for the two of us- $1.15 for a plate of 35 veggie gyoza, 45 cents for a loaf of bread, and 40 cents for block of peanut brittle. We befriended the people who sold us the bread and went back several times to get more the following day. They were always veyr happy to see us.
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| Sanmenxia, Luoyang, Kaifeng |
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