Journey Through Jiangxi

I awoke in Xiamen on Saturday morning, July 7th, not really knowing what I was going to do that day. The train ticket which I'd previously booked for my trip up into Jiangxi Province had the wrong date on it - for the day before, and not today as I'd thought - so I was stuck for a while. A girl on my train back from Longyan had told me that it'd still be ok and that I could use the ticket over a 3 day period but that just didn't make sense to me with allocated seats and stuff. I really couldn't be arsed going all the way over to the train station to check it out so gave it up as lost and went to the bus station instead to see what they had on offer. In no time at all I was racing back to my hotel to pick up my bags to get back for an onward bus in about 1 hour's time. I made it...just, and was on my way again.

This time my mode of transport was a sleeper bus. I have never travelled by sleeper bus before, although I'd seen them on the roads. Given some of my previous experiences with buses I'd always thought that sleeper buses must be some special kind of hell and had avoided them at all cost. But here I was, completely unaware, on a sleeper to Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province and I have to say it was one of the nicest journeys I've had. There are three rows of beds in the bus, with two aisles of wood effect laminate flooring separating them. You have to take your shoes off to go in, which I was a bit apprehensive about, seeing as I was only in sandals. I didn't fancy paddling through pools of spit in my bare feet so walked carefully but the bus was remarkably clean. You lie with your legs in a boxed space underneath the person-in-front's head, so can't lie flat or anything, but it really was quite a comfortable way to travel. It was just as well cos I was on that damn bus for the next 12 hours! As per usual the views were amazing throughout. Beautiful weather, banana plantations, forested mountains and rustic villages. Perfect. It was all going so well, until I had to get off.

At 1am I was woken up by the conductor and told we were in Nanchang. In a sleepy daze I got off the bus, looked about me and saw...nothing. Proper 'middle-of-nowhere' country. I checked this really was Nanchang, provincial capital of several million inhabitants and gathered that the bus doesn't actually go to Nachang, but some other destination, and that this is as close as they'd get for one passenger. Yes, one solitary passenger. Me. Alone. At 1am. In the dark. On the side of a random road in the middle of nowhere as the bus pulled away. Fan-fucking-tastic.

That's not all strictly true though. I wasn't alone. There were a couple of people in a car who immediately told me they'd take me into Nanchang with them in their car. This thing had dodgy written all over it. But at the same time what was worse? Staying there or getting in a car with these randoms? So I got in. They told me it was 30km away and it'd cost 180 yuan. A rip-off indeed but options were slim.

So we drove away. Not too long afterwards we entered what must have been the outskirts of the city, and it was not pretty. Soon after that we passed a hotel and the driver told me he could get me a room there for 100 yuan. Apparently the normal cost for foreigners is 200, but with him signing the receipt I could get a normal price. Ok. Whatever. We had a look.

It was true, I got my room for 100. No problem. Then he asked me for his 180 yuan. I pulled out 100 and told him that was enough. He didn't like that too much, but it still was twice what I'd have given a taxi driver for the same distance so was prepared to get bargaining. I wouldn't budge, and neither would he. Remember that for the same price previously I had had a good quality double room in Xiamen, and also a 4 hour guided tour of Tulou near Hongkeng. So now, for a 15 minute drive, I was not prepared to part with this same amount and be that stupid foreigner that gets conned blind. I was in strong position. I was right, to start with, and they all knew that. Even the girls behind the desk thought so. I could tell from their expressions and what I could catch them saying that it was more than enough. So the dagger dug deep when at his command they told me to give them back my roomkey, or give them an extra 100 yuan for the foreigner's rate.

That was it. My legs had been pulled out from underneath me and I'd lost. I gave him the remaining 80 yuan and he left. I was more angry, frustrated and humiliated than I've ever been here in China and it took me a long, long time to calm down to a point where I could get back to sleep. The experience was horrible. I hated how I felt and from then on decided that I would not let these thieving bastards ruin my holiday. It's only money, and fighting for the principle over amounts I could easily afford was just not worth it.

First thing in the morning I checked out and got the very first bus I could out of that city and on to my next real destination, Wuyuan.