7 am and ready to head to Loudi on our second train
ride. The morning was nice and “cool”,
kind of quiet too with not many people outside yet. Well, they all must be at the train
station. The place was crazy busy! Good thing we arrived early because it took
awhile to get through security. The gal
looking at tickets couldn’t process ours and had to pass us over to the next
lane. That meant we had to move. Then they pulled my bag because of hairspray. The gal totally ransacked the entire bag, I
think she was curious more than anything.
It irritated me though and I’m feeling a little anxious already. Breathe!!
As the people push and shove to get through, Nat and I manage to get do
the same, standing still means getting jostled around even trampled.
Our guide explained the process really well and what we
needed to do each step. We have “red”
tickets which means we have to go through the line with a ticket agent. This actually moved quite well and we made it
down to our train. This time the cars
were identified on the outside and we easily found our seats. We’re in the front of the car this time which
gave Kyle lots of leg room and we had no one standing around us. Our speed was 94 kph or something like 184
mph. FAST! We find our stop and are able to get off in
time, finding our guide was easy too. As
we leave the train station, the heat & humidity hits us like a wall, much
worse here than it was in Guiyang.
We get to our hotel and realize that not only are we the
only foreigners in the entire city but we’re on the outskirts of town, somewhat
rural and won’t be able to walk around to explore. For a small town, Loudi has about 3 million
people but they are spread among a large area.
The city itself isn’t that big and has a very laid-back feel about
it. One of our hotel rooms has a view of
the Lian River, the other of the stadiums across the street. Our guide is going to take us downtown around
4:00 when It’s a little cooler out. In
the meantime, we get some lunch and rest and I’m able to get online to update
our blog.
Lunch was another experience. Our guide told us there was a restaurant
onsite and we could eat there. So, we
check it out. We must have arrived right
at closing time as they were cleaning up.
We said no worries and went to leave, but the young waitresses insisted
we stay. They bring us the menu, of
course we can’t read it, and start talking a mile a minute. We smile and try to say we don’t
understand. One of them begins to
translate via her smart phone. Suddenly
our table is surrounded by 8 girls, most of whom are giggling and pointing to
Kyle & I taking pictures. As they
leave we continue to try to find something to eat. The translations of some of the dishes are quite
amusing…. One translated as “nothing at all” another as “removing the inside
skin of the egg”. Several other staff
came out to see us and try to help. We
finally got one to understand we only wanted two dishes of fried rice with
egg. Only two? They seemed astonished but we really don’t
eat much with all the heat and exercise.
What is served to us are two huge bowls piled high with fried rice with
egg. And, its delicious. We’re able to eat 1 ½ bowls and we drank two
pots of tea. We also gave the waitresses
a good chuckle and they have stories to tell now too.
Four o’clock and we head into the city center. We had to take 2 taxis as there are 5 of us
and so Megan goes with the guide. That
made me nervous! We all meet back up in
the city center and begin our walk. The
city seems much more open than Guiyang.
The streets are wider and the buildings sit back further, it doesn’t
seem to hover over you. Our guide told
us that the government paid a billion dollars to redo the main streets and bury
the electrical wires. Oh, right, we don’t
see any of the tangled messes we found in other cities.
The main shopping area reminds me of 8th Street
in Holland. It’s mainly pedestrian with
clothing shops and several bronze statues.
They might have a different type of snowmelt thought, it’s the heat and
humidity. 😊 Not
much is happening, there are a few groups of people playing cards but for the
most part it’s not very busy (for Chinese standards). We find one of the underground malls and a
Chinese “dollarstore” with some local items.
We stop by the Hypermart for some groceries and candy for the kids at
the orphanage. Next stop was our daily
bing-chi-ling (ice cream) from KFC. Our
guide was telling us that KFC is more popular than McDonalds because they offer
specific Chinese spices and foods. (We
did see a burger adverstized at McD’s that featured some sort of sausage links
on it too – not sure if that’s new across the globe or just a local Chinese
sandwich. We opted not to try it.)
Once back at our hotel we had our noodles and watched a
couple of boats on the river. The end of
another great day of our China journey!
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