So, it’s been a few days, and I’ve run off with a pretty Chinese girl, a Singaporean man who fancies the pants of her, and an old(er) American woman, to the sticks.
We bought our thermals at the market the day before we left Harbin, apart from the American who couldn’t find anything she liked, (plans on borrowing the Chinese girl’s). Off to the Chinese girl’s hometown to muck about for a few days before going to Manzhouli.
It’s cold, but I’m only wearing thinner thermal pants so far; I’ve got a right snow suit for the north.
We left on Chinese National Day, Oct 1st, and got stuck on the “express” way for about 3 hours in a stationary (literally) traffic jam, to let traffic flow the other way past the roadworks.
We got here, and walked about town, checked into a 1pound hotel, which is quite nice, and went the public baths and for dinner. The public baths were an experience, I’ve never had so many naked men talking to me. Unfortunately the bath water only gets changed once a day, and the sauna was broken so I only had a shower, but I had heated glasses put on my back to give me black marks and do something acupunctury.
Yesterday we went to a local tourist forest, with a mountain (hill) in it, and climbed to the peak. It was nice, got some good views, cos I went round the barriers to stop you going up to the top of the rocks.
We had Korean food, and the water was broken at our (different town) 2 pound 50 hotel, so we went to the public baths. The water in the bath at least looked clean there, and although it was an establishment that offers “American massage” (we asked the local girl and she got embarrassed) we ended up sleeping in the lounge room all night for 50p.
Today we went to the real sticks; a town of maybe a few thousand, where everybody grows their own and squats in a wooden hut out the back onto the ground under the slats, and had lunch for the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival, Christmas if you like.
We then went up another mountain (hill).
Got to go times running out
Try Googling
Where I was in Harbin
Harbin 天伦时尚酒店
Where we were yesterday
黑龙江省伊春市铁力市
Where we’re staying tonight
双丰林业局保林河招待所
Where we went for lunch
黑龙江省哈尔滨市市区 保林河林场
