Distributed 4 October 1997 Plans change! That's the one rule of Ron's traveling. He called this morning (Saturday evening 4 Oct China time), still in Zhaoqing, the town he had gone to by boat from Hong Kong, leaving Hong Kong on Sunday 28 Sept. He plans to leave tomorrow, Sunday, for Hainan Island, a large island off the coast of China southwest of Hong Kong and Macao. He'll be traveling with a Li (ethnic minority group) folk dance group he met; they are from Tonzha, a hill town on Hainan. My map has a town called Tongshi, which I think must be the same town, different transliteration of the Chinese.
He said he has waffled so much about whether to do this or not that he has actually bought two different bus tickets and then cashed them in again. But now he has decided to do it. He says they are really nice people, and very kind (in fact, he says he has been overwhelmed by kindness everywhere). Communication is not easy, since I gather they speak almost no English and he speaks no Chinese. He said he has gotten some better dictionaries and that has helped a lot.
He says he is still not eating well, but is getting better at it: the menu section in the Lonely Planet Guide is simply not adequate!
When he arrived in Zhaoqing (I forgot to ask when that was), the first cheap hotel he tried was under construction, and the second was full. The second hotel sent him by car to a third hotel, which turned out to be a fancy hotel with rooms at around $75, definitely out of our travel budget range. He was on his way to the bus station to leave the town when he found another small fairly inexpensive ($19) hotel where he is staying. Then the holidays came (he didn't know they were coming or what they were), and the price of his room doubled and the banks were all closed for 4 days. All in all, he said, events had conspired to keep him in Zhaoqing longer than he planned.
He has talked to a number of travelers, and decided that he won't be able to do the Three Gorges part of the trip after returning from Vietnam. Apparently the boat trip costs $600, and the boats are booked solid, since tours end in mid-November, and huge numbers of people want to see the gorges before they are flooded.
He had sent 2 email messages from Hong Kong, written on Jeff's computer at home, then transferred to his office for sending. I didn't get either one, and have sent email to Jeff to see if by any chance he still has them on his home computer and can try sending them again. There is at least one letter on the way also.
He said everyone wants to know why I didn't want to come. I asked him if I would have liked the trip so far, and he thought a moment and said, "Probably not!"
Regards to all from the happy stay-at-home,
Ellen
16 October This letter, written in Zhaoqing on Tuesday 30 Sept, arrived in Afton on Wednesday 15 Oct. Ron had originally planned to stay in Zhaoqing a very short time, perhaps just overnight on the way to Yanqshuo. From the phone call 10 days ago, I know he stayed in Zhaoqing until Sunday 5 October.
9/30/97 1:30 pm, Zhaoqing, Guangdong If you find a copy of the Lonely Planet Guide p. 648, I am sitting on the little piece of land sticking into the Zhongxin Lake just above 13 (Huaqiao Hotel). After passing through about 3 parts of the restaurant, I am on the point looking north.
Yesterday I rode all over town, including around all of the lakes and over the incredible bridge to the other side. The most incredible bike facility I have ever seen. It is a circle, like a parking deck that goes up 5 levels to reach the bridge.
Why am I still here! Well... There is this musical group -- dancers mostly -- from Tongzha on Hainan Island, mostly, I think, in their late teens. I have just finished having lunch with most of the guys and last night I took two of the girls to the disco very close to my hotel, which is part of the restaurant operation where I am now sitting. After they went back to their hotel I went for a night bike ride and was invited to eat with a group (3 of the men and 1 woman worked for Bank of China) in the open-air restaurant near a major traffic circle, a late night dining area. They were having hot-pot and I prefer not to think about what I may have been eating. This morning around 9:30 they called to take me to breakfast. The head guy is really nice and I like him; his wife came to my hotel to get me and took me across the street to what last night was a very expensive looking hotel with a major karaoke bar, the place I have avoided. My host and the other couple from the bank were there and the food was dim sum style, and they made me choose first, some steamed dumplings which had who knows what in the center. They chose the other dishes, including chicken feet, cow stomach [does he mean tripe?], beef balls. I managed to avoid the two and enjoyed the others. I hope I don't have to eat again for a while.
When I arrived there was a light rain, and I avoided the rush of taxi drivers and just pulled my suitcase (now with cart wheels and axle attached) and went to the cheapest hotel, which was closed for renovation, and the other cheap one across the street was full. Some others reached by phone said they were 2nd class and couldn't take foreigners. Finally a man put my suitcase in his van and took me to a very fancy hotel like a Hilton or Regency. They wanted around $50/night. So I finally gave up and decided to get a bus out. On the way to the bus station I saw a small building across the street with the name Bi Hu Hotel, so I gave it a try and got a room for a little over $21. Then I found this restaurant where I am sitting now. The menu was, of course, unreadable, so I went back and got the Lonely Planet Guide, which I used to order dinner. A woman was behind me, and I could hear her helping the waitress with the English. Finally the waitress got me to turn around and look at what she was eating to see if I wanted the same. I didn't. This lady looked 20, was 30, and said she was the singer at the disco. So far, from what I observed, she didn't sing, but they put her up in what I would call the bird cage and she danced to the disco beat. In the States maybe she would be the topless go- go dancer, but here they are much more modest. Near the end of the evening this young guy joined me. He was from Canton, and I think he said he was a disco DJ training the one here. They invited me -- the 3 DJs, one with a date who was a real estate agent from Canton, but not the dancer, who must have surely collapsed into bed from sheer exhaustion. I went with them but generally declined eating.
So here I am, eating pig's feet with bankers and taking 17-year old dancers to disco.
Tomorrow my hotel bill will double (almost, well maybe $35) because of China's 48th birthday (I thought China was thousands of years old, but they say only 48). My experience tells me never to travel on holidays, and this one is at least 2 days long. So...what will I do? Stay tuned. I will decide tomorrow -- maybe. The Lonely Planet says "Nowadays, tour groups from Hong Kong often overnight here, but individual travelers rarely visit." Sounds like Morelia Mexico where the book said there is nothing to see or do, and I stayed for 11 days.
The first 3 hours off the boat were my "China shock" but now I have my bearings. While I usually cannot understand a word they say, the people are incredibly friendly and helpful, and my new shiny pennies are going fast. Walking my suitcase from the boat down quaint streets reminded me of Saigon in '92.
24 October 1997 This letter was postmarked 7 October and received 23 October. Ron made his own aerogramme (those air letters that are one sheet of paper you fold and seal and it becomes its own envelope) from an envelope, which explains why I had such a hard time figuring out how to open it without destroying what was written on the inside. From later phone call and email communications, we know he stayed with the folk dance group until 17 October, travelling with them to Chengzhou.
Ellen
7 October 1997 I think this is Tue Oct 7, but I am not sure. Something made my watch lose all of its settings.
At the moment I am at the main post office in downtown Zhongshan, not one of the places I would have picked to visit on my own -- or have any reason to return to. Somewhere just north of Macao in Guangdong province. We arrived here yesterday from a smaller town (at least I think it was smaller; it could have been Foshan, but I think another town just south) where the group performed at the big movie theater in town. There was a big display of pictures of their different acts, some of which were quite different from the acts I saw in Zhaoqing. Much more cabaret-like, with far less material in their costumes, and a couple of acts that were quite sexy and dramatic. Last night and I believe tonight they don't have a show, but then will perform for a week or more. I will probably stay for a couple of shows and then leave for Yangshou.
We are staying in a town outside of Zhongshan, which I don't know in Chinese characters. It seems they go no where, just hang around in air conditioned rooms watching TV. When we arrived there were two rooms for them, one for 9 guys and the other for 9 women. The communication got very difficult to understand, with several different interpretations, but I ended up renting my own room for about $24 and 2 of the guys moved in with me, uninvited but welcomed.
Today I tried to find post cards and aerogrammes, but no luck, so I made this from an envelope they kept trying to sell me. The Lonely Planet book said you could send them [aerogrammes] from anywhere in China -- but didn't say you had to bring them with you. The last one I bought was the only one they had. Today at the smaller town I asked at the post office and they wrote on a piece of paper where to go to buy them, and then said I could get there by bus #1. What a surprise to learn (by experience on the bus) that it was not in Zhongshan, but 1/2 hour away.
The heat is unbearable, and the silk shirts didn't work well during the hot day -- they get soaked in 5 minutes. So I finally found a t-shirt with a 1996 Olympic USA logo with Atlanta on it. Seems ok and keeps me drier for a while.
For meals before getting here, we ate in a group. Now they get box lunches -- not so good -- and I am trying to fend for myself more. What an experience. Be glad you aren't with me. I would have been like the time I took Charlie up the mountain.
[Note from Ellen: Several years ago Ron persuaded our friend Charlie to go on a bike expedition with him to find an old road that used to go over a nearby mountain ridge between one hollow and another. We knew the road had been heavily damaged in Hurrican Camille in 1969, and unused as a road since then, but it still shows up on topo maps as a jeep road. The expedition took hours, they found no trace of the road, and ended up blazing a trail and carrying their bikes over the mountain through thickets of blackberries. At some point in the lengthy process, Charlie came down with the flu, with chills and fever. Charlie swore that he was never again going on a bike expedition with Ron unless I came along, because he was sure Ron wouldn't make me do something like that -- or that I would refuse!]
Back to Fall 1997 index page.
cfw.com
Questions? Send email to Ellen, ebouton 
operamail.com
While we're traveling, reach us at bikepacker
Last updated: 22 May 2002