through the looking glass

even after a day of rest 6am isn’t any fun. we were the only two on the large bus for a while, picking up more as we meandered through the twisties. this ride marks the first cringe of the trip, as we swerved to avoid a water buffalo. long way down. the recent rains slowed the three hour trip into more than four, arriving at 11:20. I note this because the only bus for huaihua, hunan left at 11. or so said the clerk. we were to find out the next day that muddy roads and traffic tended to slow things down for it as well, and the one we took the next day didn’t leave till after one. none the less, the overnight stop allowed for a much needed shower and some laundry, though I have to wonder what the owners of the starred hotel we got for 100 would have thought about the myriad of laundry we’d cleaned in the marble sink and hung to dry along the walls near the central air vents.

for a growing city there wasn’t much there. no luck finding a pair of running pants on an evening walk (I was at this point splattered in mud from the knees down and had not brought a second pair, figuring I could find some on the way if I needed to. I didn’t really need to, but they would have been nice.) though hu did manage to find some lovely tea and the food was good, and clean. watched the travel channel, brushed away some mud. warmed up. the hot water ran freely, but the next morning we ran out of cold, rendering the toilet absolutely useless.

as noted, the eleven oclock bus arrived at one and we got on it. the scenery of hunan passed me by without much impression, mao had written many a poem praising our final destination of phoenix town (iffy recomendation at best in my book) but not a word about the trip there; for once I can’t disagree with him. the architecture was still dong for a long time, but the hills lost their lush green and flattened out, spread out. new growth forests replaced the old. arrived at 6:30 to a decently large city. we learned that there might be one more bus to fenghuang that night if enough people were interested, they’d wait till the 8pm train arrived and see. we climbed aboard to wait out of the rather bitter cold. 9pm, the last couple tucked in back next to us, boy on girl’s lap, we departed. estimated arrival 11pm. actual arrival, 1:45am. traffic.

traffic on small roads in china is defined as anything blocking even a part of the road. as it is when two busses meet in opposite directions the one on the inside of the mountain slows down or stops and the one on the outside negotiates slowly by, often almost kissing mirrors. anything that narrows this space renders the road unusable by two vehicles at the same time. in tonight’s case it was an accident. two trucks misjudged it seemed, and there aren’t exactly a plethora of tow trucks running about, so five hours after the accident everyone was still passing one side at a time. but I can now fold myself into quite a small little bundle, even in three layers of clothing, so I curled up and took a rather lovely nap.

so it’s 2am and we’re walking towards the old section of town and a woman walking ahead of us with a little red bag of groceries turns to us and asks if we’re looking for a place to stay. she happens to own one. we follow her through a covered bridge (which I dubbed smelly bridge for what I’m sure are obvious reasons), down a tight staircase to the riverside, then just when I smile with delight at the warm inviting lights up ahead she turns down a dark alley away from the water.