Damn, the Language Barrier Finally Caught Up
Well, we’ve been having fun traveling around and making fools of ourselves trying to speak Mandarin but people have been able to help for the most part. Today, however, I had the worst day in China, I think. All I wanted to do was to cash some traveler’s cheques but that wasn’t going to happen.
First, I asked the guy at the hostel where the bank was (he spoke english) and I headed off to the bank. However, this was the Industrial and Construction Bank of China… they don’t do traveler’s cheques. Sooo, they told me to go to the Agricultural Bank of China which was just across the street… they don’t do traveller’s cheques. So, they told me to go to the Bank of China… which was apparently just down the street. Of course, when I step out onto the street, it starts raining! So I walk in the rain for like 10 minutes… no bank.
I did, however, find a post office, which I needed as well. I bought the stamps that I needed as well as a book of postcards. And for some reason, the lady wouldn’t let me leave without her putting all the stamps on the postcards in the book… I tried to tell her not to do it because she was sticking them in all wonky and the stamps were super wet but she was so insistant that she put them in that I thought maybe it was a rule? Annnyyyway, I found out later when i got back that all the postcards were stuck together and I wasted all that money… damn China. I was able to salvage one of them… but that was it.
Back onto the rainy road… I decided to go back to the hostel to ask where the Bank of China was… he drew me a little map and I hit the rainy streets again. I walked and walked and walked… found another Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and another Agricultural Bank of China but no Bank of China! Grrr… so what do I do? I got them to write “Bank of China” in chinese on a piece of paper and I hailed for a little bike rickshaw… I must admit, I was pretty excited to be riding in a bike rickshaw… so I was off to the Bank of China, FINALLY! Man, was I embarrased when my bike driver literally crossed the road and parked… yeah, the Bank of China was right around the corner… just a little hidden. What I don’t understand is why the driver didn’t just point me in the right direction! I had to pay 1rmb for him to drive me across the road! haha… it was pretty funny though. I caught him laughing when we stopped. Too bad this Bank of China doesn’t do traveler’s cheques either…. sigh… so after all that, I still have no money for tomorrow.
Oh well, after all that frustration, I just had to get back to what I knew…. that’s eggs and tomatoes cooked chinese style with some rice. Good old staple food. I hope we manage to get around easier in the next few days. We catch a bus to the front gate of Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) tomorrow at 6:30am and we hope to make it to the top in one day and just stay at the top for the night before coming back down the next day. So, there probably won’t be a post between now and a couple days from now. I’m sure you’re all so disappointed…heh heh… hello? is anyone still here? Mom? Awww… damn…
Tags: China
cheng.ev
April 4th, 2007 at 1:30 am
you should have packed an umbrella haha