10:08 - Huangshan, China

Early on yesterday I knew that whatever happened, it would be a nightmarish sort of day. You know, the kind that would help explain why it is that something like 85% of Americans don't even have a passport. So in a moment of morbid curiosity, I decided to time the amount of time spent actually travelling, hence the title. However, truth be told, the actual amount between walking out of one hotel and into another was in the neighborhood of 14 hours and change.

The day started out on a crappy note when we missed the first bus. It was a nine-hour trip, but that was scratched almost immediately. Oh yeahh, time to 'fess up. As I started to blog about the China leg of this trip, I wrote everything in the first person as if I was doing this solo. Actually, my pal Chao from last year's China trip joined me from the get-go and we've been going through all the China-stuff as a team. I guess I had hoped to make it appear as if I could handle China on my own. The fact is, for the overwhelming most part, I can't see how a non-Chinese speaking person (even one with my considerable experience) could possibly get around this country and in particular on a day like yesterday when things didn't exactly go as planned. Without Chao in tow, I'd be in the middle of a rice paddy right now trying to figure out how to contact my embassy. So, yeahh, he's been around. He gets to practice his English and I get a little peace of mind and after four weeks of going solo, it's nice to have a friend around.

So, yes, we missed the bus and ended up having to take another bus to a different city (Jiujiang) where we would then (in theory) catch another bus to here. First off, the 'bus' was a basically a 15-passenger van, but I admit that we were pretty comfortable in there. Of course upon arriving, we were told that there was no bus that day. So we hopped in a taxi and went to the train station to see what our options were there. They basically were non-existent, but we were told that there was a bus that went to (yet) another city (Jing Dezheng) that would allow us to take the train that we wanted. So, back into another taxi to the bus station. This time the bus was an actual bus that happened to be driven by my dad! Well, not really, but he might as well have been. I mean that in the nicest way possible. Honestly, for as slowly as he drove and on a road that was undergoing construction, I could've built a house of cards on my lap and not had it collapse. I guess all my venom about the drivers here must have been read by the censors and forwarded to someone in high places here.

Well, the best part was coming up...I typically prefer trains to bus travel for any number of reasons, but I have to say that after the four hours-plus yesterday on the last big leg of the trip, I can think of a dozen very unpleasant things I'd rather do before I get back on a Chinese train. I'd rather be dodging mopeds in Saigon or sitting in a sadistic dentist's chair, for example. How to describe it? In a word, a circus. I think we were in the car from hell, though Chao swears that the others were worse. The people in there reminded me of what you might see on a typical visit to the DMV. Too harsh? Perhaps. After all, at the DMV, people don't spit on the floor and throw their uneaten food there either. Not even at the one in Santa Ana! Sorry. The sad irony was that the car we were in was maintained by a saint of a woman in a way I have NEVER seen on any train anywhere. Of course, if the passengers in it didn't treat it the way a baby treats a diaper, she wouldn't have had so much to do. Anyway, she more than earned her yuan. Oh and the noise. I cannot begin to describe what that was like. Between all the yelling, screaming into cell phones and the loud radio program piped in to the whole car, my iPod finally met it's match. When I went to turn it on, a message appeared on the screen saying "Yeahh, right!" Actually, despite my killer headphones and the poor thing at full blast, I was only able to escape as far as purgatory. And just to put the cherry on the sundae, the last scene was the best. Some loud, shirtless pile of #!*%# tried to forcibly open the bathroom with a knife which the woman had locked as the train was arriving to the station. He yelled at her to open it, kicked it very hard twice and finally, she relented. I felt so bad for her. To think that she has to deal with this kind of crap day in and day out, depressed the heck out me.

So finally got to Tunxi and hopped in a taxi for a 45 minute ride to Huangshan. The road we took to get here was honestly, the nicest road in all China. The tunnels we went through looked brand new. There were hardly any cars on the road (it was approaching 11:00) which allowed our driver a chance to really let it all out! It was actually pleasurable getting to the hotel. The hotel is the nicest one I've been in on the whole trip and after yesterday, a welcomed relief!

Here, by the way, is one of the more picturesque spots in the country. Tomorrow we will spend around 10 hours hiking and taking it all in. Today we got our feet wet (literally) at a series of waterfalls that required some trekking. It was beautiful and got us kind of fired up for tomorrow. The food here in Anhui province is very nice but I stayed away from the rat and dog entrees. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I might not have believed it.

Hope to blog after the hike or at the latest, upon arriving in Shanghai for the last three nights of this adventure. Stay tuned...

The Oddysey - Can Tho, Vietnam

Yes, more whining is surely to follow so get ready...It involves a tuk-tuk, 2 motos, 2 buses and a taxi.

Left my hotel in Kampot this morning at 8:30 and arrived at the new one in Can Tho, Vietnam at 5:00 pm. The hotel is only $15/night, but for once, I'm getting what I paid for. What a dump. Were it not already paid for and the fact that no one there seems to know any English other than 'passport', I'd try to get my money back and go elsewhere. Oh well, live and learn.

The tuk-tuk took basically about 2 hours to get to Vietnam. Took the same road to Kep initially and then veered off on yet another red dirt road which wasn't in all that bad a shape at first given the rains the past couple of days. Again, mile after mile of amazing scenery...folks planting rice, that sort of thing. The road was basically OK except for the last kilometer. It's as if the Cambodian government figured, whoever is on this road is leaving anyway...why bother to do anything to maintain it even a little. I truly regret that I did not film that stretch.

At the border the tuk-tuk guy inofrmed me that the town where the bus is caught wasnot walking distance. Indeed, it was like 10km away. Lucky for me, his buddy would take me on his moto for $5. "But what about my heavy suitcase?" I wondered. No problem. Sure enough, the driver positioned it bewteen his legs and with me on the back, off we went. The first thing I noticed upon crossing the border was the asphalt. As in, the fact that it existed. Good start.

Arrive at the bus station (really, it was a small section of a small parking lot) and rode right up to this guy's buddy. Wow! Such luck! He tells me that the bus for Can Tho left for the day, but for $5, he can take me to the next town (20 km. away) to catch another bus. Hmm. What choice do I have? There is no signage anywhere as to indicate a schedule. There is nothing in English anywhere either. So be it. Off we go...

At about 11:45, we stop at an ATM so I can get some dong. OK, feel free to make all the sophomoric jokes you want at this point. But $1 buys 17,000 dong! Crazy. I only got $100 worth or so for the moment. We leave the main road and go on this very bumpy dirt and stone road into a residential zone, though not at all pleasant. So now I am thinking that I am about to be robbed. Really. We pull up in front of this house where about 6 men are hanging out shooting the bull. I have picked out the smallest one thinking that if need be, he can be the one I thump. I swear, this is going through my mind. The moto driver speaks next to no English. I tell him that this is NOT a bus station. He tells me to sit. Like hell. He says in 15 minutes a big bus will appear. I can't imagine a Greyhound thing rumbling down this little country road, basically. But sure enough, here comes a bus. Big? Hardly, but it IS a bus. I am told it will take 5 hours. Lovely. I pick a seat in the back. There is next to no one aboard. I start out on yet another bumpy 2-lane 'highway' andtake in all the new scenery.

Three hours later, we pull over and I am told I need to board a different bus. OK. I get on this much bigger bus and I am stared at as if I had just arrived from the surface of the moon. No one speaks English though this drunk guy smoking cigarettes tries to talk to me in very shaky English. He smelled like Milwaukee and I wasn't up for it. I made the mistake of sitting in a seat of a woman who apparently worked on the bus. She made it clear that I was not to sit there and gave me a shove as I was moving. Were it not for the fact that I had been in the country for three hours, I think I drop her right there. Two hours later after listening to the driver go no more than 42 seconds without laying on the LOUD horn, we arrived.

I hopped into a taxi and located my dive of a hotel. Too early to say, but Vietnam appears every bit as hectic as Kampot was placid. Things are cheap, however. More on that later. Off to sleep for a very early wake up tomorrow to check out some picturesque floating gardens.

Z