Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,
 
Ohhh Mate!
Tired, so tired.
The noise here last night was a right pain in the butt.
High heels climbing the stairs then walking along the hallway.
Knock Knock Knock on some door.
She repeats 'Au Mor' several times.
He yells something back.
She says something in return.
They begin debating over money.
He or she accepts and she enters the room to leave a few minutes later (is that normal in China?).
If she or he doesn't accept more high heels along the hallway to the next door.
Then the heels go back down the stairs and the next set of heels climb the stairs to try their luck!
 
Finally it all stopped and I could turn my TV off and grab a few hours sleep.
Now that's the reason why such a clean hotel is so cheap!
 
I left around mid morning and headed down to the bus station and found out I had to head to the other bus station which was the 'real long distance' bus station. The one I arrived in was the 'short' long distance bus station. Got that? Neither did I when the young guy behind me tried to explain it to me. I said, oh so this is the 'bus station' and that's the 'long distance' bus station. No he said, down there is the 'local' bus station, this is the 'short' long distance bus station and the one you need to go to is the 'long' distance bus station.
 
Um?
 
So I said, so the one down there is the 'local' bus station, this one is the 'short' distance bus station and that one is the 'long' distance bus station. No he said, this one is the 'short' long distance bus station. For some reason there HAD to be a 'long' in there somewhere.
 
OK, moving right along!
 
My friend walked me out and told the cab driver where to take me and after a big thanks I was on my way across town. WOW! Ningbo really is a big city and strangely the cab only cost 5 Yuan. How could a cab ride that far only cost 5 Yuan. In Shanghai or Hangzhou it would have cost at least 30 Yuan.
 
And why the hell build a new bus station half way to Shanghai.
I can't believe they built a bus station so far out of town.
 
My ticket to Wenzhou cost me 117 Yuan in the good book it said that it takes around six hours but my journey took only three and a half on a beautiful super bus. As we were approaching Wenzhou I actually wanted to stay on the bus for a few more hours. The journey was a very beautiful one and I sat looking out the window for most of it. As we drove south the scenery began to change little by little. We passed by many mountains with little villages below but the most beautiful were the little river villages that could be seen out side of each city we passed.
 
Even the cities looked beautiful as we sped along.
They were only small and usually built on both sides of a river.
 
When we arrived at Wenzhou the lady next to me totally confused me. I asked her if this was Wenzhou and she told me no and as we arrived at the bus station everyone began getting up including her. I then asked again and she said yes.   She was actually from Wenzhou but it seemed that we weren't in Wenzhou until we arrived at the bus station...OK! I then asked if we were at the west bus station (written in Chinese) and she said yes. Cool I thought, I'll just grab a hotel around here and make my way anywhere on foot. I left the station and headed out front and grabbed a Tuk Tuk driver and we began the Cheap Hotel Boogie. We found one just up the road and it was beautiful! Even had a hair dryer in the bathroom. It took a bit of bargaining but in the end I won.
 
Hey, why do hotels have phones in the bathroom?
Seriously, why do they? I can't seem to figure it out.
Why would anyone answer the phone whilst they are on the toilet?
I honestly don't understand why there is a phone in there when there is another a few meters away next to the bed.
 
So anyway, I asked the desk girl if she had a map, which she did. I then asked her where the west bus station was and she pointed to it. Cool.   I then asked where we were and she moved her hand way up the page and pointed to a big round-a-bout. No No I said and pointed to the west bus station and she said No No and pointed way up the page.
 
BUGGER!
The lady on the bus really was either terribly confused or totally insane!
I would like to suggest that maybe she couldn't read Chinese but she was reading a Chinese newspaper. MMMmmm, maybe she hates Foreigners!
BUGGER!
 
So, the bus station I arrived at was the Big City Bus Station and I was located right in the freaking middle of no-where.
BUGGER!
 
I spent the evening walking around what seemed to be expensive apartment and car city. There were so many apartment complexes. It was like walking around Queensland's 'Gold Coast'. Maybe everyone in China moves to Wenzhou to retire. I lost count or interest in counting the amount of Lexus cars that passed me. Seriously, I remember counting over thirteen. Maybe it was the same one and the driver liked Foreigners, or maybe it was the lady from the bus driving past giggling her butt off each time.
 
After a few hours I found a little noodle eatery and dropped in for a noodle soup and a bamboo tray full of dumplings. The dumplings were awesome but the noodles were pretty much 'Ma Ma Hoo Hoo'. That's a serious Chinese word. It means 'Just So So'. It also means 'Horse Horse Tiger Tiger' so how it got to mean 'Just So So' is beyond me.
 
I love it.
It's my favourite Chinese word.
 
After dinner I walked some more and then found a Net Bar and hung out there in the air conditioning for a few hours. When my money ran out my computer shut down and I lost a huge email I was working on. I hate that! And of course I hadn't 'saved it as a draft' for sometime. Why didn't it warn me? There is always a warning that comes up in Chinese. I then nudge the person next to me who then rubs their thumb and fingers together to tell me I need to put some more money on.
 
That was enough for me!
I was out of there and off to find a beer and some bbq.
 
Beers N Noodles toya....shane
__________________________________________ 
The soundtrack to this entry was Australia's 'You Am I'
The album was the awesome 'Hi-Fi Way'