Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

Why yesterday morning I allowed the girl at the hotel in Shantou city to draw me a map to get to the small bus station I’ll never know and as to why I tried to use it goes beyond my normal behavior!

I followed her map which took me this and that way and turned here and then down there and where did I end up, about a five minute walk from the hotel out the front of the big Lotus Shopping Center that I have passed each day (and the exact same place where I should have got off upon arriving in Shantou). So if anyone finds themselves in Shantou city and wishes to go to Chaozhou city just go to the front of the Lotus shopping center and when facing the shopping center you’ll find several tiny bus stations to the left and the Chaozhou bus station is just across from the entrance to the underground car park.

I tell you what, that map!

After half an hour I knew the map she drew me was useless and I should have known better as the same girl showed me which way to hold the map (same as pointing which way I guess) to get to the river on my first night and had me walking in the complete wrong direction and it wasn’t until I began comparing the Chinese characters on the street signs that I figured that one out.

Sheez I’m glad we got that out of the way!

The journey between both cities was very uneventful as I was all excited about what I had read in the LP about passing several fortified Hakka villages chock-a-block full of traditional houses and ancient temples but all I got was a crappy bumpy road that pretty much passed through industrial areas and fish farms the entire way. What I don’t understand is that after questioning the bus driver with the help of a student he said that the buses between both cities have always taken this crappy bumpy road so I don’t know what planet or website the LP writer was on at the time of writing as it seems there never has been a bus route with fortified Hakka villages chock-a-block with traditional houses and ancient temples to be seen as Hakka Villages are nearly always built in mountain areas due to the fact that they are a FORTIFIED VILLAGE. The Hakka People were driven from the north a long time ago which is why they tended to built their villages in the mountains in the first place.

Seriously sometimes I really do wonder about the LP writers.

Fortified Hakka villages chock-a-block with traditional houses and ancient temples 1 - 2006
Fortified Hakka villages chock-a-block with traditional houses and ancient temples 2 - 2006

Sorry I’m having a bit of a negative LP week as I purchased the small and supposedly readable 'The Perfect Day’ book in Xian which is ‘a perfect day in one hundred cities around the world’ each written by a different author. What I actually got to read was the same thing for nearly every city and that each writer ‘refulled’ on coffee and then they ‘Bee Lined’ it to some ‘Bohemian’ this and that café, eatery or museum.

I don’t understand why they all have to refuel, bee line it and go to a bohemian thing.
Why can’t some have a quiet coffee and others sip or slurp or have a caffeine fix?
Why can’t some make their way to and others bloody woddle?
And why is everything now freakin bohemian?

Anyhow after my bus beelined me from Shantou to Chaozhou I grabbed a hotel in a bohemian part of town and then refulled on a much needed caffine fix and then once again beelined it towards the Han River and spent the remaining part of the afternoon and into the evening darting here and there amongst the colonial and Chinese architecture. As for today, I'll add all the information about what I’ve seen in the next blog as the point to this entry has now changed.

It is now all about carpet and vacuum cleaners and seriously what I just found is almost as exciting as visiting a fortified Hakka village chock-a-block full of traditional houses and ancient temples!

After five years I honestly believe I have found the hotel with the only vacuum cleaner in all of China and yes, I have the one photo to prove it. Not once during all my time here have I either seen nor heard a vacuum cleaner. I have witnessed time and time again hotel staff sweeping the carpet and I have time and time again stamped my foot on a hotel floor that has carpet and sneezed for the next hour but in this little hotel in Chaozhou City I have found proof that there is actually one vacuum cleaner in this entire country.

If you look at the photo you will see the proof.
Or being China, it could be a scam!

Maybe a child was playing in the corner of my room on the carpet with a ruler prior to me arriving or maybe just maybe this really is the one hotel and the one city that does actually have a vacuum cleaner. I will allow you to make your own decision from studying the photographic evidence.

I hope you enjoyed this silly little blog entry from a day in the life of me and always remember what Agent Fox Molder was trying to tell us for an entire decade;  The truth is out there, but now its also in the carpet. I might not be bohemian nor do I refuel or beeline it but usually I wing it, wrong it, right it and hope for the best and somehow it always works out in the end.

Beers N Noodles toya…..shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was by Infected Mushroom
The album was ‘The Gathering’
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