{"id":3975,"date":"2012-09-10T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theprofessionalhobo.com\/?p=3975"},"modified":"2024-06-19T07:25:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T11:25:22","slug":"a-week-in-the-life-of-claire-and-iain-in-laos-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theprofessionalhobo.com\/a-week-in-the-life-of-claire-and-iain-in-laos-and-china\/","title":{"rendered":"A Week-In-the-Life of Old World Wandering in Laos and China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claire van den Heever and Iain Manley are a South African couple who, after eight years of traveling and living abroad, are now slowly making their way home, across Asia and down Africa’s east coast to Cape Town. They are both published authors and their travels across Europe, Asia, and Africa are documented at their blog<\/a> Old World Wandering. Please enjoy this week-in-the-life of Claire and Iain traveling from Laos to China! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post was originally published in 2012. It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1: Sunday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

5am <\/strong>\u2013 Neither Iain nor I have slept. Blurry eyed, I attach my freelance work for the month to an email and click \u2018Send\u2019. Iain is responding to someone on Twitter \u2013 still wide awake in the US \u2013 who\u2019s just backed our Kickstarter campaign. We rush to our room and start packing. After three months in Luang Prabang, we\u2019re leaving for China \u2013 in an hour. I\u2019m shoving things into my bag, throwing others away, and wiping dust off a pile of books that we never did swap at the book exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6am<\/strong> \u2013 The tuktuk<\/em>\u2019s here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:05am <\/strong>\u2013 Throw everything into the tuktuk<\/em>. Noi, the owner of our guesthouse, is calling her husband: \u201cBoon Ping! Boon Ping!\u201d I say not to wake him and give her a hug. \u201cSee you next year,\u201d she says. \u201cI hope so,\u201d I reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:10am <\/strong>\u2013 The tuktuk<\/em> won\u2019t start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:15am<\/strong> \u2013 Another tuktuk<\/em> arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:25am <\/strong>\u2013 The driver stops outside a guesthouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:35am <\/strong>\u2013 A man emerges in a Beer Lao vest and sunglasses. \u201cThe bus only leaves at 7:30,\u201d he groans, adjusting his sunglasses. \u201cI\u2019m still totally drunk. Sorry. Very sorry\u2026\u201d
“Have you been to Vang Vieng before?\u201d he asks.
Um, we\u2019re taking a bus to China,\u201d I say.
Oh, China. Nice. Lots of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:45am<\/strong> \u2013 A tourist at the bus station approaches us. \u201cHow much did you pay for this bus?\u201d he asks.
Iain tells him.
Aw, okay. The bus was much <\/em>better in the picture.\u201d
Oh,\u201d I shrug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7am<\/strong> \u2013 We climb aboard and laugh somewhat hysterically at the child-sized bunks. We\u2019re both asleep in minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Claire<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

10am<\/strong> \u2013 The bus makes a toilet stop in a small town. In front of a snack shop, two large monitor lizards share a cage with a furry rodent \u2013 a bamboo rat, says Iain. A dark-skinned Chinese man crouches beside it, smoking a metre-long water pipe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

10:15am <\/strong>\u2013 Back to sleep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1pm <\/strong>\u2013 We pass clusters of rattan homes with satellite dishes, and thatched roofs dotted amongst the brilliant green of rice fields, hills and forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4pm<\/strong> \u2013 Line up for our Lao exit stamps at Boten, the Lao-Chinese border. An enormous golden archway with a stupa <\/em>on top marks the border. The water pipe smoker washes his pipe in a stream before lighting up. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Claire<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

4:20pm <\/strong>\u2013 Drive to the Chinese side. \u201cEverything out!\u201d the driver shouts in Chinese. \u201cDon\u2019t leave anything inside!\u201d We all climb out and put our luggage<\/a> on the ground for inspection. An official asks Iain and I to open our backpacks. He casually prods a few items and sends us on our way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4:30pm <\/strong>\u2013 We\u2019re first in line at immigration. There are none of the questions we\u2019re used to from other Chinese borders: What is your job? Why do you have a Chinese student visa in your passport? Why are you in China now? <\/em>No questions at all, just a slight pause when the official turns to Iain\u2019s Taiwanese visa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5:30pm<\/strong> \u2013 The bus heads north into Yunnan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6pm <\/strong>\u2013 \u201cOne hour for dinner,\u201d the driver shouts in Chinese. Three New Zealanders climb off the bus, looking lost. We eat a dinner of typical ji\u0101ch\u00e1ngc\u00e0i <\/em>(home-style dishes) together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7pm<\/strong> \u2013 We\u2019re driven out of Mengla. There\u2019s nothing to distinguish it from anywhere in China. If the buildings were taller, we could be in our old neighbourhood in Shanghai.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 2: Monday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

5:30am<\/strong> \u2013 I\u2019m woken by shouting: \u201cXi\u00e0ch\u0113! Xi\u00e0ch\u0113!<\/em>\u201d We\u2019re in a parking lot on the outskirts of Kunming. Two women have climbed aboard to sell people onward transport. It\u2019s still dark. The driver shouts above them: \u201cWe\u2019re early, so finish having a proper sleep. Finish sleeping!\u201d I have no desire to hurry into the city centre so early. Neither does Iain. We go back to sleep on our tiny bunks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5:45am <\/strong>\u2013 The women are back on the bus, shouting in Chinese. \u201cYou\u2019re going to miss your flight! What time is your flight?\u201d Men\u2019s half asleep voices reply: \u201cOnly at 10am\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6am<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cYou\u2019re going to miss your flight! My mi\u00e0nb\u0101och\u0113 <\/em>is leaving now!\u201d Somehow, I sleep through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:45am<\/strong> \u2013 The smell of strong cigarettes wakes me. All the passengers, besides Iain, me and the three Kiwis, have left. I find a man with a mi\u00e0nb\u0101och\u0113 <\/em>\u2013 a bread loaf-shaped van \u2013 then wake the others up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7:45am <\/strong>\u2013 The driver drops us near a hostel in the city centre. A hot shower and clean clothes, and I\u2019m revived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

9:30am<\/strong> \u2013 We order an enormous Mexican breakfast at Salvador\u2019s Coffee House. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

11am<\/strong> \u2013 Plug into the internet with a network cable. We\u2019re dying to know what\u2019s been happening with our Kickstarter campaign over the last 30 hours. \u201cTwo new backers,\u201d says Iain, first to load the site. He tries to get onto Twitter, but our VPN isn\u2019t working<\/a>. We move to a nearby caf\u00e9 with WiFi. Twitter and Facebook load. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3:30pm<\/strong> \u2013 We go to a restaurant serving Yunnan cuisine, but the chefs are sitting down to a meal. Come back in an hour, they say. We wander around the neighbouring streets, every inch crammed with shops. Luang Prabang and Kunming feel like they belong in different universes. Neither Iain nor I can remember a road or rail journey between such disparate places; 25 hours on a bus is far longer than we usually travel in one go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4:30pm<\/strong> \u2013 The chefs are ready to feed us. We order fried goats cheese, a kind of flat potato fritter and spicy lotus root salad. When it arrives, we realise we\u2019ve muddled up two Chinese words and ordered deep fried goats cheese instead of the grilled dish we love, but the salad is even better than I remembered. Iain eats virtually the entire pizza-sized potato b\u01d0ng<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Dinner-with-the-owners-of-our-guesthouse,-Boon-Ping-and-Pathoumphone,<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

8:30pm <\/strong>\u2013 I go to bed with a sore throat. Iain whiles away a few hours on the roof with his journal and a beer.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 3: Tuesday<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Stocking-up-on-tea-in-Kunming.-The-bricks-of-tea-to-the-shopowner's-left-were-carried-from-China-into-Tibet-along-the-Tea-Horse-Trail\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

7am <\/strong>\u2013 My alarm goes off. I\u2019d planned to go for a run in the park, but my throat still hurts. Back to sleep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

8am<\/strong> \u2013 Shower, pack, check out. We bump into the Kiwis downstairs. They\u2019re taking our advice and seeing a bit of Yunnan before racing to Beijing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

9am<\/strong> \u2013 After another indulgent meal at Salvador\u2019s, we\u2019re online again \u2013 until the internet dies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11am<\/strong> \u2013 Back to the caf\u00e9 with WiFi. Iain publishes a blog post about our Kickstarter campaign while I catch up with emails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2pm <\/strong>\u2013 Iain rushes off to buy us a new phone; our old one got wet in Luang Prabang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2:45pm <\/strong>\u2013 He\u2019s back, buzzing with adrenalin. We have a new phone with the English software we need and a sim card<\/a> with a countrywide rate. Plus they agreed to throw in a spare battery \u2013 all in less than an hour, in Chinese. So much for being rusty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3:30pm <\/strong>\u2013 Grab our luggage from the hostel and head to the train station. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4pm <\/strong>\u2013 This bus isn\u2019t going to the station, the driver tell us. We scramble to change buses with all our bags. The other passengers look alarmed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5:30pm <\/strong>\u2013 The train leaves exactly on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5:45pm <\/strong>\u2013 An attractive Chinese woman with unusual, delicate bone structure and wide eyes is lying on the bunk opposite. An attendant approaches and asks her for ID, and her child\u2019s name and height. She\u2019s going to Guangzhou, like us. No one else is asked anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6pm<\/strong> \u2013 The dinner trolley arrives. I buy a boxed meal of rice, mushrooms, green vegetables, fried pork on a stick, half a salted egg and a big red jalapeno. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

9:30pm<\/strong> \u2013 A beer would be nice, but the trolley hasn\u2019t reappeared. I go to the buffet car, which is full of black-uniformed policemen. I buy two cans of Guangdong beer from a box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

10pm <\/strong>\u2013 The lights go off and we return to the buffet car, now empty. An attendant says we can\u2019t sit here. I tell him the lights are off in the carriages. He grunts in agreement. Iain is working on his multi-part story of our trip along the Sichuan-Tibet highway<\/a>. I\u2019m reading through the manuscript of my book about Chinese art before it goes to print. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:30pm <\/strong>\u2013 Bed.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 4: Wednesday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

5:30am-ish <\/strong>\u2013 Awake at sunrise to a conductor shouting \u201cNanning, Nanning! This is Nanning station!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5:45am <\/strong>\u2013 \u201cCh\u012b z\u01ceof\u00e0n! Ch\u012b z\u01ceof\u00e0n<\/em>!\u201d cries a man pushing a trolley. \u201cEat breakfast!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

9:30am <\/strong>\u2013 I begin a washing, tooth-brushing ritual with my things carefully balanced on sinks or clutched between my knees, then fill up the communal flask and make a cup of jasmine tea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:30am <\/strong>\u2013 Iain\u2019s working on his computer; I\u2019m reading my manuscript. The four-year-old opposite us is getting restless. He hasn\u2019t got anything to occupy him besides his mother\u2019s phone. No books, toys or colouring books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:45am<\/strong> \u2013 The lunch trolley arrives. It\u2019s the same food as yesterday, except there\u2019s a pathetic looking chicken wing instead of fried pork. The noodles we saw on a passing trolley yesterday are finished, the lunch lady says. Iain reluctantly opens a rice box meal, muttering about cabbage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2pm<\/strong> \u2013 The train rolls past bamboo groves and banana palms, reminding us we\u2019re in south China. We pass several villages. Some homes are brick and quaint; others are concrete, and \u2013 like modern China \u2013 only half built.
The village temples have curled roofs adorned with prowling dragons. Some have a bright new layer of paint, and remind me of Vietnamese Buddhist temples. Iain and I talk about how southern China\u2019s temples are more elaborate than northern China\u2019s. India, we agree, is the same in its way: temples in India\u2019s south are also more architecturally complex than those in the country\u2019s north. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4pm <\/strong>\u2013 The poor four-year-old is beside himself with boredom. Still no sign of anything for him to play with in his Mickey Mouse backpack. \u201cDo you like to draw?\u201d I ask. \u201cDraw?\u201d he says bashfully. I hand him a pen and a piece of paper. He\u2019s thrilled. He fills the page with eggs, mushrooms and a house, showing me. His mother, also bored, takes the pen and writes a row of numbers. \u201cCopy the numbers,\u201d she says. He tries, but they are malformed. \u201cDidn\u2019t your teacher teach you to draw numbers?\u201d she laughs. He surrounds the numbers with mushrooms. She draws more numbers. \u201cWrite these: two, three, four.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

8:15pm<\/strong> \u2013 Iain and I are funnelled with tens of thousands of people through Guangzhou Station. It\u2019s been raining. We slide in sandals across a few hundred metres of tiled ground towards the ticket office, but the queue looks an hour long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

8:45pm <\/strong>\u2013 We take a taxi to a cheap hotel, near Sanyuanli, where most of the African community stays when they\u2019re in the city. Guangzhou has a floating population of between 100,000 and 200,000 African traders and business people, and Iain plans to do research for a story about the community. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Our-hotel-in-Guangzhou,-which-was-popular-with-Nigerians-and-had-a-shop-that-was-tranfored-into-a-bar-in-the-evening.\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

9:15pm<\/strong> \u2013 A hotel nearby looks like a better choice. We check in. The room is large and well-appointed. In fact, it has more paraphernalia than I\u2019d know what to do with. Apart from a kettle, TV, slippers and instant noodles, there\u2019s an array of \u201cnon-complimentary\u201d items: four kinds of condoms, a manicure set, two toiletry kits, and two bottles of 35% alcohol in a cardboard stand marked \u201cMan drink woman drunk\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

11pm <\/strong>\u2013 After a long shower, I happily crawl into my rock hard bed.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 5: Thursday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

10am<\/strong> \u2013 I take the subway to Guangzhou station and resurface among a crowd. The enormous station, the sea of people, and something about the dimensions make me instantly think of India, which was probably the last time I saw so many people in one place.

10:20am \u2013<\/strong> I reach the ticket window and ask for a train to Xiamen, where a friend is joining us. \u201cM\u00e9iy\u01d2u<\/em>,\u201d the clerk says. \u201cNo have.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about the next day, the 9th?\u201d
M\u00e9iy\u01d2u<\/em>.\u201d
The 10th<\/sup>?
M\u00e9iy\u01d2u<\/em>.\u201d
11th<\/sup>?\u201d
M\u00e9iy\u01d2u<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

10:45am <\/strong>\u2013 I go for a run along a shaded path in nearby Yuexiu Park before taking the subway back to my hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12:30pm<\/strong> \u2013 Iain is reading about Guangzhou\u2019s African population. He heads out to Canaan Market, hoping to interview some of the business people that his article will focus on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3:30pm <\/strong>\u2013 He\u2019s back. Everyone he met was too busy to stop and talk for more than a moment. He hopes he\u2019ll have more luck tomorrow when he plans go to a mosque on the advice of a contact who made a documentary about the Nigerian community.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 6: Friday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

8am<\/strong> \u2013 Move to another hotel to avoid a rate increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

11am<\/strong> \u2013 Take a subway to Huaisheng Mosque, one of the world\u2019s oldest. Four men greet us at the entrance. One shakes Iain\u2019s hand warmly. \u201cAre you Muslim?\u201d he asks, smiling. \u201cNo,\u201d Iain replies. \u201cOh, then you can\u2019t come in.\u201d I stand behind him, dressed in a modest salwar kameez<\/em>. He explains his interest in Islam and the history of the mosque, but they only shake their heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12pm<\/strong> \u2013 We take the elevator to the top floor of a hotel, hoping to get a glimpse of the mosque. Meet a friendly man from Uzbekistan in the elevator. Even from the roof, the mosque is hidden by trees. Its glossy green Chinese tiles peek through the leaves, beneath a towering stone minaret, but we can\u2019t see anything else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

12:30pm <\/strong>\u2013 Order lamb kebabs, nang<\/em> bread and chilled rice noodles at a Xinjiang restaurant which is bustling after Friday prayers. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Our-lunch-across-the-road-from-China's-oldest-mosque\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

5:30pm<\/strong> \u2013 I get ready to visit a former student of mine from Shanghai. Iain\u2019s spending the evening writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6pm<\/strong> \u2013 Rush hour. The receptionist suggests a somewhat complicated subway journey, followed by a taxi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7pm<\/strong> \u2013 Taxis are in short supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7:30pm<\/strong> \u2013 A driver in an empty taxi says he\u2019s too hungry to take me anywhere. He simply has<\/em> to eat dinner. I\u2019m already late. He agrees to drive me as far as he\u2019s going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7:50pm <\/strong>\u2013 I change taxis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8pm <\/strong>\u2013 A whole hour late, I arrive at my friend\u2019s apartment. It\u2019s halfway across the city, so he understands. We sit down to a delicious spread of about seven dishes, cooked by his mother. She and his father are visiting; his wife is pregnant and due in 19 days. We have a lot of catching up to do. It\u2019s been twenty months since I last saw him in Shanghai, when Iain and I left our lives there to travel across the Old World. We chat and chat, switching between English and Chinese for his wife and parents\u2019 benefit, and eat slowly, but extremely well. This is the China I like to remember.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claire and Iain are currently in southeastern China heading north to Shanghai, from where they’ll begin an overland route they’ve planned for years: Shanghai to Cape Town. Check out their crowd-funding project on Kickstarter<\/a>; if it succeeds they’ll write a series of long-form dispatches about the people and places they encounter on their journey across the Old World. They’re also planning to write a book about it once they reach Cape Town. You can follow their journey<\/a> at Old World Wandering.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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