Two days of getting drenched in Ruili was enough. We spent day 3 of the festivities on a sleeper bus to Nanson. This meant we were reclined from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eleven beds, 2 levels - at first glance I thought it looked like a death trap, but it turned out to be not a bad way to watch the scenery. A fairly uneventful day except for 2 police checkpoints. We foreigners held the bus up each time as the police struggled with their English and went thru our things. They seemed more curious than intent on finding anything... Why are you in China? to travel.... Do you like China? yes... Do you like the culture? yes... Do you like sightseeing? yes...
Day 4 of the 3 day festivities.. we should be safe. We bought tickets for the 11 a.m. minibus to Gengma, deeper into rural areas. We then strolled the streets to watch the morning activities. Just before 10 a.m. we saw our bus driver looking for us. The bus was full, so we were leaving early. Sounded good!
Half an hour into the journey a bad smell caused everyone to cover noses and the bus driver pulled over. The dog in the bag in the aisle next to me wasn't too happy and had relieved himself, leaving a runny mess on the floor of the bus. Altho the 3 chickens in the bag next to him didn't seem to care, everybody else piled off the bus and the bus driver cleaned. The dog was then double bagged, tied to the roof and at 11:00 we were off again. Good thing we got an early start!
Chris commented that this was probably the most exciting trip he's had yet - what with the dog, the mess, chickens and the excited passengers. How true this would be....
Just before 12:30 we pulled into a small village and it didn't look good. There was a log across the road and it seemed that they weren't letting vehicles thru without a water splashing and a fee.
The bus driver stopped.
We watched another vehicle get doused and sprayed.
We shut the windows and waited.
Then 3 young men with the angry enthusiasm of men with guns pushed their way thru the door (the door was positioned in the middle of the small 18 seat bus). They stood there shouting, poised with buckets and hose. Then they let 'er rip. They started spraying water everywhere. In an effort to do something, anything to stop the water, I stood up and reached for one of the pails. I managed to dump some, but was getting absolutely soaked! As I turned my face from the water, Chris pushed past me and pushed the boys out the door and wrestled the lead instigator down to the mud to put a stop to everything. While the other passengers didn't see anything wrong with this, the villagers sure did.
The police were called. We all sat in the bus, windows shut, door locked and waited. Angry villagers banged on the windows, pointed and shouted. The bus driver stood outside and passed cigarettes around. I sat and imagined being pulled apart by the villagers, spending the rest of my life in a Chinese prison, or at best, being kicked out of the country.
Half an hour later the police arrived. They walked around the bus, talked to the villagers, then came on board. We spoke no Chinese, they spoke no English and our Mandarin phrasebook was useful for helping us with getting transportation, accomodation and food, but not too useful for this kind of situation.
They motioned for Chris to get off the bus. I followed and was horrified at what I saw. They were showing Chris the poor guy he had "beaten." This was turning into a full-on nightmare!!
The same guy who was screaming and banging on the windows and rallying the others before the police arrived, was now barely alive it seemed. His ribs were bruised and he could only sit with eyes half closed, bobbing his head.
AND it now seemed that I was being accused of kicking him!! Little ol' me?!?! I need the Chinese words for "fucking liar." I found the word for actor, but it wasn't looking good. And the other passengers didn't seem so keen to be with us anymore.
So, we were going with the cops. We grabbed our bags and got into the police 4x4 with a young, happy cop and an old, tough cop.
First stop was at a small hospital to drop the "actor" off. Next stop was at a school, presumably to get some help with English, but no luck. And finally, we were stopping at the police station, which the tough cop really wanted us to understand. As we stopped outside the gate, he pointed repeatedly to the English words "Police Station."
We still got no where and I think they were getting tired of us. We answered the same questions... why are we in China?... where are we traveling?... do we speak Chinese?
Back into the 4x4 and again the old cop pointed to the words Police Station as we pulled away.
Back to the hospital, where the drunken ass was fast asleep with an IV drip.
Finally, the old cop showed us a 100Y note. Why, we asked. For medications. I asked how much. The hospital employees went into the office and came up with the total of 40Y. Chris emptied his pocket and handed over 32Y. The cop wasn't satisfied, but the hospital employees accepted it. I asked for a receipt. We said our thank-yous and were back in the 4x4, speeding off to ....?
Back to the village... and there was the little pink minibus loaded up with our fellow passengers!!! After everything we had just been thru, it was most unbelievable to me that the bus waiting for us.
It was now 3:00!
I gave a sheepish little ni hao (hello) to a couple of the women as I got on. They ni hao'd back, but really wanted to know how much we had to pay.
We settled in and were off again... into the 5th hour of what was supposed to be a 6 hour trip.
That wasn't the end of the splashing, but at least I got to have a shower and a beer in a room of my choice at the end of the day.
Never a dull day, as I often say.
... and the dog... he survived the heat of the sun up there in the bag, and was yelping when the journey was done.
No comments:
Post a Comment