24

The 24 hours following our departure out of Beijing were some of the strangest yet exciting hours in our trip.

Climbing on the train, it was obvious that we were the only foreigners on the carriage, making us of course, the main attraction for everyone else. We slept in compartments of six beds, three bunk beds at both sides. As we had the upper beds, we had to climb 2.5 m high using other beds and 'handy' ladder like things. Although we slept next to the airco vents, it felt comfortable to have most of our gear in the compartments at our feet (above the train corridor), so we didn't have to leave them at the floor of our doorless compartment, especially after a policeman had come in to tell us to "wath luggage careful". Eline's bag was pushed under the floor bed with the determined and loud help of the two chinese women in our compartment.

this brings us to our train buddies. They were an older and a younger Chinese couple, having loads of fun meeting and sharing beers and what they call food. They ate.... Chicken claws... No not juicy, tasty chicken legs, but the claws (de poten!), and visibly enjoyed them. We had seen them in supermarkets. All kinds of meat and eggs (claws, legs, unidentifiable other things,...), in vacuum packages, out of the refrigirator. As I wasn't to healthy (evil Beijing Duck), I kindly rejected the offer.

My brutally assaulted intestines had other consequences (mind the plural). Ever tried French toilets (the Chinese standard by the way) ? Well, try them on a train! And man were they filthy!

At 4 am, our Chinese buddies woke up, and trying to keep an eye on Eline's bag, we kind of did the same. At 7, we arrived in Zhengzou. We bought some bread and had breakfast, using the good old chocolate we got from Lennert at the goodbye party. Then I had to use the bathroom again (yes, here comes the other consequence). I followed a huge sign saying 'Public WC', and got some tissues. I followed the 'men' symbol and arrived in toilet hell. It was a hall, measuring about 30x6 meters, urinals on the left, a row of cubicals on the right. these cubicals were a bit larger than a square meter, were about 1.3 m high, and did not have doors... A channel in the ground that connected all of them made clear where everything had to go into. It was horrible! Being the only tourist in the room also blessed me with a certain degree of attention. lovely.

After eating the horror away with some Cote d'or and antibiotics (You may be the most cautious person on earth regarding antibiotics, these toilets make you feast on it!), time to search for transport to the Shaolin Temple.

It took quite a while, but we finally found a bus taking us there. We left, and after an hour or two we arrived at a temple. We got our luggage out, went to the ticketing office, put our nets around or bags, and bought our tickets, only to find out it wasn't the Shaolin Temple. We had joined a tour of Chinese doing Taishi Shan, eating and Shaolin Temple. luckily we didn't buy the main ticket, which a big chinese tourguide had been shouting about, being very angry with us and another Korean tourist who luckily knew some English. The Temple was beautyful though. One minor detail was that we were scammed by an older lady putting some incense in Eline's hands, and even threw in the Tao (the oldest and most important man of the temple) to follow us and asking for money. I gave in and gave them a Euro, as I still wanted to snap some pictures in the beautiful corridor we were in.

The bus continued to Shaol... no, a restaurant, and the korean got so mad, the driver took the three of us to the Temple (knowing Chinese would be so handy!).

The Shaolin Temple is one of the most touristical places in China, and Lonely Planet doesn't really recommend it. It do has become an industry, with huge administrative buildings, tourist shops, ticket offices and an insane entrance fee (10 euro). It is also true that the ancient spirit of the complex is long gone, and that it has been replaced by a spirit of commerce. We found it great however. The temple was nice, as it had some frescoes of fighting monks on the walls, which all other temples don't have. We watched two tourist shows displaying some breathtaking Wushu (try doing push-ups on two fingers per hand) and walked around the pagoda forrest, with hundreds of pagodas containing ashes of famous monks. What made it such a great experience, however, was the fact that at the time we were leaving, fighting classes of the hundreds of youngsters that live inside of the temple started, which was very impressive.

We asked for a bus, and the tourist information lady brought us to the street, promising a 15 Yuan bus we could join. Other men rushed in to sell us a taxi ride. In the end, this one lady stopped a taxi which was already taken. We could share it, paying only 20 Yuan per person. When we arrived in Luoyang, the meter stopped at 120, great deal!

After checking in, we serached for an ATM (we're bleeding money in China, due to all these expensive touristic sights) and a restaurant. There was no English menu, but the very friendly manager basically explained some dishes ( one had chicken, one had beef). We went for chicken. In the mean while, there was a waitress standing at our table for the whole evening, filling up our glasses using the beer we bought when it was half empty. The food looked like they had taken a whole chicken, and chopped it into pieces with a blunt axe. It was tasty, yet there wasn't so much meat.

We returned to the hotel and went to sleep. 24 hours had flown by like a jet.