I learn this morning that the hotel we have stayed at for both our stops in Xian, which is the classiest looking we have stayed in so far, is another government sponsored hotel with a ‘sauna’ which is up on the sixth floor. It seems the only hotels that don’t have a brothel in China are the very basic ones which you would hardly recommend to a tramp.
We’re back on the truck, but Chengdu is 950km away, so it will take at least a couple of days to get there, and it is not long before we hit another big traffic jam. The engines go off and the pot noodle sellers emerge from the surrounding fields. That’s market capitalism for you, where even traffic jams are a business opportunity. One of the trucks parked behind us is full of caged squealing pigs, and it’s not beyond speculation that if the traffic jam carries on long enough, there may be a make-shift pig market (and slaughterhouse?) appearing on the road.
We don’t move for four or five hours. Eventually, we are able to creep up to a service station that has a hotel. Such is the Chinese building boom, there are quite a few new buildings that don’t seem to have any purpose. Attached to the hotel, but elevated on a hill above the rooms, is a large empty octagonal room with a conveniently located empty parking lot for the truck. Some people decide to make use of the hotel rooms at additional cost, but I am sticking to my no upgrades and decide to sleep in the octagon, while others decide to pitch their tents.
No comments:
Post a Comment