China Diaries: Sleeping beside a toilet

It's been almost a year since I stepped foot into mainland China. If I try hard enough, I can still remember some of the moments that occurred during my short backpacking stint there. So I shall try and attempt to make a record of it before I forgot them all.

I'd intended to go solo once more but a friend was really keen to show me around and we ended up traveling in a group of 4. We crossed over to Mainland by taking the MTR from Hong Kong to Luo Wu Station. From Shen Zhen, it was Xiamen, followed by Wu Yi Shan, Fu Zhou and finally Beijing. 

My friend made some arrangements and got us tickets for an overnighter coach to Xiamen.

Toilet Sleeper

There were four empty beds at the back of the coach and I thought, "Hey, just nice for the 4 of us!". I made the first bad decision of the trip by plonking my stuff down to reserve our beds because, I would later learn that our cosy little corner was just next to the toilet, and that we'd be inhaling 'shit fumes' for the next 8 hours before we arrived at our destination. 

Aud and I had a few good laughs when other commuters started using the toilet and we smelled the awful stench for the first few times. It wasn't so funny anymore when we realized that people were coming up to the loo non-stop; I remember a point in time where I started to dread hearing the toilet door being opened and thinking "Oh no, not again!" Practically everyone on the coach (except for me and Aud) visited the loo at least once, and it seemed like our punishment for laughing at them.

For the rest of the night, we slept with our jackets on our faces to try to keep as much of those stinky fumes out of our nostrils as possible. When our ordeal was finally over, I thought the clothes we wore to sleep smelled shitty somehow. Never again.

Aud's face of horror when she realized what we got ourselves into for the next 8 hours.

When I still thought it was funny :x

Xiamen

Having arrived at our destination in the wee hours, we took a cab down to Stella's brother's place because he agreed to let us spend a night there. He suggested a few places to visit and we were out of the house after having some hot tea.

Our first stop was 鼓浪嶼 (Gulangyu Island), a traffic-free island that's connected to mainland Xiamen only by ferry.

Ferry ticket - just a short ride away.

Stella and Sharri

the adorable Aud

Arrival.

Pekingese lazing in the sun

Lunch was much looked forward to.

A Xiamen specialty - 土笋凍. 

I later learnt that I ate some kind of marine worms from Wikipedia. 

We had some ice lollies post lunch:

And I got so fed up with not being able to hold my hair above my lip that I stuffed the ends into my mouth.

The highest point of the island (I think!), 日光岩.

Part of a very rich person's backyard, in earlier times.

My adorable friends

Trying to look demure and all... 

And view from the top of the same rich guy's garden.

It was nearly the end of spring, so there were lots of colourful flowers all around to mark that period.

Colonial houses versus modern buildings.

Pat tor...

My pretty models hehe.

Coke, Redbull and Walls providing the much needed shade and shelter for the vendors below.

We got ourselves something like a round-island ticket so we could visit all the attractions, and this was one of them:

This was a pretty self-service cable-car ride; the attendent didn't really bother with the passengers (not that there was a lot of us to begin with) and we had to close the doors ourselves.

Snow white ;)

There was an aviary on the island too, apparently the collections of some of the previous residents.

Haven't seen a white peacock before this. 

We headed back to where the shops congregated after visiting the piano museum as well as the house of some historical figures:

I am bored.

Cute cats.

What I always do.

Great family of cats.

Creepy erhu-playing doll.

Stopped by the night market that's just opposite the ferry terminal after we ended our short little tour of the island and got us dinner. 

Old lady selling smelly tofu

This is called the 車輪餅, and it's one of the tastiest street snacks that I've ever eaten when fresh off the stove (generous amount of chai por!).

We spent a day and night at Xiamen before heading up north to Wu Yi Shan. Life in Xiamen seemed to be crowded and busy, just like Hong Kong and Singapore, and I was really looking forward to getting out of that city bustle.