It has been a good idea to spend the night at the Lao/Chinese border already in China. The border-town Mohan is a clean, lively place with lots of trees, shops and once again footpaths. We had a good feeling from the first second and quickly found a quiet hotel, where we could even pay in Laos «kip».
ATM in China is quite a topic. There are times of the day, when there is nothing at all to be done. Some machines never work for foreign cards. Sometimes they work but only for restricted amounts, sometimes the only functioning card is the KiwiBank EFTPOS which is strictly only made to be used in New Zealand… The internet too is a worry. It only functions certain times and if only very slowly. Everything that smells like google or facebook or is some other way suspicous is blocked. Reading and writing e-mails uses our patience and is not reliable. Don´t expect too much! This gives us a first glimps on the control the state is keeping also in other aspects.
The Chinese in China we have met so far were very friendly and helpful. Therefore we feel very comfortable and save in the daily life, in restaurants and along the road. We also hardly get ripped off anymore. We must admit, that after all the prejudice we are almost surprised.
Only few Chinese speak English. At least of the ones we had so far come across in restaurants, hotels, banks…. Then it depends on the fantasy of the individual if we manage to converse or not. There are definitely people with not a grain of fantasy. We spent around 20min at the ticket office of a Chinese medical plant garden only to find out when it will close. On the other hand with people with ideas and empathy everything is possible.
The food! That is so much easier in China, where the choice is bigger and there are display fridges in the restaurants with the row vegetables and meats. We can easily point to what we would like to eat, even without talking. And so far we always got some delicious dishes and every day something different!
A small example to helpfulness, food and fantasy: a young couple we walked passed just said : «we do not speak English». After this introduction both sides took their mobile phones with translator. Finally the two accompained us to a restaurant, ordered for us, set the price and then went home.
Of course there are also less pleasant issues. The relation of the Chinese to noise is horrible. They seem to be immune. I have read, that Chinese don´t regard noise (the louder the better) as negative. The opposite, they miss it if they are overseas. During the day that might be alright. However during the night it can be a nightmare for us. Most night owls turning home or to their guesthouse do so with laughing, talking, screaming, pounding the feet on the ground and slamming doors. And the love for Karaoke! If the «show» happens to be under our bedroom, we here the howling till 2h. Really there seem to be only few with some sense for music. Normally it extremely out of tune, getting worse with the amount of the beloved alcohol. The loudspeaker is turned up as time goes by even though the tones are long screaky and the musical waves vibrated giving us a whole body massage. When this finally is over you can be sure that the confuse roosters, cats and dogs are starting their parties.
All in all at first glance we find a big discrepancy between the friendly, helpful people and the dominating, controlling state.
