transit (game 5)

game #5

i must have picked up on the tenor of this trip telepathically because before i left i already initiated a game of my own called ‘for every chinese person that can pronounce my name i will donate 1 dollar to a charity of my choice at the end of my trip.’ so far i owe nothing.

the trip itself got off to a rocky start. after pulling an all nighter in the hong kong airport i got on my plane to kunming (SW China) to find the first 10 rows of the plane all talking to each other animatedly. not only do i not speak their language but apparently all of china knows each other already. aaaaaawwwkkkkkkwwwaaarrrrdddd. once i got off the plane i spent way too long trying to barter down the taxi fair to 5 yuan, which my roughguide said was a reasonable price around kunming. after having a bunch of cabbies laugh in my face i caved at 20, and basically figured that, bartering wise, i was screwed for the rest of my trip, until i checked my book again and read that that the airport was an hour away and should cost at least 30.* things improved drastically from this point on. not least because, similar to in romania and syria, it seems that nothing makes me feel more at home than monolithic communist architecture with water damage. its just so shabbily honest - who needs decorative facades when you have a righteous ideology.

*this has set the tone for china being one of the most fair and honest countries i’ve ever travelled to. i dunno if its severe penalties or just good morals (locals i’ve talked to seem to think the latter), but even with unmarked prices they barely try to charge us more than locals and i’ve never really had any fear of something getting stolen. i’m pretty sure i could set my laptop in the middle of the sidewalk and walk away and no one would bat an eye...i really mean that...there eyes would go extra wide open staring at what the crazy white girl was doing this time...but they wouldn’t take it...or try to return it :D