19th June - Middle of Nowhere, China - Day 2

Again I got up this morning with all plans of leaving this little town and popped to use the internet again first thing in the morning. I got carried away again and ended up spending the whole day with the local people and on the net - again.

I tried to buy some sugar for my coffee and some chocolate (I have a bit of a craving right now - I have not had any since HK and although it would not normally bother me going for many weeks without chocolate because I can choose not to buy it, now that I can't find any anywhere I am craving it) but failed! How can a small town/large village not have sugar? It thought that it is everywhere in the world! I can understand no coffee, but no sugar and no CHOCOLATE!
Time on the net meant that I could plan my route north properly. I found out that I can go to another major station 2 days north of here to Huaihua and get a train to Chengdu which is cheaper and takes less time than going 3-4 days East and taking the train from ????. It also means that I can go to see a place called Fenghuang which is on the list of the top 10 things to see in China. It is only 100km north of Huaihua.


It was quite nice to stay in 1 place for 2 days in the middle of a village in the middle of absolutely no where in rural China. I got to know some people even though we did not speak the same language. The little 4 year old girl who's mother owns the restaurant where I have been eating every meal has taken a liking to me. I went for a walk to get some fruit and other things in town and she just took my hand and came along with me. It is nice in these rural villages that children can just run around without having to worry so much about anything.


I also managed to update my statistics and gps tracks for my routes and get up to day with nearly all of my blog entries. It had been bothering me that I would forget and it feels like a weight of my mine to get up to date :-) Most of the entries that I had only had in draft were of days where loads happened and were some of the best days of my trip so far: cycling in rural Rajesthan and hiking in Nepal. I have now done these entries..