Day 7 was overcast and we were scheduled to be on our way back to Nanjing, however, this wasn't the case. We had a bit of a lazy morning and headed out for a very late breakfast. I had wonton soup for 7RMB/35NT/CAN$1.27 from the little shop down the alley where the little girl worked. She sat and talked with us while we ate.
After eating, the two of us decided to take a local
bus (2RMB) over to one of the free public parks. It offered some great views of
the city. The noise coming from down below was unbelievable with a ton of
honking and a constant hum of traffic.
We walked around the park exploring the trails
but with not one single map throughout the park, it was difficult to navigate
our way around. We came out of the park, wandered along a river that can be
seen throughout the city and eventually came to a dam.
We made our way up to a main road and caught a local
bus in the direction of our hotel. This bus took the long way around, going through
the downtown shopping part of Zhangjiajie City. Had we known earlier that this existed, we would
have checked it out. The bus passed by a store called Jiu Guai Liquor,
which I thought was rather comical. 酒鬼 (jiǔguǐ) literally translates to alcohol ghost and is used to describe an alcoholic. Perfect name for a liquor store, indeed. Unfortunately,
there was no time for me to snap a picture.
Tiny local
restaurant #6 was a new restaurant not too far from our hotel. It
was absolutely delicious but we noticed they were also offering Dog Hot Pot on their menu. We had a beef dish that was
covered in a cumin sauce, much like the night before. We also had roasted green
peppers with black beans in some kind of delicious oily sauce. I didn't want to
stop eating! After dinner, we went back to the room with a
beer and got packed up for our early morning departure.
Things of note:
Bus drivers smoke on the bus even when they have
passengers.
Buses always stop to get gas, no matter if it's a
local trip or long distance. Almost every bus I got on in China stopped for gas.
Strange.
People throw garbage everywhere, even when there
are garbage cans visibly a few steps away. Apparently there are people that go around and
collect the garbage from the streets, so citizens feel it's OK to throw it wherever. Not
good.
Day 8 was a travel day. The two of us were up at
6am and left the guesthouse by 7am. We were scheduled on a 7:30am bus to
Changsha. The bus took the same route as the way there and we arrived at the
Changsha bus station 6 hours later. We had to catch a smaller shuttle bus over
to the high-speed rail station. We had about a three-hour wait for our train. I
had some delicious spicy Zhajiangmian at one of the
shops for 16RMB. I also bought some mixed fruit for 12RMB. There were plums,
peaches, kiwi, oranges, cherry tomatoes and nectarines.
Once on the train, I noted that the chairs in the VIP section are very comfy but
not sure it would be worth the extra money if one was not forced to do so. We cruised home and arrived back at
Tom's around 11:30pm, making it a 16-hour travel day from door to door. It was much too late for dinner and I was absolutely exhausted from the journey, making it straight to bed for me!
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