Huangshan trip (part 2)
So, there were we, in the hotel hall, waiting for them to find us a room, and so did they, but not in the same hotel, and only for one of the three guys... (the two others staying in that one) As nobody wanted to walk anymore and to be alone in a chinese room, we had to choose who would, and that was done with a short straw picking... I got the short...
I went to my hotel, escorted by a guy who didn't speak a word of english, and after showing my ID again, I was given a room number, but no key... I went there, checked the room, it mas small with 7 beds, but the bathroom was clean. Then I went back to the first hotel to have diner with the other guys. I took my shower there, as I had left my stuff there to be lighter for the move to the Shi Hai hotel.
That was a good thing to do, because when I came back later to my room, it had been invaded by 5 chinese guys, and the bathroom was now dirty, the sink not even empty, and some water all over the place (even outside of the bathroom)... Without a word, I went on my bed and fell asleep while the chinese guys were watching soccer on the TV... I woke up at 12h30, because of the noise... 4 of my 5 roomates were alternatively snoring... They kept me from sleeping during two whole hours... One even went to the bathroom and then went back to sleep (and to snoring) leaving the door and light opened... Finally, a heavy rain began to fall outside, and covered the noise of those fucking morons (I really hated them after 2 hours of snoring). The Chinese woke me up at 6 and that was it. I went to the hotel to see the guys in that sleepy morning...
After the heavy rain came the episodical rain, and a very deep fog... No sight over 10 meters... some nice places, but nowhere to see further... So we went down by the other side of the mountain. Not so many people anymore... they all desappeared in the fog...
As we had left earlier, after taking the bus back to the city, we still had 8 hours to wait for the train...
We went first in a tiny little restaurant, I wouldn't have trust anywere else, but that was about the standard here... anyway, a pill of imodium and there we are, eating some quite good (Weird?... strange... no the right word is just "Chinese") stuff. ;-)
We then spend the day taking pictures ofeverything in the town, and being followed by some rickshaw that saw a certain amount of money in us...
We finally took the train back and arrived a little late at work, a hard day followed a very good night, as it seemslike people don't snore in trains...
Huangshan trip (part 1) 黄山
Last week end, we went to Huangshan. By “we”, I mean Pierre, Damien, Camille and I (Damien is a colleague, Pierre is the friend who didn’t the first part of my new internship, and Camille is his ex-girlfriend). Special Chinese lesson : 黄山 means “Yellow mountains” (=Huang Shan). To do so, we took the night train on Friday from Shanghai to the city of Huangshan. To get even cheaper tickets (it was already cheaper than the plane), we went in the second class part, which in my opinion would count as a forth class in Europe or the US… So that means a small and very hard bed, put six by six in compartments that didn’t have any doors or walls to part from the corridor… 
As soon as we got out of the train, we got assaulted by a Chinese taxi driver that spoke English, and after buying some way back tickets for Sunday night, we chose to take her taxi to go to the departure point of the path. She booked the hotel at the top of the mountain for us, and told us some stuff about the place, some of which got useful later.
Once out of the taxi, we were ready to walk… after paying the access fee to the mountain… It can seem weird to have to pay for that, but the path is actually composed of huge stairs, and must cost some money to keep in a good state and clean (one trashcan every ten meters).
We began to walk all together, taking many pictures, and split after about 2 hours of walking. There were two possible roads to take, one being a little longer than the other, and Pierre and Camille didn’t want to take it… Damien and I took it 
thinking it would only be a little longer, but not harder… No comment, just look at the pictures… It seemed like a “via ferrata” to me sometimes, but without any safety line… Contrary to what the plan showed (Chinese plans are not very evolved) the path didn’t go round the peak, but at the top of it… Great view and great feelings!!! (…a little scared too, I confess)
We finally met Pierre and Camille who had waited for much longer than expected (something like 2h30 to do about 5 km…) and finished all the way to the hotel which was still far away… we got there half an hour before the night!
Problem there: on the phone, they had understood that there were 2 guys and 2 girls in the group, and as the dormitories were not mixed, and they had too many clients, one guy of us had to change hotel… Guess who got the short straw…
Next post, you’ll have the night, the second day and the trip back. Enjoy the pictures! Special "Whoaw" to the carriers...
Good morning Shanghai!
I arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday, after some hours of plane. Pierre came to pick me up at the airport, and we went strait to his appartment. (I'll take over his appartment when he's gone in about two weeks, and till then I'll live there with him and Camille (His ex-girlfriend who came even though they're not hanging well together anymore).
For the moment, I'm trying to memorize some basic words such as my adress, the job's one, and the ways to join them by bus or taxi. I'm really looking forward to learning chinese, as most of them don't speak english nor french...
This week end we'll go to the yellow mountains, and it is gonna be great (I hope). No picture for this post, its purpose was just to tell you I'm alive! Next post will be for the week end, and I expect to have great pictures as Pierre is telling me tricks to improve me photography techniques (and also because I have a very good new camera. Coolpix got used to Texas and wanted to go back there, so it went back with Guillaume who promised to create a new blog with him! My new camera's name is Panasonic Lumix FZ20, I'll call him Lumix.)
That was a good thing to do, because when I came back later to my room, it had been invaded by 5 chinese guys, and the bathroom was now dirty, the sink not even empty, and some water all over the place (even outside of the bathroom)... Without a word, I went on my bed and fell asleep while the chinese guys were watching soccer on the TV... I woke up at 12h30, because of the noise... 4 of my 5 roomates were alternatively snoring... They kept me from sleeping during two whole hours... One even went to the bathroom and then went back to sleep (and to snoring) leaving the door and light opened... Finally, a heavy rain began to fall outside, and covered the noise of those fucking morons (I really hated them after 2 hours of snoring). The Chinese woke me up at 6 and that was it. I went to the hotel to see the guys in that sleepy morning...
