I was elated to discover on crossing the border into China that the mainstay of western Chinese meals appeared to be that ubiquitous Asian dish “Meat on a Stick”. Woo-hoo!!!
The Chinese border crossing was exciting though. Everybody on the bus was looking forward to a cold beer and the prospect of seeing women again, maybe even women that you can actually talk to! The beer bit worked out okay. Beer in China is actually cheaper than water, which sounds great, but if you haven’t drunk for a while it can work to your detriment.
The ” actually talking to women” bit was a little harder as i speak no Chinese and I couldn’t find anyone that spoke English, women or otherwise. Luckily I crossed into Tashgurken with an aussie guy Arron who’d been studying mandarin for three years and got me through the first week, otherwise I think i would have had a very different experience.
The Chinese checkpoint at a 4,500 metre pass (snowing again) was amusing as we were filmed during the whole process. It appeared the Chinese wanted to show of their new interrogation technique, which I’ve gotta say is inspired. An army guy gets on the bus and requests your passport. While he’s holding your passport, and this is the clever bit, he gives you a steely stare and says; “What is your name?”. I wonder how many people they catch out with their cunning mind tricks?
I wasn’t one of them.
(this time)