Far Away From Home

The latrine stinks. If you feel bad about them, I can assure you that they are. With the latrine, you can almost associate it with a bucket or a hole, housed in a Chinese-style inn. What is your idea of a typical historic Chinese hillside inn?

I was hiking in WuGongShang (武功山) in JiangXi (江西) province last few days. It is not the worst place to be in, but certainly a challenge to my bottomline in hygiene standards for a vacation. I am especially bothered by the idea of having to use a latrine, which is stinky and dirty, but is prevalent in China. There is no escape. The usual clean sitting toilet is a rare occurrence in such places especially at the mountain top. As the trip lasts five days, the latrine is basically inevitable. Man, I will pay for a clean sitting toilet!

The first latrine I saw in ShenJiaDaiYuan inn (沈家大院) is a complete resemblance with those in movies. It is built with wooden planks and definitely has no electrical or automatic flushing capabilities, though its door is made of modern technology – a piece of plastic cloth. Well, that is all, and inside … a bucket of brown matter. I thought that falling off the abysmal hillside is a more pleasant experience than using this legendary facility.

The ShenJiaDaiYuan inn is built with, as you might have expected, bamboo sticks and wooden planks. The wind penetrates the gaps of the wall, and you can peek through the holes as well. The bed was hard as rock, and supplied with blankets that are never washed. Unlike in movies, it is so poorly furnished that the bed and a small cupboard are the only decoration available, and four people share a room. I think I just need a “Mr.Two” (店小二) ! [1]

The next inn called FayunJie (發雲界) that I lived in is even worse. It is a simple brick room with moldy walls, and then again supplied with bunk beds and blankets unwashed for some years. The wooden beds squeak like they are going to collapse right on top of me when I am asleep. The latrine this time is better, but I tried very hard to use only when necessary. *winks*

The food up there are just to fill the stomach in general. It is quite different from that of the Southern China cuisine – potatos and bell peppers cut in strips ( not French fries ) cooked together, and eggplant sliced in rings cooked with “something I do not know” are unseen styles in GuangDong. The taste is just barely for the mouth, but it is not the idea anyway. And that chicken running around costs CNY147! I thought I got robbed.

There is a Chinese saying that “You paid for suffering”. That is almost like what I was doing, but the whole trip is actually very rewarding despite the horrifying experience above, and I have not even talked about the moments of zen yet : the starry nights with clear milky way and the sun over the stratus clouds. There are so many things to explore than to have a staycation at home sometimes.

Lastly, a bonus photo of a sweet couple!

Far Away From Home – where do you want to go?

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[1] – 店小二. A generic term for the waiters in an inn in China in the old days.