Posts Tagged ‘crap’

Despite the good experience I had on the train ride to Guilin, I was still very tired and basically felt like crap after being on a train for 12+ hours. I was ready to check into our hotel and take a long hot shower. The Yesin Hostel was nice and relatively clean as hostels go, however I was looking forward to using a shower that wasn’t combined with the bathroom proper and was larger than a broom closet. Once off the train we headed to the bus station, people everywhere were heckling us, asking if we needed a ride to Yangshuo. If you ever do travel around in these parts, be sure to use the bus at the OFFICIAL bus station, as privately run mini buses have been known to charge more and sometimes will drop you off outside of town instead of taking you the entire way.

Once on the bus, it was another hour ride to Yangshuo. The scenery was amazing although contrasted with the systemic poverty becoming more apparent as we moved out of Guilin. We passed a few abandoned factories and large buildings while our bus swerved in and out of traffic as we overtook slower moving dump trucks and motorcycles.

From the moment we got off the bus it was clear that Yangshuo was a tourist destination, especially for Chinese tourists coming from other parts of the country. We moved outside of the bus station, however the pay phone we found didn’t work so we decided to walk to our hotel which was located in Moon Village, a short distance out of town. The "short" walk turned into a 10Km hike with all my baggage, and myself not being in the best physical shape was extremely tired afterward and not in the best of moods. I was drenched in sweat, and the entire walk along the highway was filled with fumes from the passing trucks and buses, along with the still echoing honks from trucks who thought it necessary to honk at anything that moved with their obnoxiously loud air horns. Needles to say it was difficult for me to full appreciate the nature I was surrounded by. Once we arrived, Matt continued on to hike up Moon Hill, which I regret now that I didn’t join him. We at dinner at a fantastic Italian restaurant in the Yangshuo Village Inn, I highly recommend this place if you are staying in Moon Village or anywhere near by. The restaurant was great, I almost wish we had stayed hear instead.

The next day we headed out to do a few touristy things. Most are not worth mentioning, however I have to say DO NOT go to the Dragon Tail Cave. This is possibly the most worthless attraction in Yangshuo, and to be honest if I do ever go back I’m going to spend all my time outside and stay the hell away from the "water caves," the caves at akiyoshidai in Japan were miles ahead of this. First off, we were surrounded by Chinese tour groups, which felt it necessary to communicate with their tour group via yelling into loud speakers while inside an cave. The resulting echos and reverberations were enough to give me a headache. The cave itself was pathetic, faux lighting bathed the cave walls with an array of annoying unnatural colors, complete in places with a laser light show . . . I felt as though I was in some Chinese disco from hell. Then as we exited the cave, we were forced to go through 5 or so gift shops, selling cave crap. The best part however was the wall they had set up, were you could attempt to throw your coins through a number of small holes. I have no idea what the appeal of throwing your money at a wall was, however it seemed to be very popular with the Chinese tourists. Whoever thought of this idea is a genius.

Another annoying aspect of Yangshuo were the throngs of bicycle women who would follow you around, yelling "HELLO?! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!?!" while trying to sell you bottles of water and pop. The only way to avoid them was to completely ignore their advances, which I quickly learned to do. This is unfortunate, considering I know there were Chinese who were generally interested in talking with us (this happened on the train and a few instances later on). Instead I learned it was best to simply ignore any "hello?" inquires as the majority of the time whomever was trying to get your attention simply wanted to sell you something or con you out of some money.

The cave experience was the proverbial nail in the coffin for me, Yangshuo and I really didn’t get along aside from the amazing setting and landscape the town was surrounded by. In my opinion its simply a massive tourist trap, my suggestion would be to simply enjoy where you are, do some hiking, and stay away from any tourist attractions. Or better yet, use your money and go to akiyoshidai in Japan instead.

Next week, I’ll be flying the Y class (NWA A319) to Miami again for another two week business trip. I admit I didn’t write a whole lot last time I visited (there wasn’t much to say), however I did mention a few restaurants I visited and made a few anecdotal comments on the food. This time around, I’ll probably visit the same places for dinner, however I’m going to make it a goal to visit some of the top rated cafes in search of a decent cup of coffee, I have an addition to feed after all. Previously, I visited Out of the Blue cafe. The food was great, however despite the good reviews the Segafredo coffee was abysmal. Hopefully this time around I’ll be able to find something palatable (and perhaps stop at the BMW motorcycle dealership), even in the June Miami heat.

My NW7 World Business Class face.	My NW20 screeming babies/stuipd people face

If you know me well, you know I’m a fan of Seinfeld. One of the better episodes is when Jerry and Elaine are flying back to New York and Jerry is bumped to First Class while Elaine is shoved back to Coach. That episode, although slightly exaggerated, is just about spot on. I stated out with my flight to Tokyo on NWA7 in World Business Class. Everything went well, the lounges were great although crowded and I was greeted with a pre-flight campaign once I boarded. During the flight, they provided an amenity kit as well as slippers, two meals, free drinks (two glasses of wine in my case), and lie flat bed with massaging functions and a complete AVOD. Everyone in the WBC cabin were of sound mind, and there were no screaming vomiting babies.

My return flight to MSP was cut short, due to a snow storm in Sapporo which caused my connecting flight to be canceled. Stranded at the airport, I called NWA and made new reservations for the following day however they only flight that was available was NWA20 which was a direct flight using a 744. When I made my reservations I specifically chose the NWA8 to SEA because it was in their newer fleet of A330-200 with AVOD and power outlets in some forward coach seats. Furthermore, there was no chance of upgrading to WBC for NWA20 and everything else was booked. I had no choice, I wanted to get home as soon as possible so I took the NWA20 flight. As suspected, none of the coach seats were equipped with AVOD. The seats were the same coach crap you find on domestic 757 flights, the only perk was they handed out some newspapers and I was in the front of the coach section. Boarding went smoothly, although I’ll never figure out why everyone is always in such a rush to get on the damn plane. Unless your flying F class, there is NO reason you need to form a massive line to stand waiting to get on a plate you’ll already be on for 10+ hours, you already have seat assignments, no one is going to steal your seat. Why anyone would want to spend MORE time on that piece of crap is beyond me, so instead I sat at the gate until the line was gone. Everything was going ok until about an hour into the flight, when it was announced there was a medical emergency. Apparently someone had an ulcer. Thankfully who ever it was was well enough to continue the flight to MSP, and there was a doctor on board who was able to provide medical assistance. Then the crying began. There was a baby sitting behind me that literally cried the rest of the flight and another child who felt it was best to run around the airplane making noise. I’m now convinced they should stow babies and or children in the baggage compartment (sedated, naturally). I felt bad for the parents, who did their best to calm their screaming child, but in the end their efforts were futile as the kid continued to vocalize his discontent. After dinner was served, I (along with everyone else), proceeded to the lavatory. There was a line so I stood and waited for my turn. A woman who also had to use the facilities, ignored the line and attempted to open the bathroom door despite the fact it was obviously occupied. After about a minute of this, she finally figured it out although once the person exited she proceeded to again ignore the line. I didn’t really care, she obviously was an idiot and had no concept of a “line”, thankfully the gentleman behind me was nice enough to yell at her and told me to go next. As expected the NWA stewardesses were blunt, but to be honest after working around crowds of stupid angry people for however many years I would be the same way if not worse. After all the screaming and stupidity, we finally landed but it was not over! Right after we touched down, someone thought it was best to get a head start and stood up and proceeded to the exit before we had left the runway. Naturally this caused much deserved yelling to sit his ass down, which he did after finally figuring out what he was doing was dangerous.

I guess NWA20 was not as bad as the Seinfield coach class, but it was close. I’m sure everyone who flies enough has these horror stories to tell, this is just a sampling of my flying experiences most of which are positive. The two people sitting next to me were great to talk to, and the stewardesses were very nice to me since I wasn’t a moron. I guess the moral of the story is to reserve flights on A330 instead of 744 if your flying NWA (or delta now), don’t miss connecting flights listen to the flight crew, and don’t be an idiot.