Mandarin for experts

Unlike Hong Kong, people in mainland china does not understand english that well. That is why it is fortunate that I now am an mandarin expert. But what Mainland China lacks in the knowledge of english, the make up in awesome transportation. The main way to get around Sanya was with a motorbike-cab.

David - or should I say Edward Cullen - and Alina going home.

After a night exploring the city's nightlife, it was time for us to go back home to our fantastic hostel - Thorn Bird. For various reasons, our group split up during the night, and when David, Annika and I realized that deli pierre was long gone with the only piece of paper that had the name of the hostel written down in chinese, it was time for my mandarin knowledge to kick in.

The conversation started off really good, with me being polite and saying:
- Ni hao, wo jiao Gabi. Xie Xie! ( Hi, my name is Gabi, thank you).
All the motocab-riders got really excited, and started to ask me where I wanted to go. My obvious answer to that question was of course:
- Máng bù máng? (Are you busy?)
More and more cab drivers started to gather around me, I was like Sanya´s main attraction. Never had they heard someone speak mandarin so perfectly! So to further explain where I wanted to go, I said.
- Ni hao ma? Chen laoshi. (How are you? Teacher Chen = the name of my teacher)
The crowd (now around 20 people) went wild! This was for many, the best moment of their life. But for some unknown, strange reason, they could not understand where we wanted to go. So I decided to draw a picture on my hand so that I could furhter explain (and entertain) these lovely cab drivers.



Oddly enough, the chinese guys did not appreciate my abstract art, but as everybody can see, I tried to paint a bridge (we went over a bridge on the way there), a bird and a tower (hostel Thorn Bird). Now you might ask why I painted a tower, but it all makes perfect sense. In swedish, the word thorn is very similiar to the word for tower (torn).

When I realized that this did not work, I repeated "Mang bu mang" and "Ni hao! Wo jiao Gabi" several times and then tried to explain that we wanted to go McDonalds, which was quite close to our hostel. So therefore you can see, in the left corner of my hand, a cheeseburger and a open mouth, eager to eat the cheeseburger.

Still, no one could understand where we wanted to go, but as always, Annika saved the night by showing them this picture on her camera:

So in conclusion, it was a safe night.

So what could go wrong?

Well, apparently everything. It should not be that complicated to take a bus or keep track of your belongings. Well, does rules did not apply to the trip to Sanya. I have made a little list of what went wrong with our journey.

1.Our first Superstar, David, managed to miss the bus. This is his story.

After running through the entire Hong Kong to the bus station, we could not find our bus. After asking every chinese person in China, David trotted off without a working cellphone, towards the travel agents counter to ask where the fuck the bus was. We, who stayed behind, found that out in 2 minutes, when a stressed bus driver came and said he was in a hurry and had to be in an other part of Hong Kong right NOW! David is no where to be seen. Annika makes a heroic decisions, jumps out the bus, finds David, jump in to the cab and scream: FOLLOW THAT BUS!
Since the rule of this trip is that karma works in mysterious ways, they actually made it.

2. The next person to make this trip more memorable is DeliPierre.

After hopping on and off that bus of various reasons, we relized that the first bus we went on was no more, and we had to go on an other bus. Everybody sighed when we understood that we left our all food on the other bus. DeliPierre was the one most disappointed because he did not only leave is M&Ms, but also is cellphone.

3. Annika is the next one out.


At last, we came to Guangzhou, we had to take a cab from the bus stop to the train station. We got really excited when we actually found the station, the only thing we could not find was Annikas bag, which included her phone, her camera and her passport! Annika ran and cought up with the taxi, where all here things where.

4. And last up, is the collective decision to take a 15-hour train.


After running around, finding food - McDonalds - and something refreshing to drink- rice wine, we only had 20 minutes until our train left. Or so we thought. The train was 3 hours delayed. So we ate, and we drank.



But, what we did not do, was to go to the bath room at the station. We should have done that. Because on the train, we had two toilets to choose between. This is how they looked and that is just half as disgusting compared to how the smelled.


But somehow, we actually made it to Sanya, but apparently, so did Karma. To be continued.