Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Damn Locals

We woke up and headed to Compass for breakfast.


Lisa feels FANTASTIC! She's so happy, she's jumping up and down and she has a massive appetite again.


Around 11:00am, we rented bicycles and got a map and suggestions on where to go from the hostel lady.  We headed west, towards thwe snow capped mountains to some valley. Not much to see, as the park (and chairlift to get up the mountain) was closed. It's off-season.


We then headed for Napa Lake. On the way out there, there were two locals standing on the road. They let Lisa bike by, but stopped me and wouldn't let me pass, they kept holding onto my bike. And they were beaking at me in Chinese and had a pamphlet with a picture of the a pasture with mountains in the background. I kept trying to push through, not having any idea what was going on. Then another local came running over and he took over, speaking Chinese, while the other two held my bike. There was a car coming the other direction, Lisa flagged it down and asked if they spoke english (yes), then asked if this was the way to Napa Lake (yes). The car people then told us they were asking for money for people to pass, a Pasture Protection Fee. They wanted us to pay 10 RMB each to pass, even though it's a public road. The people in the car didn't pay. Essentially a foreigner fee. Lisa HATES foreigner charges with a passion.


So, a Mexican standoff. They spoke no english, us no Chinese. Lisa and I sat there for 10 minutes, playing dumb and discussing what to do. Then Lisa called the hostel on her phone and asked about this supposed fee. The guest house lady said there was no fee, we shouldn't have to pay anything. Lisa then handed the phone to the dudre and they had a discussion in Chinese, then back to Lisa. Hostel lady told Lisa we could either pay the free, turn back or try to make a break for it (and face the consequences coming back). There was nothing she could do to help us. We decided to not pay and turn back. According to the Lonely Planet, there's nothing to see between March and Sept. anyway, as the lake dries up.


We headed back to town and started heading for the bus station on our bikes to buy tickets to Tiger Leaping Gorge for 8:00am tomorrow. It started raining, so we aborted the bus station run and went to a cafe for a bit.


After the rain stopped, back to the bus station. My bike is finished. The cable that controls the major gears broke. And the chain keeps skipping when I peddle hard.


After bus station, we dropped our bikes off, back to the guest house, hung out, then went to Seans Cafe for supper, did some shopping abd bought some stuff.


After supper, there was a local dance session happening in the old city square. There must have been 50 locals all in a big circle dancing.


To bed around 9:00. Temperature in our room is a comfy 11 Celcius.

1 comment:

  1. I would have been petrified - but then again, I'm a big scaredy cat anyway.

    ReplyDelete