Journey to the World

After spending half a day in Xijian village I went on a bus for a long trip of thousands of steep curves between Leishan and Congjiang. Only after the bus has arrived in Rongjiang, the curves calmed a little. Overall it was a five and half hours in a minibus.

At 10:00 in the morning I walked out the hostel to investigate the Southern, less interesting side of Xijiang. A few art students sit on the mountain’s slope. They came here to practice their expertise. The brown wooden houses, so typical to Xijiang are seen everywhere. I climbed for fifteen minutes from the village till I reached the main road. This is where tourist groups come on buses to watch the view of the village and the river crossing it. The village is covered with fog during the day. It’s not easy to take a picture from a distance.

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Congjiang. I woke up at 10:00. Having intentions to stay another day in the hostel, I packed a small bag and went to the reception to pay for the next day. The reception lady gave me the deposit I paid the night before for the key (10 yuan). She refused that I stay another day.

It seemed a little odd so Insisted on staying. Then the owner of the place came in and told me this is not a hotel so I cannot stay any more days. Since my Mandarin was not good enough to understand what they wanted, I left the place. They pointed towards a nearby hotel (an expensive one). Another hostel look-alike refused to give me a room as well. The official hotels for tourists are expensive so instead of sleeping in Congjiang, I headed to Basha village, located ten kilometers from the city. This village is known as a hunters village still dressing and working like they did in old times.

I left my huge bag in the bus station of Congjiang (4 yuans per day). There’s no direct bus to Basha, so to get get there you have to take the minivan (30 yuan) or a motorcycle (20 yuan). I settled with a local motorbike driver for 15 yuan and we were on our way to Basha.

Basha village is on a mountain top 20 minutes drive from the city. There are numerous hostels. I entered one of them called Guns Group. Room pricing with showers is 60 yuans. There is a 3-bed dormitory for 20 yuan (per bed). If you get lucky the room will be completely empty.

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I was awaken early today, 6:15 in the morning. Basha village is still a little dark. Villagers are just waking up.

On the previous night I’ve booked a motorcycle for the next morning to take me from the village back to the bus station of Congjiang. From there I was planing to go to another village – Zhaoxing. The bus leaves early in the morning so you need to get up in time to catch it. The motorcycle arrived near my hostel at 6:50 as promised. I had a little surprise in the form of another passenger. A young guy hopped on the motorbike a moment before I had the chance to, and so we were three on a motorcycle driving down the slopes of a mountain back to Congjiang.

It was the type of old motorcycles with a big seat. Such a seat that even four people can get packed on if they really want to. Such motorbikes you see frequently in Vietnam.

The ride was quite easy. There was enough room on the seat for everyone. We arrived in the bus station after twenty minutes. The bus to Zhaoxing leaves at 7:20, and not as I was informed before (7:30) so we got there just in time.

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