The best little restaurant in Qianliang!

The best little restaurant in Qianliang!

We were planning on having a short day today. We got a late start- 10:30 and planned to hike into a village that was only 10 miles down the road. As soon as we entered this village we stopped for lunch. They were a really nice family and they made us a delicious meal-scrambled egs withe cHines chives. Their son came home from school and was friendly and engaging and brought out his puppy to show us. We took several group photos and told them to check the website tonight and their photo would be there. We exchanged phone numbers so we could send them a link to the website. They directed us to a hotel and when we went to pay the bill for our lunch, they wouldn’t accept our money. We insisted,they insisted. This whole trip is a social experiment. We aren’t asking for or expecting or hinting at handouts. We are just walking along and seeing what happens. What is happening is that people are getting excited about what we are doing. It touches them in some way but because of the communication issue, we are not exactly sure in what way.
We left their restaurant knowing that there were at least 2 hotels in that village. The one that we were able to find at first denied being a hotel and then admitted to being a hotel but refused to rent us a room. I was using Google translate to help us communicate.”This is a hotel?” I asked. TThe woman answered in Mandarin, “yes”. “You have rooms?” Yes. “We want 1 room”. “No”. “No room for us?” I asked confused and then the woman answered in English “YES”.
We walked another 5 miles to the next village that actually had a hotel, that admitted to being a hotel, quoted us a price of 70 kuai in the parking lot but then only charged us 50 kuai ($8) once we got in the room AND they let us use their washing machine!
Maybe tomorrow will be our short day because I have 3 angry blisters. I’m including a pic so consider yourself warned.
This photo doesn't do it justice.

This photo doesn’t do it justice.

About Micae Martinet

2 Responses to “The Best-Laid Schemes ‘O Mice and Men…”

  1. Krista

    Ouch! Mom and I were reading your blog and the pic made us both hiss and suck into our teeth!
    Wonder what the thought is with locals having pity on ya.?
    What’re the bathrooms like?, the kitchens? The weather?

    • Micae Martinet

      There are public bathrooms roadside frequently but I have only had to use them twicE. They are pit toilets and never very deep or just a very shallow trough. We stayed at a hotel last night that had a bathroom unside it that cost 50 kuai ($8). The smell in the bathroom was so bad I almost vomited several different times. I drink a ton of water during the day but still only have to pee twice a day. Once in the morning and once
      At night. It’s in the upper 80s here and we put our umbrellas up every morning at about 10:00. We get lots of big grins and smiles and thumbs up and lots of stares and double takes too. I got a double take from a dog yesterday.

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