Bloody Vodafone

Since I came to China I have had nothing but problems with this bloody company. All I wanted to do, was to be able to send text messages to my friends and family, and its been a nightmare. So initially I was on a contract and then I cancelled it and changed to PAYG. After 3 months my phone still wasn't working. They were replying pathetically to my emails and my dad was having no luck on the phone because I had to call in person. All this bloody technology in this world and I have to spend 50 bloody kuai on a phone call to vodafone.

So eventually it got fixed after I had to get someone to buy me a topup card in England and then ring up and enter it in from England. Now its decided not to work again. And when I tried to send them another email, their email address is not working.

Do not get a vodafone- I REPEAT do not get a vodafone. :-(

 

EDIT: I actually need to top up my phone *blush* But, that doesn't excuse them for the rest of the pain.

1 Kommentar 2.3.04 16:01, Comment

Friendship

'I want to be your friend

For ever and ever without break or decay.

When all the hills are flat,

And the rivers are all dry,

When it lightens and thunders in winter,

When it rains and snows in summer,

When Heaven and Earth mingle-

Not till then will I part from you.'

 

"Oaths of Friendship" Chinese, 1st century.

 

This is for the most very special of friends you could imagine. Without her I am incomplete and the thought of her feeling down is enough to make my heart break. Letting her know I am there is all I can do. S, you're amazing and you continue to change my life and me for the better. You have a bright future and don't forget that.

6 Kommentare 5.3.04 16:29, Comment

Kunming Airport- 1st February

Oh dear! There has been a slight lapse in writing over the last few days but I am pleased to report its because I've been having an excellent time here in Kunming. Here's a rough lowdown of the last few days:

FRIDAY

We decided that because of the beautiful weather (blue skies and lovely sunshine), we would head out of Kunming on the bikes to see Jin Dian (Golden Temple). It was a really pleasant ride, apart from a slight detour (read: we got lost), although it did lead us to a bizarre vortex. It was like a computer generated toy town. All these pristine apartment blocks and shops, a policeman standing guard- yet no people. No cars on the road, mainly because it didn't go anywhere. No people in the restaurants or shops (if they were even open)- it was very disturbing.

After we quickly turned around and headed the right way, we were on our way to the temple. The road there was really interesting- a step back into 'real' China. It really reminded me of some parts of Beijing, which was nice and made me feel at home. What was not nice was the view I got of a dog being cut up- with the face and all.

The temple visit itself was a mixed affair. At the start we entered with a billion Chinese people and were presented with people selling everything and anything (yes, when I visit a temple of course I want to buy insoles), beggars everywhere and people who had set up fairground type games (throw the hoop or shoot the balloon).

The building was beautiful and we saw some interesting rituals. One involved wrapping red cotton around two trees to find a partner and another required rubbing a black stone and then rubbing your body in order to make it beautiful and healthy. There were TOO many people however, because of a special temple day, and the burning of incense had turned into an enormous fire with smoke and ash flying everywhere.

We headed down a small path and soon found some much needed tranquility. The temple is situated in the middle of a pine forest and is surrounded by gardens containing plants native to Yunnan province. We walked through the forest which had the occasional palm tree and bamboo plants. We saw birds freely flying around (and not in cages like in most city parks) and even had a close encounter with a little white bird with a bright orange beak.

(Before you panic it was not a chicken, I am under strict instructions not to converse with any chickens)

It looked like a baby as it was fluffy, and it was just sitting close to the path. We got closer and it started jumping around squeling 'MEEP MEEP'. When we walked away it followed us for a while, before jumping up the steps on the path. We were worried when a woman with a very cute dalmation puppy came down the path but the bird escaped unscathed.

We then sat down for a while eating biscuits and listening to the birds, before trying to get out of the park (and getting lost of course). A mention must go in here of the not so pleasant toilet. I can cope with most as long as they have doors. These owned no doors and one faced exactly where you walked in.

Anyways, on the long walk back to the bikes (we came out of the north instead of the east gate), we sampled a variety of food they were selling on the street- some baozi (bready dumplings), a meat bread pancake thing followed by some fried potatoes on the way home. I also tasted some of the pineapple here. They sell a half a one peeled on the street for a kuai (8p), and it tastes sooo much better than the tinned stuff in England that i hate.

The rest of the evening was spent checking email, eating more food- fried noodles this time, and chatting to random people in the hostel. A fun day!

 

SATURDAY

Yesterday was the Bamboo Temple (Qiongzhu Si) and Yuantong Si. We were going to cycle to the Bamboo temple until we discovered it was up a large hill! We took a minibus with 2 Australians and the view from the bus covered the whole of Kunming. The temple was really beautiful and luckily there were hardly any people there. The most amazing part however was the 500 lifesize clay figures housed in a number of temple buildings. These were not terracotta warrior-like, they were very life-like and sculpted in very natural poses or in midflow. For example there were serence looking monks sitting casually and very scary ones cursing monsters. Each was different and showed amazing expression. Particularly impressive was a room with surfing buddhas protruding from the walls, riding on a variety of animals- chickens, spiders, unicorns. We ate some vegetarian temple food and then headed back down the mountain.

As it was still quite early we walked to our second temple of the day- Yuantong Si. On the way Lulu introduced me to what she called Pearl Milk Tea- though it also goes by the name of 'Bubble Tea'. Its a milky tea-ish drink with black balls of stuff in the bottom which are made of rice i think. It was nice, if not a little strange tasting! Lulu was happy though as she had been missing it.

Yuantong Si was really really beautiful. It was a relatively new temple building but it was intricately painted in bright blue, orange and gold. Behind the main hall there was a Thai style building which housed a gold statue given to the temple by the King of Thailand. There was also a small lake with lots of turtles (I had to apologise for eating their friend) and fish.

After that it was the usual email checking and to City Cafe for dinner. In there we met a couple of English guys and an American, and from there we went for a drink in Paper Tiger. Was fun chatting with them. We then went back to the hostel and did some more chatting with some people from Korea in the reception area. There was such a mix of languages going around- English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean! And to bed as I was leaving for Xishuangbanna today...

9.3.04 18:03, Comment