Nanning To Sanya By Bus....China

   I spent 2 years in China and while there I traveled from Inner Mongolia in the north, to Hainan in the far south. In total I stopped in over 80 cities in this country that has over 160 cities of more than one million inhabitants. When a foreigner (laowai) travels to the main hubs of China, they can find  hospitable citizenry and the comforts of home (accept the fresh air). Once the laowai hits some smaller cities and villages then she/he can grasp a better sense of the reality for the common folk in this most populous nation. One of the most difficult aspects for me traveling to out of the way places in China, besides the language barrier, was the conduct of the smokers. 330 million people smoke (and spit)in China and they do it everywhere. In restaurants there are large no smoking signs but ashtrays are on every table, smokers light a cigarette before loading a bus (it's nice to share)......I could go on and on, lets just say I was tired of being the smoke police.

  While traveling through China I flew a few times, took the fast train a few times, but for the most part I wanted to travel like the locals. From Nanning (not to be mistaken for the famous Nanjing, or in old times Nanking) I was to travel by bus (for 250 RMB or $42) to Sanya on the bottom of Hainan and the bus was to leave at 5pm. The vehicle turned out to be a sleeper bus (the first for me) with no seats, just 3 tier bunks. There were 2 drivers and a conductor that was yelling at all of the passengers (very common on buses and trains throughout China), I watched as he terrorized the incoming passengers (what a bully). When this guy yelled at me the second time I gestured to him with the hand swiping across the throat.


                           


  While the back up driver slept the conductor and driver had 4 cigarettes each by the time 8:30 came around, the bus was filled with cigarette smoke. At 8:30 the bus pulled into a rather dingy truck stop restaurant, very quickly I could smell the public washroom through the open bus door. The conductor was yelling at the passengers (in Chinese) to get out of the bus, we were given a card that allowed us a free meal. The food was disgusting, it had a rank odor and flies were numerous. I just looked at the offering and then went back behind the bus, away from the washrooms (my eyes were burning). The driver and conductor looked amazed that I did not eat, everyone was hustled back on the bus within 15 minutes. We proceeded down the road for about 30 minutes ( the road was in rough shape) and then we came to a stop; trucks and cars were lined up for kms. There was an accident in front of us somewhere so there was a lot of confusion; with yelling and more cigarettes. The bus backed up along the side of the highway for quit a distance to get free from the bottleneck of traffic before we reached a spot that the driver could took a detour.

  About 11 pm we stopped to pick up 5 passengers and the driver turned on the light to yell at passengers to make room for the new occupants. We proceeded for about 10 minutes and then pulled into some back yard mechanics place for some repair, it was hard to tell with the chaos exactly what the problem was. We were there about 30 minutes and then we moved on, only to stop 2 more times; once for a lady so the men could load supplies in the undercarriage, and and the next time for some men to discuss the bus; something was wrong. The next time the bus stopped (about 10 cigarettes later) I wrote in my journal that some Chinese leaders should take this bus; they are always bragging on the English CCTV about how great everything is going in China.

                            

  We finally made it to the ferry that makes the 1 hour trip across the channel to Haikou, Hainan, it was about 5am. Watching the loading of the ferry was incredible, the amateurish show was something that one would have to see to believe. There was so much yelling and confusion in that chaotic scene as the different ferry workers tried to get the ferry loaded with vehicles; the workers argued with each other over the placement of almost every vehicle. I watched as a trucker was backing his rig in (back in, drive off), the workers were directing the driver when he navigated the tight spaces. The ferry workers that were supposed to be the eyes of the driver on the one side were taking eggs from the cages of a truck that was carrying chickens, they were so excited. The truck they were supposed to be watching ended up backing into a steel beam that was too low for the height of the truck. The driver got out and climbed up on top of the truck, there was so much yelling and angry words were exchanged. Finally after about 15 minutes the trucker was able to break free, after burning some rubber. I entered the sitting area on the ferry and most every guy was smoking so I found a place outside on the top so I could be alone.


                       



                       

   Once the ferry docked we continued on the drive that would take us almost 300 kms to Sanya, until the driver stopped for the 8th time, now he was to get something to eat. Besides the driver I was the only one awake; as I looked out the window I noticed that the bus was twitching periodically. Soon after that the driver had overcompensated on correcting the wandering bus and I sprang up thinking "oh my god, he is falling asleep". I climbed down from the bed and approached the driver, who had his seat about 3 steps lower than the passengers. I could see he was nodding off so I tapped him on the shoulder and startled him. The driver called out loudly in Chinese and the conductor woke up and came quickly to the front, he was mad that I was down by the driver. I was trying to gesture to this enemy that the driver was falling asleep. We argued as he spoke Chinese while I used my sleeping gestures to point at the driver, then I pointed to the sleeping driver who had not even taken the wheel once for the almost 500 kms from Nanning -Haikou, let alone the last 300 kms. This stand off lasted about 10 minutes as I refused to go back to the bed until they changed drivers. Finally with 100 kms to go the driver pulled over and they switched to the well rested guy.



                                



                                 


    Within 5 minutes the tired driver was snoring like a freight train, as were some of the passengers. I was amazed how many passengers slept through all of the stops and yelling throughout the trip. Although I was awake all night and had endured about 30 cigarettes, I could finally enjoy the scenery. There are a lot of resorts on this island, which is within China's only tropical province.

    I knew from the first cigarettes lit on the bus, and the early behaviour of the conductor that I would be finding another way off the island, either flying or by fast train (the track system was almost complete). When I've traveled to "developing countries" (I use those words cautiously)

I have not been able to control putting my life in the hands of others. Like many of us travelers we must board some type of public transportation that is often mismanaged by a company or an incompetent individual.