My world walk China part two Blog # 33

My world walk China part two Blog # 33

A summary of my last week based on a Facebook post. You may have seen some of these pictures and read some of the following detail.

My Spot.tracking device hasn't been updating these last few days. 26km yesterday and rain stopped play early. So it was an early shower, some singing and yes shampoo in my mouth
Expect about 34 today. I'm less than 200 kilometres from Macao and then a short ferry ride to Hong Kong city.

I had two similar walking days on some nice and relatively quiet rural backroads in Chinas Guangdong province. Those days I walked through about ten small villages and towns. Both nights I finished at small grocery stores. With a hint of rain in the air, I asked if I could sleep on a sheltered bench outside those shops. As always everyone was kind and friendly. One family gave me a bowl of rice, cabbage and egg and some form of hairy potato for dessert. My offers of payment are almost always strongly refused, so this is a dilemma for me.

You may have noticed from the photos and videos of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam that in those countries that so many people there greeted me with huge smiles, waves and shouts. It's a bit different in this part of China. Its almost as though I'm a white elephant walking down the road for so many people persistently stare at me with long incredulous looks.

It's amazing the difference just crossing a border makes. I offer my greetings to all of these people. More often than not they don't respond. Sometimes when I'm up for it I repeat my greeting a second or a third time. That usually gets a response. I want to be crystal clear here. I'm not suggesting the Chinese are unfriendly, far from it for often I sat down with those that gave me long stares and after a few minutes its like we are all great mates. So many cyclists told me that they considered the Chinese to be an unfriendly race. No, not my opinion. I believe those same cyclists just didn't take the time to stop to get to know them as I do. I love Chinese people.

Just about everyone is amazed that I'm walking and that Karma doesn't have a motor! It's pretty funny watching them look for a motor or even pedals.

One day I saw a large sign in a village and was curious to know what it was about. Another feature of Google Translate is that a picture can be taken of the foreign text. Then a translation scan can be made of this same picture with a translation into the desired language.
I saw the cruel sight of a man with a racoon swinging from a rope which he had attached to a wooden frame. He was selling the poor creature at the side of the road. I had strong words with him but obviously, he didn't understand me, he probably considered me to be a nutcase.

Another day it rained heavily and when I got to the far end of a large town I decided it was ridiculous to keep walking that day. I had no luck trying to source a hotel. When I got to a row of about ten metal fabrication shops I sat on a sheltered step of the only one that as closed for I was too wet to do the 'entertainment show' that afternoon at one of the occupied shops. Just then a man came along and pulled up the shutter and invited me inside. I sat there and watched the torrential rain for half an hour and was grateful the man boiled up his kettle so as I could make a mug of hot coffee. I was wondering where I was going to sleep that night. My maps didn't show any hotels and I was grateful when this man pulled one up on his map. It was just a block and a half away. I zoomed in on it and studied its location so as there would be no mistake. Sure enough, I tracked it down and ten minutes after handing over my equivalent of eight euro I was in a hot shower. Between the rain and smog that day I picked up a bit of a cough.

Next day I walked 32 kilometres along route G325 and enjoyed a nice wide hard shoulder along the busy highway. When I got to a restaurant with an adjoining hotel I stopped for the night...  I thought the dinner and room were much more expensive than what I had previously paid for similar but the company was nice. I enjoyed a chat with the owner who is a 37-year-old woman. Through Google Translate she told me that her son is in the army and her daughter is still in school. This woman is annoyed with her husband who often gets drunk and falls asleep while she has to work the restaurant alone. She is feeling a bit isolated as she is originally from Fujian province. So I started showboating by picking up peanuts from a bowl with my chopsticks. She put me in my place by picking up her peanuts with toothpicks, lol

That Friday, my 35-kilometre trek along Chinas route G325 took me to Juntang.

Stopping at a convenience store for a snack I had another interesting chat in Spanish with a woman who lived in Venezuela for twelve years. It seemed that her family have a business there and she returned to China a couple of years ago when the economic woes hit the South American country. Needless to say, this is the first time she had an opportunity to speak the worlds most widely spoken mother tongue.

With 140 kilometres to Macao which will be followed by a short ferry ride to Hong Kong, I have plenty of time to spare on my China visa. I  holed up in a nice hotel in Juntang for two rest days and sucked on a cough bottle. My cough improved dramatically, but that could have been due to being away from the smoggy highway. One decision the budget traveller has to make is whether to spend more time in the expensive western world with its relatively clean air or in the more affordable but polluted poorer countries. Obviously, there are health issues. When smog is bad I cover up my face.

25,854 myworldwalk.com kilometres have so far been walked in 744 road days.

Please remember that early cancer screening saves lines.