“This time” I woke up early 😉. Ben’s magic file had worked again yesterday after the hotel receptionist helped me with (better?) internet access. At least the procedure was different than in the room. So I could continue looking for a way to leave Arys.
Breakfast wasn’t that tasty, but some things are “safe,” like in this case, sweet potatoes or other vegetables. But here, too, I tried something new, some delicious, some not my immediate favorites. In the end, I took two rolls, one was a nice, sweet surprise, the other was meaty and not the best way to end my breakfast. But can you tell before you bite into it?
At 10 a.m., I took bus 178. I threw two coins into a box, but I could have thrown in one or five coins, or a dead battery cell—no one minded.
The tour differed from the route on the map, but that was fine with me, as the station was the last stop, and the always imperial layout of the stations helped me recognize it from a distance. I was an hour and a half early, but my train, G414, was already on the screen. Luckily, the train numbers are in English!
The hostel manager asked me to add him on WeChat, and there he gave me some useful information. The building and even the hidden entrance weren’t that difficult to find, but then it was really necessary for him to come down to pick me up, since he had written “13th floor,” but it was actually the 17th, and you needed a door code for an entrance that didn’t say anything about a hostel, etc.
I soon set off on the 8km walk to the restaurant Han had chosen. The route took me through various parts of town and neighborhood, giving me a first impression of the city.
Han, her partner Side (or rather Peter, because it looks easy, but I couldn’t pronounce “Side” correctly at the end), and I had dinner together. Han explained that the food in the south is sweeter than in the north of China, and the lotus with glutinous rice filling was a good (= sweet) example. Should I mention that the rest of the food was also good, and most of it was new to me? Okay—done!
We chatted a lot and took a lovely walk along the southeastern shore of West Lake, but Han also had a lot to share, and her warm connection to West Lake was palpable.
Han and Peter helped me use Alipay for the subway, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to do that again since they switched to Chinese in the second phase. But then I can still buy a regular ticket.
The price for the hostel was cheap, and so was the hostel itself. At least now I know why I brought not only a towel, but also toilet paper and a thin sleeping bag.
My train mystery had a new chapter:
That afternoon, I received an email from tutu.ru saying that 90 (!) tickets were still available for the Arys–Tashkent route. Back at the hostel, I tried my best to buy one. Since doing anything on my phone was already a challenge for me, the Russian website was difficult to navigate. The direct translation didn’t work at every step, so I had to copy every word of the form into the translation app and re-enter the details. The final step was payment. One card wasn’t accepted. Things initially looked better with the second card, but then I received the message: “Only Russian cards are currently accepted.”
No ticket!
Now I have another, somewhat risky option:
Should I just go to Arys and hope to get a ticket at the train station? (Even at the beginning of the booking, there were only 77 left!) If not, will I find a driver to Tashkent?