day 17 - Xiamen - 02.09

We arrived to Xiamen at 1:45 in the morning by bus. As usual we were surrounded by very agressive taxi drivers and other sales people who were overly eager to take us to a hotel. It is not a good idea to arrive to a new location in the dark and at night (so basically anytime between 22:30 and 07:00) as there is no transportation other than taxis and nobody to ask for directions. We tried to avoid it this time as well, but there was no later bus than that - so nothing we could do. Already expecting such behaviour we already new what we needed to do - just keep saying no and move to any direction as fast as possible.

After a few blocks of walking we realized that we are not anywhere close to the city center as we thought we should have been - location of the bus station was known to us. Finally we still ended up taking a taxi to center of the town. No idea where we were dropped of by the bus then :) In the city center we could not locate any hostel at all, seemed like we were at a overly crowded shopping district. After some pondering and looking through our options we took another taxi to the closest youth hostel that we found from the travel guide. Arrived there at around 3:15 :D and after going through our options once more got two beds in a dormitory room again.

Oh the sleep was sweet after 2 nights in moving locations (train and bus). I opened my eyes first time at 1:30 in the afternoon :) and oh the joy of showering, yummmm! Felt like a human being again after good nights sleep and long shower. Then to town. Arranged ourselves bus tickets for tomorrow late night to Shenzhen, leaving on 3rd of September at 22:40, it will be 10 hour bus drive. Next had "breakfast" at some local eating place at 3:15 in the afternoon :D Rest of the day walked around in Xiamen, sat in a park and simply looked around the town. Bought some more snacks, this time dried pineapple, dried plums, some sort of candy and - tadaaaa - bottle of local wine :D

During our late late breakfast we also put together our initial plan for our travels in Vietnam. We are trying to get a flight from Hong Kong (or somewhere close by) to Hanoi in the morning of 8th of September and then train from Hanoi in the evening to the northern border. More specifically later on when we have the tickets.