In the
morning I remember that I have to call Iris to explain to the hotel
lady that I need a receipt. I should add that she has fussed over me
like something of a mother hen while I've been here and nothing seems
to have been too much trouble for her. I send a message to a friend
but it will not send and I try a few more times. I become worried as
I have a signal and I have power, so the only thing that this could
possibly mean is I've run out of credit. At a loss what to do I try
calling Iris from the room but I cannot seem to get a line. Finally I
mange to ask the lady to call Iris for me and she explains about the
receipt. For my phone, the lady at the hotel generously offers to
find out why it isn't working and calls the phone supplier in China.
It seems I am out of credit as I feared so she offers to top it up
for me for RMB100. I am pleased to agree so she and her husband try
to top up my phone. Iris asks me to call her when it works: we are
both worried that I might have an accident on he way back and have
no means of contacting anyone in the event of an emergency. I try a
number of times to send my friend's message to test my phone without
success. In the end the hotel lady's husband offers to drive me to
the China Unicom shop in Mancheng to get it sorted out: so we drive
off and just as we arrive it works! So I explain to the gentleman and
we return to the hotel.
I must
say I'm very grateful to them both for their help and hospitality. I
take a photograph and set off back to Baoding.
I have
to say I'm pleased to be leaving Mancheng. I look forward to getting
back to Baoding. I plod slowly back, passing a number of factories
that look like something out of a nightmare post-industrial
revolution era, all convoluted pipes, rusty metal frameworks,
gantries and huge chimneys, probably responsible for the polluted air
in the district. The only thing that happens on the way back is that
hundreds of market traders have set up street stalls occupying the
cycle lane in a huge street market that seems to go on for miles. I cannot go any further unless I use the road itself so I decide to cross over and cycle on the “wrong” side for the
rest of the journey home which takes about one and three-quarter
hours. I have lunch locally and a couple of beers. I've been invited
out for the evening but I'm so tired I eventually decline, electing
to stay indoors and have beans on toast for tea!
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