Fueled with slight anger, frustation and the anxiety to find a place to sleep for the night in Wuhan, I deligently checked all the booking websites, marked all the potential hostels, address locations and made the thrid booking for a hostel within the same day.
Lack of preperation and focus on finding a place to stay in Wuhan left me a bit distracted while inside the train. At one point I was not sure which station in Wuhan was the train going to stop and missing the stop might just shoot me to another city which I would be totally unprepared.
A bro approached me and I asked him if this was the hostel, I actually showed him the info in English and he said not sure. Switched off translation mode and show him again and viola, yes this is the hostel.
I paid RMB 70 for three night which was within my budget and then he gave me a tour of the place. Toilet was clean but crap squat and looked messy as hell. Chucked my stuff .... got a shower and just as I was about to rest, a whiff of cig smoke could be smelled slowly passing though the room out the window. I will never understand the concept of a smoking dorm room in China.
The next day I woke up with a backache. The beds in China hostels seams to be following a trend. Made from timber nailed together and place with a 1 inch thick mattress loosely covered with bedsheets and a thick duvet. Heck the duvet is thicker than the mattress which became my dilemma to use is a a cover or a matress coz it’s also damn cold now pre-winter.
In a sense only the first hostel in Shanghai had a nice thick bed. I cant even tell if there is a bed now and feels more like I am sleeping on plank. Heck camping out and sleeping on the ground feels much more comfortable yet this looks like the norm in China budget hostels.
Although I already paid RMB 70 for three nights, the lack of sleep due to constant whiff of cig smoke coupled with a messy toilet promt me to leave the place bright and early in the morning. I did not even bother to try and bargain back the money for the next two nights and just left with all my bags as this hostel with every stranger walking in and out freely felt like a theft waiting to happen.
Jumping to the second hostel in Wuhan and this one had the same arrangement albeit slightly improved. 1 inch thick mattress, clean toilets and no smoking inside the dorm. In total I spend RMB 100 for 4 nights but stayed only two so about RMB 50 per night. At this rate, I wont last long so for Yichang I am hoping to catch two nights at a HOTEL with proper bed and hopefully recharge.
Wuhan is not cutting it for me to rest and see so with the money spend on 4 nights in hostel but staying only two night, I’ll make a quicker dash for Yichang. Thinking back, if I had found a good place to stay in Wuhan, this city had so much potential to explore that I would probabaly be stuck in Wuhan a week.
Traveled on: November 2023
Lack of preperation and focus on finding a place to stay in Wuhan left me a bit distracted while inside the train. At one point I was not sure which station in Wuhan was the train going to stop and missing the stop might just shoot me to another city which I would be totally unprepared.
Wuhan while slightly off tangent, was still part of the route I had laid out previously. I resorted to asking the passanger next to me which stop was my ticket showing and he told me it was the immediate next one.
Wang was a curious one. My lack of ability to read yet able to ask him specific questions in mandarin made him engage and asked me a few questions. Once the ice was broken that I was a tourist backpacking China, Wang warm up and asked more question on the mental and fortitude for travelling long time and to far away places alone.
The time was short as Wuhan was comming up real quick but Wang was also from Wuhan returning home. We exchange a quick wechat contact which would give me a local experience in Wuhan the next day.
Wang was a curious one. My lack of ability to read yet able to ask him specific questions in mandarin made him engage and asked me a few questions. Once the ice was broken that I was a tourist backpacking China, Wang warm up and asked more question on the mental and fortitude for travelling long time and to far away places alone.
The time was short as Wuhan was comming up real quick but Wang was also from Wuhan returning home. We exchange a quick wechat contact which would give me a local experience in Wuhan the next day.
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| Wuhan Metro Token |
I realized later that it was very common in China for one to exchange wechat only to never contact each other. It felt like a reminances of the asian trait that they would invite guest to their home as a friendly conversation whereby in the western culture invitation to home visit was a sacred privilage. In a way both cultures seam to have pass down the traits to phone contact etiquate.
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| Finding the Hostel in Wuhan |
Arrived Wuhan and hit the metro navigating to the first hostel. I arrived a big tall building base on the GPS navigation but again there was no sign of where the hostel was. I made a guess and entered a lobby and asked a nice chap that was just standing there with his phone for help. He confirmed that I was at the right building and the right block and that I just needed to go upstairs to level 27.
This building elevator was crazy busy as well with so many people going in and out. Elevator was decked out with advertisement and each floor that stop seams to have some sort of establishment run out of the apartment such as gaming shop, nail shop, book shop etc. There was no signs for the hostel at level 27. I followed the noise and stepped into an apartment with everyone at the living room looking at me, I still did not know if I was at the right place.
This building elevator was crazy busy as well with so many people going in and out. Elevator was decked out with advertisement and each floor that stop seams to have some sort of establishment run out of the apartment such as gaming shop, nail shop, book shop etc. There was no signs for the hostel at level 27. I followed the noise and stepped into an apartment with everyone at the living room looking at me, I still did not know if I was at the right place.
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| View of Wuhan from the Hostel Window |
A bro approached me and I asked him if this was the hostel, I actually showed him the info in English and he said not sure. Switched off translation mode and show him again and viola, yes this is the hostel.
*internal facepalm*
The hostel was basicly an appartment turned hostel. Suits me fine as it’s usually cosy for these type. They showed me the room and bunks which seams ok ... clean and then we negotiated the price per night.
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| A Clean but smoking dorm Hostel |
I paid RMB 70 for three night which was within my budget and then he gave me a tour of the place. Toilet was clean but crap squat and looked messy as hell. Chucked my stuff .... got a shower and just as I was about to rest, a whiff of cig smoke could be smelled slowly passing though the room out the window. I will never understand the concept of a smoking dorm room in China.
The next day I woke up with a backache. The beds in China hostels seams to be following a trend. Made from timber nailed together and place with a 1 inch thick mattress loosely covered with bedsheets and a thick duvet. Heck the duvet is thicker than the mattress which became my dilemma to use is a a cover or a matress coz it’s also damn cold now pre-winter.
In a sense only the first hostel in Shanghai had a nice thick bed. I cant even tell if there is a bed now and feels more like I am sleeping on plank. Heck camping out and sleeping on the ground feels much more comfortable yet this looks like the norm in China budget hostels.
 |
| A typical Budget Hostel Setup in China. Check out the timber planks above. |
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| And ontop the timber plan is a 1inch thick matress. |
Although I already paid RMB 70 for three nights, the lack of sleep due to constant whiff of cig smoke coupled with a messy toilet promt me to leave the place bright and early in the morning. I did not even bother to try and bargain back the money for the next two nights and just left with all my bags as this hostel with every stranger walking in and out freely felt like a theft waiting to happen.
Jumping to the second hostel in Wuhan and this one had the same arrangement albeit slightly improved. 1 inch thick mattress, clean toilets and no smoking inside the dorm. In total I spend RMB 100 for 4 nights but stayed only two so about RMB 50 per night. At this rate, I wont last long so for Yichang I am hoping to catch two nights at a HOTEL with proper bed and hopefully recharge.
Wuhan is not cutting it for me to rest and see so with the money spend on 4 nights in hostel but staying only two night, I’ll make a quicker dash for Yichang. Thinking back, if I had found a good place to stay in Wuhan, this city had so much potential to explore that I would probabaly be stuck in Wuhan a week.
Traveled on: November 2023
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