Around the World in 80 Days

Day 46: 9 November

Hot water arrives at twenty to seven. Hawaiian music is playing over the broadcasting system. Beyond the lace curtains the fields are already full. The countryside is like a Thomas Hardy novel come to life. One man is hoeing, another cutting the rice. A woman is washing, someone else is fishing, another feeding rice stalks into a thresher which two others pedal. An old man is setting the cut rice up in stooks, a woman tills the soil, two men pass carrying a threshing machine on a pole slung between their shoulders. A brick kiln is already smoking. The Chinese seem to have an insatiable appetite for building.

Into the loo for a wash. Only cold water and that is sporadic. The smells have increased overnight, and my Armani soap, a memento of what seem like days long ago at the Peninsula Hotel, adds an unlikely whiff of Beverly Hills to this stained and shabby place. As I return to the compartment, I find my way blocked by our attendant who is sloshing a filthy old mop across the floor of the corridor. It's a painful process to watch, as the floor is carpeted.

At Yin-Tang in Jianxi Province I alight from the train and take the morning air. I realise, with quite a start, that it is cool, even cold, and riffle through my bag for my short-sleeve sweater, which I haven't worn since the night we left Venice. There's an edge of autumn in the air which I suppose is to be expected as we've been travelling due north since leaving Singapore - from 150 miles off the Equator six days ago to over 2000 miles north today.

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PALIN'S GUIDES

Series: Around the World in 80 Days
Day: 46
Date: 9 November
Country/sea: China
Place: Guangzhou
Book page no: 156

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Hong Kong - Guangzhou

Around the World in 80 Days

Day 46: 9 November

PALIN'S GUIDES

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