Sunday 19th July, 2015                               1210

Just making a start after arriving at the ecological park before “assembly” at 1220 followed by a much needed lunch. Plus the internet in my room isn’t working so I am waiting for someone to come and sort it.

I was on time this morning but this time the coach wasn’t. The people overseeing the kids are the same company as last year and I must say the coach was really comfortable and big enough to give me two seats to myself. As tired as I was I still couldn’t sleep even with the seat reclined, possibly due in large part to excited kids.

The accommodation is hardly five star but I have stayed in far worse and I have my own room - no inconsiderate kids to wake me up in the mornings this time. The problem at the moment is that the wired internet doesn’t work (although it does on the repair man’s laptop!) and so I am waiting for someone to return with a router so perhaps I might get wifi. But why do I get the feeling I am not going to get any lunch? It is now 1310.

1715

I never got lunch. Eventually a router was brought in order for me to get connected to the web. Later the kids were taken miles away to do all sorts and the owner and I walked to watch them. I can honestly say that’s the furthest I have walked since Chinese new year and my legs are telling me all about it.

The owner informed me he had been “cheated” again because apparently lunch was of the same standard as last year - crap. I really hope not because at least last year I could buy biscuits to survive, here I can’t even see a shop although I did spot pot noodles on sale. It may come to that, I will find out shortly when dinner is served. One thing for sure, I will not have trouble sleeping tonight! And the air-conditioning works and there is the CCTV news in English on my TV.

The place is what one might term a project under construction and to say their website has been doctored to make it appear much more luxurious would not be an understatement. Another gripe is the soap in the bathroom. It is minuscule and I am expected to shower in the morning with two poxy sachets of body wash, something I hate. Thank God for the Hilton and the soap bars I pinched from them last time I stayed.

But this isn’t about the adults, the kids’ parents have each paid 1,300y to send them here. I really hope they have a blast for the four days.

1915

Well my dinner is indeed pot noodles. As we entered the dining hall I looked at the children’s dishes. Not particularly appetising but there was one dish that looked promising, either sweet pork or crispy pork. The adults had a private room.

The four dishes (apart from steamed rice) were sweetcorn, cucumber and awful rubbery mushrooms, cauliflower and a plate of “pork” that was actually 97% fat. I know I am a little fussy these days but there was no way I was eating that swill. My enquiries as to why we didn’t have the pork crispy dish elicited the response that the adults haven’t paid to be there and the students have so their food is better! I did opine that were it not for the adults (not myself of course) then the students wouldn’t even have been taken there. Business acumen is not big in China. So pot noodles in the room it is. The owner has said he will take a look at the menu tomorrow lunchtime - I have absolutely no intention of finding out what horrors they have at breakfast - and I have told him I don’t mind paying for my food. Even egg and tomato or the aubergine dish would get me by but pot noodles??