Andy's not here, man.: Flooding in Wanning

After staying a few days in Haikou (yes, no blog from here as the city was pretty boring and it was just raining the whole time I was there) my Haikou couchsurf host and me went down to Wanning to spend a night there and see what the town was all about. Unfortunately for us a typhoon and cold front were coming in, what resulted was rain like I've never seen before. Rain, winds, and severe flooding. To my knowledge no one was badly injured but damage was definitely done.

Our host for the night somehow found a Russian couple who was stranded in town and couldn't book a hotel. All the hotels were booked up as buses couldn't leave since the floods destroyed the roads in both ways. Pretty awesome, right? So with stranded buses in both directions, the town was full of too many people. I'm pretty positive the 24hr KFC acted as a bedroom for many people. Well with the Russian couple joining the party, the bed situation got slimmer. I was put in the room with Xiumin's (my host) brother. We shared a bed, though different sheets and plenty of room between us. However I had possibly one of the funniest and slightly disturbing talks of my trip that night. Xiumin's brother, whose name I either forgot or never fully got, was around 13, 14 or 15, aka early pubescent teenager. Right before going to bed he asks me, "have you had sex before?" Keep in mind he lives in oppressive China. He lives in a country where certain things that are talked about more freely in other countries are NOT spoken of here. So, here I am having a basic birds and bees convo with a young chinese boy I just met. Here is the part I probably shouldn't share with the world, but honestly, I thought it was sort of hilarious. He starts asking me about my, well, special parts. Turns out her brother is either bisexual or head on gay (I couldn't really understand from the broken english what his orientation was.) Thank god for the separate sheets, right? It was an immensely awkward conversation for me and he kept asking questions or telling me stories about his curiosities, but really in hindsight (pun totally intended) it was all just too funny. Winston on the other hand had to share a room with the Russian couple in the bed next to his. His night was also interesting as the wife just cried the whole night because of being stuck in the town. I'm not sure who had the funnier or more interesting night. I also don't know who slept better. :)

The flooding is starting.

Cars or boats?

Restaurants and shops having lost power resort to candlelights for customers.

pushing the cars through the "puddles"

pushing shown from another angle.

deep water

What I believe was the deepest area of the flood

Me in the center of the flood. Notice how high the water is up to my knees.

Xiumin's mom and I, walking around in the flood.

Winston during the flood.

Since we rescued the Russian couple, the cops drove us home.

a little pose with the cops. The one to the left got into it. he actually took his jacket off so his # could be seen. apparently it is more respectful this way.