In the morning I awoke early and thankfully only endured a short awkward silence with my bedfellow before Ali arrived to take me to breakfast. I left my bag in the room with the only man I’ve ever slept with without knowing his name and headed down to a local café. I figured if the guy had any intention of robbing me he’d have done it by now. I left it to Ali to order and wolfed down some tasty noodles in a beef broth. In the excitement of the night before I...

I checked out and was given back far more money than I’d expected from my deposit, which meant the room had cost me little more than a hostel. I headed across to the train station and found that the train to Changsha wasn’t until the late afternoon, so I headed across the road to grab an early lunch. I was given a table for four to myself and was quickly joined by a couple as the restaurant filled up. The guy was in his mid 20’s and immediately started pra...