I figured it must have been my intonation which caused me trouble, so I tried again: “miniye baa”. The staff of my hostel in Jianshui looked at me with a look as if they thought I had cuckoo. OK, so far for my pronunciation in Standard Chinese, I thought, and showed them my smartphone where the word for “toilet” was written in chinese script. “Miniye baa”, the staff member repeated, still with a look of disbelief on his face. I realised Google Translate must have been a bit off with their translation, so I took out my notebook and showed off my drawing skills. It still took me about 5 minutes before they figured out I wanted to go to the toilet and refused to express it with obscene gestures… I was gradually getting used to having communication problems in China and took it good humouredly. All the easier in this laid back town, with an ancient feel to it and some nice - but to my feeling overpriced - cultural attractions.
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