September 3 - Hong Kong to Guilin

We were supposed to meet the group at 11:00 to head to the bus station, which would take us to the train station.  But before we met them, we went to grab a bite to eat and then went to a grocery store to buy some snacks for lunch and for tonight's long train ride.  It was POURING RAIN and so we put on our massive blue ponchos and trudged through the streets.  Here, it's apparently etiquette to leave your wet umbrella at the door in the bucket, but of course we don't have umbrellas.  Our only choice is to take off the ponchos and let them drip throughout the store.

Time to Hit the Road!

Back at the hotel, we checked out and met the group in the lobby at 11:00.  The group has grown from last night as more people have arrived.  Here's low-down on our fellow travelers:

Undoubtedly, many of you have noticed the amount of grandparents on this tour.  Yep, it's a little different from our previous "crazy kids" tours, but this can be a good thing.  This probably means that - compared to the Tibet Tour - this is going to be a breeze.  If grandparents have signed up, then we'll probably be staying at nicer places and experiencing a bit more cushy transportation.  It's still an Intrepid trip, though, so we WILL still lug our stuff through train stations and whatnot.  But at least we're staying in places with running water!

Bus Trip to Guangzhou

The Guangzhou Train Station is about 4 hours away, so we went to the bus station to catch the bus to Guangzhou.  But this is China, and so everything is done in a roundabout way to get from Point A to Point B.  The bus station was about 15 minutes from our hotel.  From the bus station, we boarded a bus that would take us to another bus station to board a different bus to take us to Guangzhou.  This bus ride was only about 15 minutes, and drove right by the West Hotel where we had just come from.  But the government doesn't like tourists to just "show up" at the 2nd bus station and so demand that we go through the original bus station first!  So, we took our stuff off bus #1 and waited for bus #2.  Bus #2, by the way, looked identical to bus #1 and so we debated for a while whether it was in fact a different bus or the same one.

We loaded on our stuff and rode off for the 4 hour bus ride to get to Guangzhou.  Along the way, we passed through the Hong Kong Exit Station and then passed through the China Entrance Station.  Thankfully, no issues with the Visas or Passports!  When we got to Guangzhou, we dropped our bags off at the tourist bureau and went across the street to McDonald's for dinner.  (Why were we craving McD's the other day?  We're SICK of it now!)  

At 5:30, we went back to the tourist bureau to get our bags and to begin the long 15 minute walk to the train station.  Our backpacks, by the way, are over 20 kilos and that doesn't include the laptop, cameras, or books that are in the day packs which we strap over fronts.  Quite a load to carry, but it's our own fault so what are we going to do?

Guangzhou Train Station

We had been forewarned about what the train station would look like.  On the pavement in front of the entrance to the station were HUNDREDS of Chinese people with their luggage, families, and pets sitting on the ground waiting for their trains.  Apparently the authorities won't let you in until a set time before your train is to leave, and some of these people have traveled from far away.  So they could only catch one bus at a certain time, which leaves them here hours (or days)  before their train.  And so they wait.  With their red-and-blue striped plastic luggage that everyone here has.

Our 6:00 train was in the station, so we lugged our stuff, found our car, and plopped everything down.  We had tickets for a hard-class sleeper car, which is a level below a soft-class sleeper car.  The only real difference is that hard-class has 6 bunks (3 on either wall) to a section and no door, where soft-class has 4 bunks to a section and a door.  But it really was fine because most of our car was tourists anyway so no worries.  Jon and I took the top bunks (the third level) because we're young and there are people in the group who would be better off not having to climb ladders in the middle of the night.  Here's the view from the third bunk:

The train left promptly at 6:00 and we spent the rest of the evening getting to know our fellow travelers.  We have quite a variety of people with us, and it's definitely going to be a fun trip!

There was Chinese music playing over the loudspeakers, which we were told would turn off at 10:00PM along with the overhead lights.  And there were train attendants walking up and down the car with carts full of things to buy: water, warm sodas, warm beer (cold beer is the exception here), noodles, chicken legs, plastic toys, etc... etc...   Of course we had no idea what anyone was saying as they walked by because English is also the exception here.  But we caught the drift.

The hours flew by pretty quickly, and before we knew it it was 9:00 and time to get ready for bed.  Jon set up our Therma-rests and sleeping bags on our bunks (such a thoughtful husband!) and we settled in to play Gin Rummy until the lights and the music went out.  My earplugs and eye covers were a great help, because there were still people milling about and the nightlights were very bright.  But we went to sleep anyway!