September 6 - China: Overland trip from Yangshuo to Yichang

At 11:00, we were scheduled to leave on a bus to catch a 20+ hour train to Yichang.  So we spent the morning packing, getting take-away lunches, and I went to order 2 more apple crumbles so we could have a nice breakfast on the train tomorrow.  I put in my order at 10:00 and they told me it would take 30 minutes.  No worries!  But at 10:45 they still weren't ready and the girl at the counter told me that the oven had broken so it took longer.  Finally, at 10:55, they arrived and were piping hot.  Too bad we have to wait 24 hours to eat them!

Bus to Liuzhou

The four hour bus ride to Liuzhou was pretty uneventful.  We read our books and played cards and listened to music, and arrived in Liuzhou at 3:00ish.

Liuzhou Train Station

We had "soft sleeper" tickets on the train to Yichang, which means that there are 4 bunks to a cabin and doors on the cabin - much more "posh" than our "hard sleeper" train to Guilin.  So at the Liuzhou Train Station we sat in the separate lounge for soft-sleeper tickets, which basically means that there are upholstered chairs and air conditioning (sort of).  So we put our bags down, and everyone went to get food for dinner while Grant and I sat and chatted about his experiences as a trip leader.  He lived in Vietnam and Thailand for a few years, and is fluent in Thai.  I was completely surprised to find out that this is his first trip to lead in China.  He's so confident in everything he does - which is of course how every guide/leader should appear (even if they're not).  So he's doing his job quite well!  He commissioned some silk chopstick holders from a seamstress in Yanghuo, so he gave them to us as we were waiting for the train.  They are so great and will be very handy with for our new chopsticks that Jon bought.

Train to Yichang

At 5:00 when the train was to arrive, we were escorted to the train and helped on board.  We shared a cabin with Mel and Ken (from Seattle) and were unfortunately at the end of the car next to the door and the bathroom.  But it doesn't really matter because we can barely hear the door once the train is moving anyway.  The big bummer, though, was that the cars weren't air conditioned!  Grant says its always a shot in the dark and you never know until you board, but none of our rooms have A/C.  So we finagled with the window to get it open and settled in for a long, hot ride.

Jon, Ken, Laurel, and Anne were on a mission for cold beers - which are a bit of an anomaly here in China.  At one point, Jon bought a cold beer from a lady selling them on a train platform, and had to conduct the money exchange while the train was pulling out and with the lady running next to our window.  The train itself wasn't so bad, except when we went through tunnels and it was very loud because the window was open.  But the evening went pretty quickly and we had fun getting to know Mel and Ken and bouncing around from one cabin to the next.  By 10:00, we were all in bed and ready for sleep.

Random Ruminations about China

• China has excellent infrastructure.  I wouldn't classify this as a Third World country at all.  Most of the roads are very well kept and are very modern.  Jon thinks that they aren't First World because of their heavy reliance on agriculture.  But I can't possibly put China in the same category as some of the places we went to in Africa and India.
• Capitalism is alive and thriving in the tourist areas.  Aside from certain blocked website access, (CNN, NY Times, Washington Post), we really haven't seen blatant communism anywhere.  It's interesting how a trip like this can change my previously-formed impressions.  I always pictured people marching with red flags, looking over their shoulders for "big brother", etc.  But this is just like any other country where people are just trying to make a living.