I'm in Guilin! Yesterday afternoon at 3PM, I got on a train with my travel buddy Luiza and 3 of her friends. (I hadn't met them before, but they're nice girls! One's from Tanzania, another is from Sudan, and the other is.... I think from Algeria, like Luiza. I'll have to ask again... I'm still working on learning how to pronouce their names!) We were told the train would take about 12 hours... but we didn't arrive in Guilin until about 5:30 AM!!!! (That's about 14 and a half hours!!!!) And when we booked our tickets, the bed spots were all already taken... so we were in "regular" seats all night! It was definitely not the most pleasant trip. (I was even checking online for plane tickets this morning, because I would much rather spend some extra money than ride back the way we came... but there's only one, and it's over 700 RMB, so I guess I'll stick with the train... hopefully we'll get bed spots for the way back!)
I've been on trains in Europe plenty of times but Chinese trains are a different animal completely. They're incredibly dirty, the people are loud, and they have no qualms about ignoring the "no smoking" signs. And the train was really crowded for the first part of the trip. The seats were all filled, and there were people standing in the aisles for hours on end... here, you can buy a train ticket to stand in the train if you want to save money. There was an empty seat next to me, so some of the "standers" took turns sitting in that seat for a while.
But I'm gonna quit whining now... my friend Becca is in Ghana right now, and she just spent 10 days traveling around Africa on busses and sleeping in bus stops... so she's probably laughing as she reads this. ;)
Being a foreigner here automatically draws attention... but when you're traveling in a group, you attrat even MORE attention. And in Chinese culture, it's not considered rude to stare at people, read over their shoulders, etc. So people on the train were kneeling on their seats, looking over the backs of their seats, etc, watching us play cards, eat ramen noodles (I've never enjoyed ramen noodles as much in my entire life!), read, talk, etc. I honestly can't wait to be home where it's not weird to be a white girl! (Actually, I spent about 75% of the ride wishing I was at home in my soft bed!)
But that's over with now... and I'll never have to do it again, until Wednesday, when we head back to Wuhan... after that, I'm avoiding Chinese trains at all costs!
We got to our hostel around 6 AM... as the rest of the city was waking up. So we checked in and tried to get some sleep. I slept off and on, waking up about ever hour (it was so loud outside our window!) until about 10, then I got up and took a shower, and read the Word had a nice Western breakfast in the lobby for a while. :) And now I'm taking advantage of the hostel's computers and internet while my traveling buddies are getting up and getting ready for the day. We're going to spend today in Guilin, and then head to nearby Yangshuo tomorrow morning... supposedly, this area is one of the most beautiful parts of China, so I can't wait to see it for myself! :)
let's hope the train ride was worth it... ;)
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