Guilin - Shanghai train, final destination: Suzhou

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I spent my last morning in Guilin stocking up on necessary snacks and instant noodles for the train ride, and then headed back onto a packed train carriage (hard sleeper again) for the train ride to Shanghai - only 22 hours this time. Oh, and nursing mosquito bites because some little wossit had been having a field day in our dorm the last night.

The train journey was fairly painless, I read and slept, played cards (although the fact that British packs have 3 jokers completely threw my Chinese opponents - we ended up taking one out), and ate.

I was sharing a partition with an elderly couple (very sweet and generous - they offered me a vine-leaf wrapped rice ball and then had to teach me how to eat it), and three young people my age or thereabouts. Further down the carriage, there was a group of lads who abducted me for conversation at one stage, and found me fascinating. The steward, who was presiding among them, duties forgotten, seemed to collect foreign email addresses and phone numbers and mine duly joined his collection, along with a rough sketch of GB - a rather squat, fat rendering...

I arrived in Shanghai with plenty of time to catch my connecting train to Suzhou (sue-joe). My hostel is situated in a cute little alleyway that runs along one of the many canals that thread through Suzhou, in the old part of town.

After checking in, I wandered up and down the brightly lit alley for a bit - though not long as my bed was calling. It may seem strange, but after all this time in China, I was still craving rice. All I wanted was a bowl of Yangzhou special fried rice. Sadly, no, having guessed wildly at a menu in a small home-run cafe, I was presented with two poached eggs floating in sweet water with rice pudding at the bottom. Mmmm.

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