Train to Nanning

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OK so on the 6th of Feb Michael, Richard and I took the train from Xiamen to Nanning in South-East China - a whopping 26 hour train ride. We were travelling soft-sleeper so it was quite comfortable as we had a cabin to ourselves (complete with flask, net curtains and a dead rose in a vase) and in the end went by quite quickly, especially since we spent most of it asleep.

We arrived in Nanning, the place in China for dog hotpot apparently, at about 7ish and walked straight into a hotel and got a triple room for 50 yuan each - just over 3 quid. We then took a wander and got something to eat. Nanning is a much nicer place than I expected it to be considering that it's pretty much just a transport hub although having said that it'd be hard to spend more than a day here (as we found out).

The next day we picked up our train tickets for Vietnam and found out how to get to Yangshuo. Unfortunately by then we'd missed the last train to Guilin so we bought a return for the next day and went to see the new Bond film Casino Royale. A word of warning - films in Chinese Cinemas start punctually, there's no sitting through 10+ minutes of trailers, which we found out when we missed the beginning of the film - oops. The film was pretty good though I suspect the Chinese release we saw was heavily edited (not very well edited either!).

As our hotel was literally opposite the train station it was no hassle getting there in the morning - next stop Guilin.

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