Day 7: Confessions of a First-Time Backpacker

---

A word of advice to all who plan to venture out on their own:

Book tickets as far in advance as possible.

Early yesterday morning, my plan was to go to the local train station and simply see what my options were in order to make my way to Guilin and Yangshuo. A decently far destination, I passed up on a 500 yuan plane ticket, arriving late last night, just to save a few bucks. My reasoning, if I didn't mind a bit of a train ride, I could easily save 300 yuan or so, easily enough to pay for 2 weeks of hotel rooms.

Before making my way to the train station, a fellow hosteller told me to first ask the front desk what they could do for me. I did, and was extremely happy with the result. I quickly booked a seat on a 6-hour train to Guiyang, the half-way point. Best of all, only 100 yuan. I would head out the next day (today) in the afternoon.

Perfect, right?

Disaster

9pm rolls around, and I figure I better check my e-mail before I hit the road manana. Remember, I still don't have power in my (free) hostel. I'm sitting in the same dingy internet cafe when I decide I might as well check the train ticket prices, see if I could have done any better on my own.

Not quite. Turns out, the train ride is 16 hours, not 6. Seems that little part about the -teen was lost in translation. And yes, I have a hard seat booked, the lowest class possible on a Chinese train.

I run back to the hostel to be greeted by the same girl who helped me earlier and now the boss. Here is how the conversation went:

Peter: "That ticket to Guiyang, it's not a 6-hour ride."
Girl: "Yeah, 6 hours."
Peter: "No, no. It's 16 hours."
Girl: "Yeah, 16 hours."
Peter: "...."

Ok. Well, it had to be changed. My options, a weekend flight for now 700 yuan or book a new train ticket to Liuzhou and a bus to Guilin, plus a cancellation fee on the previous ticket, bringing the new total to 400 yuan or so. Remember, I could have had a 500 yuan flight that would be there by now. Thats only $10 US more.

I booked a train ticket to Liuzhou. The same girl worked on it, and around 11pm, notified me that I had a ticket tomorrow morning (today) around 10 am. Fantastic, completely fine, let me just get going and it'll all be OK.

I wake up this fine morning, in the dark of course. Having not showered for 3 days now, no hot water, I climb in to the same USC shirt and jeans I've worn for the past week or so. Pack my bags and head down stairs to pick up my ticket. Hasn't arrived. I figure, that's fine, I have a little time, I'll grab a big breakfast before the trip and come back for the ticket. 9 o'clock rolls around and still no ticket. Now 9:40, definitely not enough time. The boy at the desk says he will call and see what is up.

The girl booked the ticket for tomorrow. And it's not a 10am train, it's an 8am. It's also 31 hours long...

So I have a ticket tomorrow. In the end, I'll save no money from taking a train rather than a plane, be out three more days, and still not have a shower to use. My room is still free though!

---