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Published: August 2nd 2008
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Kunming to Guilin train
The little girl who brought me my shoes in the morning and i gave presents to. The 13th and 14th of June were an interesting 2 days spent traveling from Daichin to Yangshou, via multiple means of transport - including normal bus, sleeper bus and hard sleeper train. The 13th began with us nearly missing our taxi to Daichin from Felasi. Me and Kathi awoke at 6:40am, with 5 more minutes before the French guys we were catching a taxi with would take off. Its surprising how quickly I have learned to get ready on this trip!
The French guys were like we have to go but there was no sign of Jian. Kathi ran to the toilet and managed to locate our fellow Malaysian and thankfully we were off all together. The taxi was 30RMB so 5 RMB each (less than 1AUD). Had some dumplings for breakfast and chatted to Emmanuel who was living south of Bordeaux on the island of Renau near Mauritius. He was traveling for 7 months . 6.5 hours later we got to Shangri -la. Sang Jian my last farewell song - his favorite my heart will go before he left us in Shangri-La on a sleeper bus for Kunming. 4 hours later we were in Lijiang from where we picked
Kunming to Guilin train
The guy who brought me a drink in the morning. up our bags in storage - thankfully all my gear was still there Snuck in a shower and usage of their internet before we left - oh so good.
Jumped onto a sleeper bus in Lijiang, headed for Kunming at about 8:30pm, with our boiled eggs and dumplings soup. Sleep was a bit broken but do able - the main annoying this was my day pack which was not the best thing to sleep with. But beggars cant be choosey. Hoped off about 6:10am off the bus and made our way to the main train station to hopefully meet Jian and for me to get a train to Guilin.
It was surprising, but we managed to bump into Jian. Or rather he found us. Got a hard sleeper to Guilin for 238 RMB (abit under 60 AUD - which left at 8:18am). After breakfast and some noodles and fruit for the train ride, I made my last goodbye with Jian for now and Kathi (until Bejiing) I hoped onto the train for a 26 hour train ride.
The train ride was good fun. Even though I was the only westerner on the train, or rather everyone spoke Mandarin
Kunming to Guilin train
Zhu Minge and the little girl and minimal English I had some good fun on that train. A few guys came over to have a chat with me and were disappointed to find out I spoke very minimal mandarin. Goodbye Yunnan - a region with 30,000 plants and rare animals, making it the most fruitful region in Asia with the highest number of ethnic groups in China. I will miss you and can’t wait to return. So now it was the 14th (in case you forgot), and around 2pm this lady came by and sat next to me. She knew little Mandarin. However a boy who was selling tea or something knew a bit, and when he walked past he sat down. We ended up talking for an hour - the three of us through numerous form of communication including pictures about my trip and what was I doing exactly in China. She said she thought I was very beautiful and couldn’t understand why I was doing this trip by myself. Another man came and introduced himself and his 2 grandchildren so I gave them some presents.
I thought about some of things that had made China memorable for me so far; People smoking anywhere
Kunming to Guilin train
The guys I met on the train. including public buses, walking along railroad tracks, sleeping on the grass near a power plant, drinking tea out of anything (cup, plate, jam jar), normal conversation sounding like an argument, pit toilets, construction taking place anytime and anywhere. Later that night this girl asked me to come sit and have a chat with her. We spoke for nearly hours even though I knew hardly any mandarin and she knew hardly any English. Her name was Zhu Mingye and she was 20 year s old. The majority of our conversation was through pictures - she wanted to know if I had seen the Olympic torch going through Kunming for example. In the end she had invited me to stay with her and her family in Guilin - I guess you don’t need a common language to make friends with people.
We arrived in Guilin on the 15th and I met Zhu Minge’s family at the station. They helped me figure out which buses to catch to get the bus to Yangshou - which saved me a taxi fare. I got the bus ticket to Yangshou for 20RMB and arrived at the Karst hotel that afternoon.
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