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Published: March 8th 2007
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Waking up at 6am for a 6:45 leaving is never easy for more. But somehow I was there and someone mentioned that I was quite 'perky' for that time of the morning. I guess I'm pretty much always perky, but maybe overly so when its that early.
Anyway, the bus came to take us to the Ferry Terminal and the Ferry to China awaits!
Going on the ferry was just like going through the airport - a baggage scan and check in showing your passport and being directed to your allocated seat. The only difference being that you never take off you only dock and undock! The ferry trip was uneventful and I took the opportunity to catch up on blogs(offline) and to read up on the next few cities we were headed too- Canton, Guilin and Yangzhuo. Little did I know the implications of not having a shower before bed last night...
After alighting the ferry and coming in through Customs, we were met by Anson, our Chinese tour leader. Anson is a bright and bubbly character and -honestly- reminds me of myself. He's quite haphazard but takes things quite seriously- most of the time. Anson said the bus for Canton will be arriving soon and if anyone wanted to visit the 'happy room' then they had two minutes.
The bus shortly arrived and we boarded, and then we got our first taste of the Chinese vista and the driving style! Quickly realising they drive on the right here, we sometimes held our breath and sometimes were closing our eyes in terror as the bus drivers skillfully navigated traffic. Here a beep means that you are about to take over... its a warning to move over or you may cause an accident. It's every man/woman for themselves on the road!
1 hour later we arrived in Guilin and Anson took us to a hotel where we left our bags (but didn't check in) and went to have lunch for the first time with all the other travellers in our group. We have 15 in our group... Rosy & Susan, Mel & Donna, Liz & Adam, Tien, Peter & Bhavna, Michael & Vic, Jen & Lucas, Jan & Ross.
We had a western style chinese meal. Anson filled us up to overflowing! He said the meal would be one of the most expensive ones in China... as it turns out it was 70 Yuan which is about AU$12!
After that he gave us 'free time' which is a bit of a misnomer, because we did jack-all. Walked around but we didn't know anything about the place. We met up again at about 4:30 to get a taxi to the Train station where the real fun started!
The train station... wow! OMG so many people and so many dangers! Anson told us to keep our belongings close as it was well known pickpocket spot. We lined up in a sort of V-shaped line, where everyone was just swarming towards the entrance, where a station employee checked your ticket.
Inside the terminal was just as crazy, with people going everywhere and no apparent system to tell people where to go, although there were noticeboards and its probably that all the chinese on those boards was informative... Let me tell you, if Anson didn't already have tickets and know what to do, I wouldn't have even gotten past the taxi rank drop-off.
We sat down in Terminus 3 and waited for the boarding call. Once the call was made, we all stampeded towards the entrance, where we knew we would be on Carriage 11, so we would all eventually make our way there.
Before we boarded Carriage 11, I had images of sleeper train cabin with a door and nice beds, etc. Little did I know that the sleeper train carriages in China have no doors, they are open berths with a corridor down one side of the carriage. The beds are about 50cm wide and are as hard as any bed I have ever slept in. It was more like a board with a sheet over it than a bed.
The beds were obviously well crafted. Triple bunk on each side of the berth, the top being the worse because
(a) it was far above the other beds
(b) it seemed far lower, ie no head clearance
(c) we accessed our bags from the overhead lockers, a dangerous task without having people below with heads awaiting the items you dropped.
I managed to drop some lady products and one of the older men picked them up to hand them back to me (the floor is a good 2.5 meters away from the top bunk). Remember, this is basically the first day the tour group has spent time together and here I was dropping my precious personal items for everyone to be embarassed about O_O
Anyway, so we all settled and 'chose' beds. It was more like an allocation, with the youngies getting the top, but the tour guide suggested that everyone should take a go up the top bunks.
There was plenty of boiling water and a table for us to pop stuff on. A bin, two folding seats in the corridor (like at the theatre, they flip up when you aren't sitting on them) and two windows for us to enjoy what was left of the day.
I was hungry and tired by this time, and I tried to make small talk with our new best friends to try to get to know them, but I found Rosy was much better at the small talk and decided that food and then to bed would probably be the solution to my overwhelming need for personal space.
So I got my instant noodles and chowed down and then into my bed. The first dilemma arose... the flurecent light was basically on my nose... So I found my jumper and put it over my eyes and head and left my mouth open. It worked well and I was asleep soon, to the sounds of the clickety clack of the train.
It wasn't easy to sleep, I probably woke up about 7 time during the night, the first being after the lights went off. The second when we must have been doing some windy sections and the sensation went form sliding down to my feet end, to sliding up towards my head quite a few times. Another waking up session was when the train stopped, and I heard what appeared to be a freight train go past my head and then lots of horn blowing... probably the passenger train and some other trains wanted the switch changed.
So I guess that concludes todays entry, seeing as though I can't really talk about the next day without starting a new entry! 😊 <3 you all
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