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Day Twenty-Two
26 Hour Train ride from Chengdu to Guilin
I had a lovely lie in & the best nights sleep yet in Chengdu & I could have easily slept for a few more hours but packing had to be done as we were due to leave the Mix Hostel today & get ready for our train journey to Guilin.
We both had lovely showers to make sure we were clean as our next wash won't be for a couple of days. We packed our rucksacks & headed down to the reception to sort out checking out. As we weren't due to leave for the train until 3pm they allowed us to keep our bags there. As we had become very friendly with one of the workers in the hostel called Zach, he had let us use the webcam on his laptop most nights to talk to our family & as a down payment we fed him beers & drank together & swapped stories most nights so he offered to take us to a lovely rice noodle restaurant.
In the restaurant it was easier to get food & the right food we wanted because we were with someone who spoke Chinese & he could order us whatever we wanted. Andy had ordered the chicken, I had ordered the beef & Zach ordered something different. The rice noodles come in a big massive tin bowl with lots of vegetables, herbs, meat & it comes in like a soup water with has all the juices in it. As we didn't know what Zach had ordered we asked him & he was explaining to us what it was & after I had ate some (Andy being dubious left his until I ate mine) he then told us it was donkey! The meat was more red in colour & sliced very thinly in the soup. It tasted a lot like ham & I bloody loved it. Andy tried a little but couldn't eat it all out of the thought that we have donkeys that run around the fields by our caravan site (West Lakes) so I ate his share, yummy!!!
After our food we took a trip to the supermarket & Zach came with us. It was great that Zach came along as he could tell us exactly what the food was instead of us trying to guess, although we do like the surprise of things when we open something we haven't got a clue of. We spent a while in the supermarket going up & down all the aisles & being educated on what's what, it was very interesting. We bought our supplies of good old pot noodles, crisps, chocolate, fruit & some drinks. That was it we were all set for our journey.
Back the the hostel we played with the resident kitten Shabba for one last time before we grabbed our bags & headed outside to get a taxi. Zach was such a nice man that even though it was his day off he said he would like to accompany us to the train station & wait with us so he knows we are safe & on the correct train. He has to be one of the nicest Chinese people we have met. Outside waiting to grab a cab it was a good send off as most of the hostel staff came outside & were waving us a warm goodbye. Chengdu is by far the nicest place we have stayed in China. It is relaxed & more laid back & the people are nicer.
In the train station there was lots & lots of people. This train station was smaller than Beijing West but I reckon there was more people in Chengdu. Zach had explained to us that Chengdu is a passing through place so there is more people getting connecting trains to other parts of China here. There was still an hour to wait before we could board on the train so we sat & talked to Zach about many different things including the Chinese government, politics & generally living in China. We learnt some really really interesting facts & because it's from the people we know its true & not what the communist government of China tries to make the outside world believe.
As the time drew closer nobody was being allowed to go through to the train platform & we were wondering what was happening with our train. It then became apparent that our train was delayed but we were left unsure of a departure time. As nearly another hour of in-depth conversation had taken place we could see the lines of people moving & being allowed to pass through the barriers - that was it, ready for the off. With our rucksacks on our back our food bags in our hands we waved goodbye to our good friend Zach at the barriers.
On the train & we entered the carriage. The train was in a disgusting state & very old interior, the carpets were rotten, the curtains were musty & it's was generally in bad condition. Inside there was a oldish man & a lady who had a beautiful little girl with her. From the look of the people we will be sharing the cabin with I was pretty pleased & felt more comfortable than the last train journey - lets hope these people were in it for the long haul like us & that they don't get off half way through the route. We put our big rucksacks on the massive shelf above the door & we climbed up on to our beds as we had booked both top bunks. We settled down to the sound of the loud train music & we managed to doze off for an hour or so.
After the little snooze we decided to have a munch on our snacks. We made the first of our several pot noodles & had some chocolate. After checking out the toilet facilities on the train I was nearly sick. It was hard to balance squatting for the loo as you needed a hand to hold a decent amount of loo roll over your face to mask the smell & you needed the other hand to actually hold the loo roll, grim & bad times!! There wasn't much to do on the train so keeping ourselves occupied was difficult. I was doing puzzles in my puzzle book whilst taking turns to write these blogs when I was bored of puzzles. Andy on the other hand had took himself off in to the carriage corridor to look out the window as the train rushed by. He watched the way Chinese people in the rural areas lived & worked. He saw ladies washing their clothes in a gutter, farm workers sowing crops & sorting out their land. In the farm area there were the smallest women who were carrying massive baskets of fruit across their shoulders on a bamboo stick. This was the real China & fantastic to see, hopefully would get to see more of this way of life.
It soon became apparent that the chinese lady with the little girl could speak quite good English & could understand us very well. We soon got chatting about all kinds & the hours started to fly by. The lady was telling us that she was pregnant & was taking her daughter to visit her husband (dad) as they only get to see him every 2 months. The lady was called Cecelia & she learnt her English whilst working in a school. She was a real nice lady & she was very interested in us & our country.
As it started to get late in the night we started to play & read with the little girl. She was only 4 years old & even her English was better than most Chinese people. She had a little Thomas the Tank Engine book & it was in Chinese. Cecelia had said that Thomas the Tank Engine was only introduced to China 2 years ago & she was shocked that it's been around forever in Britain. The little girl took a shine to Andy & he was singing the English alphabet with her & shouting out colours. She was an extremely smart little thing.
With the train becoming more silent as people started to settle for bed the stupid train radio was turned off & then I switched off the cabin lights. The first part of our long train journey was over, we wonder what tomorrow will bring........
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