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We awoke wrapped up like Eskimos with the room actually feeling bearable, the heater had obviously decided to do its job overnight and we were pretty toasty. Due to the little ht water bottles Laura had put together made our toes the warmest they had been in China so far. We packed up our gear and I decided to head out to get some sunrise photographs while Laura drank her milky tea in bed... which was like a creamy baileys... very strange! It was a bright and sunny morning and the mountainous backdrop did look stunning. The young boys from the kung fu school were up and about lining up and ferrying hot water from one building to another. One young guy decided half way across the yard to put down his bucket of water and warm his hands in it ....he then learnt that freezing cold hands and hot water doesn't normally mix too well and yelped rather loudly haha.
We headed back on the cramped public bus and headed back to Luoyang which took roughly 90 minutes. We then made a quick stop for lunch and Laura and girls headed for the day room which was very warm and cosy. I decided to go for a solo walk around the town which was chilly but very sunny and pleasant. I stumbled across the town square which was packed with locals watching singers and musicians play around the frozen stream in the centre ranging from violins to flutes. There were even ladies dancing synchronised in front of the Chinese flag, a little random I thought. After I obtained a few good snaps I headed back to the warmth of the hotel. We rested for that evening then all prepared ourselves for the 16 hour overnight train trip to Suzhou.
We arrived at the station about seven ish and bought some snacks for the train. we purchased some noodles, jelly beans and dried fruit. We headed in to the waiting room which of course was rammed with people and waited... After what seemed ages we were finally ushered through the various gates like cattle and headed towards the train. The train was different to the previous with the bunk bed compartments being very open and a bit more Indian in style. This time we were separated so Jorge, Karen and Tommy were in the next compartment and me, Laura, Glen and Blair had two other Chinese people in with us, one boy and one girl. Laura tried to get Tommy to translate to the girl which bed she preferred not realising she could speak English and understand everything she said, was quite funny and so typical as no one here speaks english lol...We all settled in our beds and chatted while we ate our noodles and dried fruit ...even though it was chilly we were all happy as it was a huge improvement on Shaolin temperatures. After a while we retreated under our duvets and curled up, we read our books... listen to music and at some point we went into their own world ...drifting off with just the sound of the wind rushing past the train in the background.
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