Well, we've arrived in Beijing, and what a trip it was!

We left Hanoi, by pick up service to the bus, well the pick up service was a crammed minivan, and it was the bus! So after 4 hrs or something in a minivan full of little people we arrived at the border and were dumped. From there we made our way through various controls, before getting searched at the Chinese immigration, and had then been told to wait for one of 3 local buses to drive us th Ping Xiang. Well, we soon realised that the numbers we had been given were the registration plate numbers of minivans, and there were around 100 people waiting and only 1 minivan came! Needless to say we didn't get on that one, and had no chinese money, so waited like idiots with everyone else. An hour went by and no more minivans, until eventually a sleeping bus turned up with a sign on it to Guang Zhou (our destination). We jumped on the bus, only to be dropped off again in Ping Xiang anyway, and had to struggle in front of loads of chinkies to secure our beds. We met a hugely helpful Vietnamese girl on the bus to Ping Xiang, and propbably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her! No-one, and I mean NO-ONE spoke a single word of english! She was super kind, and helped us understand what was happening, as minibus after minibus arrived, and we weren't allowed on. When she asked if we would like to go and get some food with her and her mum, and we said we had no money, she even invited us to dinner and snacks for the busride!!!

Anyway, the bus was to leave at 2000, which came..... and went, as did 2100 and 2200, then eventually we got on a SUPER crowded minibus, which sped down the highway at frightening speeds to yet another bus stop, where we finally got on our bus, due to arrive in Guang Zhou at 0700, but this was just the beggining. After about an hr the driver stopped in the middle of the motorway, and then carried on at about 40km/hr with the hazard lights on. Not a good sign, but we were so knackered we just fell asleep! I vaguely acknowleged the fact that the bus stopped at 0400, and at 0600 we were awoken. I thought, jesus, that was quick, until Emma told me that we were just changing bus! The new bus was smaller, but we have a system now where by I deal with the luggage and Emma secures the seats, but loads of other people had to sleep in the aisles!

At this stage neither of us knew where we were, but I think we'd probably driven a couple of hundred k's! We slept a bit, then wondered when we were getting in, but weren't worried as our train didn't leave before 1725. Eventually the bus got in at around 1530, around 8,5 hrs late, impressive huh?

Now we have no idea where we are, still no-one speaks english, but we have a sentence written in Chinese telling a cab driver to drive us to the train station. We still have no chinese money, and so find a bank, but the atm doesn't accept my card, so eventually they agree to change my 100 dollar emergency money for me. So, straight in a cab, show him the magic sentence and arrive at the station with enough time to grab a bite. Well, we can't see our train on the board, and after being passed from one ticket desk to the next, finally a chinese lady manages to get through to us that we're at the wrong station!!! She says that we must take "subway". So we go marching off down the subway (which thankfully had station names in english, by pure luck have the right change for the train. We figure out we have to change twice, and this is NO easy task in a Chinese metro station! Chinese people just surge for the door the second it opens, they don't wait for people to get out, and if you can't push as well as they can then they trample all over you! I make it clear to Emma in no uncertain terms "if you don't manage to get onto the first train then we're not going to Beijing" so she succesfully trampled along with all the little yellow people, suitcase and all.

So, we get to the main station, and now i'm desperate, after realizing how huge everything is, and how long everything takes, so I ask every single person we go past if they speak english - this is actually quite interesting, as Chinese people who don't, don't even shrug or anything, they just ignore you, but those who can are over the moon to be able to be of assistance! Anyway, at the x-ray machine we find a little Chinese girl who I throw the ticket at who says "you speak mandarin" and when I reply no she says " ohh, problem, follow me"! So we follow her around a seriously congested station to arrive at our train exactly 7 minutes before departure, not bad after nearly 20 hrs of travelling! P.s - I've just googled it, and what we thought was a medium sized city (Guang Zhou) has a population of 11 million people, put into context around 2,5 times the population of Norway!!

But we still had only eaten one carton of noodles each and a few cakes since we got on the bus, so when we found the restaurant car we were over the moon, but not for long! Not even one single staff in the train (and there were hundreds) spoke english, so they ignored us. Eventually an english speaking Chinese happened by and helped us order dodgy looking chicken and rice, but it tasted great!

We shared a 6 berth compartment with an older chinese couple (really sweet, let us sit on their beds as they had lower bunks, and told Emma she was beautiful, the only english word that came out of them) and two others. We slept well, and arrived in Beijing just before 1500, after 47 hrs on the road, and one pot of noodles! And, without seeing one other white person since we left Hanoi! I've just figured out that we travelled around 3200 km!!!

We've now arrived at our hotel, which was a blessing sent from up above! On the netsite it said it was 3 and a half star, but it's fantastic, huge room, huge marble bathroom and really good staff, just what we needed now! Now we're on the club lounge floor enjoying free spirits and snacks. They obviously don't know us, or we'd never have been offered the "club" package. Emma just asked me if I was feeling light heade, he, he. She's frantically typing away on the pc opposite me.

This was definately the must alone I've felt since we left, but not in a bad way at all. I think i'll remember this trip for the rest of my life . There's a kind of humbling sensation of going places and doing things where you know that everything you have learnt and know doesn't help you an inch, it's like being a baby again and is very liberating in a twisted kinda way?!

Oh well, time to go get another 12yr Chivas Regal