Ni Hao

We arrived at the train station in Guilin expecting to be ushered into a warm waiting room with big leather chairs just like in Guangzhou but no such luck we were sent to the main waiting room and placed on cold metal chairs in a waiting room with no lights and no heating, the place was absoloutley freezing cold and we had a 1 hor wait for our train. About 15 minutes before we boarded we were joined by a nice Chinese lady wanting to practice her English and we duly obliged and sat chatting till we got called for our train. Sichuan province (where Chengdu is) is one of the biggest provinces and it showed as there were about 600 people waiting for the train and all at once evrybody surged when the gates opened.

We said goodbye to our student and boarded our carriage to settle in for the 25 hour journey ahead, no sooner had we got to the cabin our student turned up and sat in our cabin happily jabbering away and wanting to take photos of us and telling Mel how young she looked and how old I looked!!!

As the train set off the sliding door shut and we felt trapped but she gave us an out saying we looked tired and we agreed, she left agreeing to meet up at 7pm in the restaurant for more lessons!!!!

We spent the next few hours trying to get our air conditioning switched off as the cabin was freezing but did not get very far and the lady suggested we just wrap our duvets around us. At one point a guy turned up with a hammer and stared at our ceiling shouting something before dissappearing again. By this time we had added gloves,hat and scarves to our bodies.

At 7pm we went for dinner in the restaurant car and paid the chef for our meal and he said he would bring the change. The meal was delicious and when we finished no change had arrived so Mel went to the kitchen and he brushed her off. Then we tried to order 2 beers and the lady wanted more money from us although we were owed money we stood our ground and with a bit of picture drawing she went and yelled at the chef and eventually our change arrived, followed by the chef shaking his fists at us!!!!

The whole episode was a bit bizarre but eventually it was sorted out and we continued drinking our beer. They then threw us out at 8pm so we had to go back to the "ICE BOX" and wrap up again for the night. Luckily we had no one sharing again and I could take the other lower bunk near the heater.

For the first time on this trip we slept in all our clothes including hat and scarf but did manage to get some sleep. About 1 hour before we disembarked the train started to warm up and at 2.30pm we arrived in Chengdu.

Within a few hours of arriving we had sorted out our trip to see the pandas tomorrow which we are both looking forward to very much. We have 4 nights here and plan to go and see the Big Buddha at Leshan and also the village where they filmed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" so again we have pretty full days.

After a shower and wash we went to the bar and were greeted by a cute puppy and 2 pot bellied pigs, which was a bit weird but this is China!!!

Will be in touch

Lots of Love

M & M

xx