Thursday : sunny - overcast

Well we had a rock hard mattress to sleep on but it was a good sleep. We were up at a respectable time, and Kim was continuing to plan out our trip.

Problem being we want to be in Shanghai for Kim's bday, which is in seven days. With Kim still being determined to do a inland adventure. It seems possible, as long as we keep up with the public transport timetable. If we arrive in Shanghai a day or two after Kim's bday It will be ok. We just need to be strict with our activities.

We spent a couple hrs in our room, but Kim came up with a plan. We checked out of the hotel at 11am, we got metro train catching instructions from the hotel, the metro will take us to the bullet train station.

Guangzhou metro is pretty much is an identical setup to the Hong Kong rail network. Very very simple and efficient.
We had no problems buying the tickets, a simple touch of the English language button, on the touch screen. Then follow the signs to the right platform, all the different lines that make up the network are colour coded. We just followed the cloured signs up and down all the underground escalators. These subways look like that famous B&W painting with all the staircases going in all different directions. Except there are no upside down ones (yet) and change the stairs to escalators. We made our connecting train that took us right to Guongzhou high speed railway station.

A few more escalators, and we popped up above ground and were in this massive hanger style building. It was huge maybe 500m long with very high ceilings. All brand new train station buildings and trains so far in this part China and Hong Kong. Weird difference between China and HK, is here they build these grand new buildings and still put in squat toilets? When it would be cheaper to just put in regular toilets. Its probably just traditional, but they are so unclean. They don't put the used toilet paper down the pan they have a basket in the corner of the cubical for that. Only if the people care enough to make the basket. They also spit and drop cigarettes on the floor in front of themselves, while they squat. Tip do not were long pants into a squat toilets and do not carry a bag because there have been no hooks either. Besides the WC's the only issue we had here was buying the bullet train tickets. We followed the English signs to the auto ticket machines, and the lines were big. Then we followed more English signs to a ticketing office. Only to find that's were the English stopped. It was like the bus ticketing office back at the boarder.

We chose to try out luck back at the auto machines. We got to the machines, and were not all that confident after seeing a group of ten Chinese all scratching theirs heads. But all seemed to go smoothly with the machine until we went to hit finish and pay, then it said swipe your I.D card. What I.D card we are not Chinese! So why have bloody English signs to these machines when only the Chinese are able to use them. Derr China!

Anyway we went back to the non English friendly ticket office, and lined up in the long lines. We didn't get the train time we wanted all sold out, which means we miss our conecting bus. We were lucky to get that far with the tickets the lady serving us couldnt speak English but a lady in the cue helped translate.

Phew we are almost away we just checked in and had a 2hr wait before departure. We had to fight for a table at Maccas. Mind you we still haven't eaten since the spice fest the night before. So I was pretty agressive but survival of the fittest.

After our cheese burgers we went down to the waiting area. Eventually we required a restroom, yep more squat toilets this one was funny, it had a group of 5 china men smoking inside the toilet beside a no smoking sign.

Then it was time to board. This train is cool, plenty of leg room even in economy. Still I always find something to enoy me. This time It was the bloke next to me, his breath reeked. It was so bad. He also must of been desperate for a smoke. He couldn't sit still, constantly shaking and fidgeting. Weirdo.

Apart from my smelly neighbor the trip was awesome we traveled 860 kms in 2.5 hrs. The highest speed I saw on the led display 335kmph. There were English announcements before every stop which was great compared to Vietnam quess work.

The trains in HK and China really put Australian trains to shame. It's really cheap unlike Sydney. The train fare earlier today was 6 yuan under $1 AU, and we traveled 17 stops. Kim for her to travel one stop to Rhodes is $3.60 one way and $6.40 return, that's not right. The bullet train was more expensive it was $48, but look at the time it saved us, it's probably quicker than flying, if we got the earlier train definitely. Both the trains services were frequent the Metro every 5min, Bullet 2 trains every hr. I guess they just have the numbers that will use it regularly and pay it off. Was probably cheaper for them to build.

Sydney should see what happens though have a period of much lower fares and much more frequent services. Maybe people will leave the cars at home. Do some math for that period and see if the system will stay afloat. You never know.

Kim says I'm rambling, but its come as a shock to me. why does a boarder line third world country have these awesome services and we have trains that still have no a/c? Gwizz harden up Australia!

Well we arrived and went immediately to another ticket office this time for the bus tomorrow. We were lucky this time the lady could speak English. She even wrote the bus stations address in Chinese for us, to ask for directions when we are at our hotel.

Then we avoided the cabbies and went for a walk to find our hotel. We did a lap of the station and couldn't find any street names that corresponded with our map, we were definitely at the right station. The map showed our hotel opposite the bus station/train station. Yep, but no hotel in site.

We went back inside the station and asked for help, soon enough we had a crowd of maybe 10 people around us trying to figure out our map. Stupid lonely planet maps, they're the worst, absolutely no detail. The train station on our map had no name and we didn't know yet this town had two stations. So a man who spoke English told us what was going on. He said we needed to get a cab or bus, we chose a taxi and then the fella took us to the taxi line, and wrote our directions in Chinese for the cabbie.

It was small line for the taxi only 6 people in front of us and about 100 taxis lining up. Yet the cabbie still didn't want to take us?? Really come on! He had three men yelling at him, again not sure what they said, but the silly cabbie only then agreed to take us. We would most probably be stranded if we were by ourselves. I just do not understand these taxis we did the right thing and lined up and we still had to fight for the ride. Also I forgot to mention that we were the only people left in the taxi line.

It again wasn't a short trip, exactly $4. There was no spot to pull over out the front of the hotel. So a short stroll and we found the entry. $20 per night and a comfortable room. again lonely planet was wrong they said the hotel was appalling. Only thing was it had a rock hard matters like last night.

Funny thing at check in we had to leave a 300 yuan deposit, that's more than double the room rate. The receptionist also explained some funny yen notes I received earlier today. They have small notes with a big 1 on them. I kept trying to use them as 1yuan but kept getting them given back to me. 10 of these small notes make up 1 yuan.

We quickly dropped off our bags in our room and went to find a meal. Again went to Maccas it was the closest. We weren't all that hungry so we just had a cheese burger and an ice-cream. But we went into the shopping centre to look for some water no luck, it was a department store 5 floors of nothing but clothing. We did however see our camera and was happy to see a price of only $200 cheaper than what we paid for it back home.

China seems to be so far a cross between Hong Kong and Vietnam. The people act like the Vietnamese with there driving and bodily fictions. They also have the good services like HK, shops and trains.

We found a small store near the hotel and Kim practiced her Mandarin, she did well 2 big bottles for $1 that's Nam prices.

We wanted an early night and we were on target. Quick shower and straight to bed. Another early transport arrangement lined up for tomorrow.