Another chilled morning: tea, packing,
chatting. Had a cheeky check on facebook via a 'freegate' as fb is blocked here. Most bizarre.
Then a 20p bus and metro ride to Martyrs' Square to explore outdoor shops and satisfy my bag fetish! Just had to treat myself to a beautiful green rucksack...then sushi with super-strong wasabi! (Can I just put at this stage that you have Susie authoring today, I do not have said bag fetish!)
Next was the metro to Haizhu to glimpse the Pearl River before darting into an enormous 6-floor tat shop!! Amazingly amongst the rubbish (my personal 'favourite' was face cloths shaped like food items - e.g. in the shape of cupcakes and sushi rolls) were some tasteful things which provided some funky presents for people back home. (Once again I want to interrupt, the towels were so funky.... Susie just didn't get the kitsch vibe... could have spent a whole day mooching!)
Then it was back on the tube to Guangzhoudong (east railway station). Fond goodbyes were said to Sam in the ubiquitous Starbucks and we set off on our adventure!!! Went through the wrong security check but quickly realised our mistake and hotfooted it up to the fourth floor. By this point, time was running out so we ran to platform 5 past a vast waiting hall, to board train K297!!!
As we had no idea what we had bought, we were not sure of what class we were in - think probably 'hard seat' aka 'cattle class'. How to describe the ensuing seven and a half hours...?
Boiling hot; people chewing with open mouths, trolley people up and down the aisle with snacks and noodles; super crowded; smelly; no concept of personal space at all. Getting to the toilet was nothing short of a Herculean challenge, involving as it did a series of vaults over bags, buckets, bodies and babies, accompanied by titters of laughter from groups of slightly dubious looking blokes.
Having finished my first Sam-supplied book, the hilarious 'Fried Eggs with Chopsticks', I spent much of the journey gripped by 'The Good Women of China' which passed the time.
Eventually arrived at Yongding at 2.30am and scrambled off clutching our bags. A driver was awaiting us with the slightly inaccurate sign 'welcome Sam Dawkins' but we got the idea.
The next maybe 35 minutes was like a prolonged fairground ride as the driver hurtled through country roads -apparently unwilling to be kept out of bed a second longer than necessary. Most disturbingly, he appeared to slow on the straight and then accelerate wildly towards bends. In the end I could stand it no longer and tried to motion to him to slow down but all I succeeded in doing was getting the radio turned off!
Much to my surprise, we did arrive unscathed - physically anyway! - at the Fuylou Changdi Inn and were shown to a spotless, comfortable room. Excited to see what the building and area is like tomorrow!!