Radio Silence, part five - Twenty. Six. Hours.

            Friday went more smoothly. We left our hotel at 7:30 and basically waltzed right onto our train. The train was already quite full, however, and I packed for a year in Beijing, not two weeks in Guilin. Wrestling my parameter hugging suit cases down the crowded car was a struggle and the other passengers did little to help. That seems to be the Chinese way. Some people have been very helpful and friendly. Most don’t even move out of the way as you struggle by.

Anyway, we got settled sitting on the floor of the smoking car and started our journey. The first leg was spent leaning against our bags, then there was room on the rack after the first stop and we stowed our bags and stole seats until the rightful ticket holders boarded and ousted us. That was the second leg of the journey. Eventually, we learned that you could buy dining car seats at eleven p.m. I took my back pack of valuables and wished the rest of my luggage well and wrestled with Gavin to the appropriate car. A line had already formed but it wasn’t a huge line. It was already 10:40p.m. by the time we hit the line and they opened up the doors at 10:50. We slumped into seats and I instantly attempted to sleep at the table.

I succeeded. I was woken a few times by the waitress but basically managed to fitfully sleep for the next five hours.

Eventually, the girl who told us about the dining car passed through and told us that we could buy beds. DONE! We gathered up and found an agent who would sell us two beds and stumbled off to sleep. Unfortunately, once I laid down I was wide awake. However, I was much more comfortable so I just read and listened to music and started writing this extensive stream of posts.

Towards the end our journey, the girl who’d led us to the dining car and the sleeping car returned and gave me something called “Monkey Munch” and two individually vacuum wrapped hard boiled eggs. I can’t identify or describe the monkey munch. I don’t think it was real monkeys. Anyway, her name is Li and she’s an English student at the college in Guilin and I owe the retention of my sanity largely to her. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Li.