It's a really good thing that Intrepid has all of our travel arrangements nicely planned out for us on the trips, because if it were up to me we'd be missing connections left and right! (Mom, how many Amtrak's have we missed? ;-) -- to my credit I didnt actually miss anything this week, just came really close.
I've collected 6 new passport stamps in the past 72 hours from going in and out of Hong Kong. I spent an extra day there with Danny before heading to our Intrepid apartment in Shekou. Side note: the aparment is AMAZING, with a lovely view of the Hong Kong harbor from our balcony, and it's in the middle of an expat community so the little market downstairs sells..... Doritos!!!! and peanut butter and REAL CEREAL. I nearly died. I wish I could've spent more time there but I only had one day before heading back to HK to say goodbye to Danny and then meet some friends in Yangshou.
This is where the Flying by the seat of my pants comes in. I know there's a flight to Guilin from Shenzhen but I cant semm to book it online and no one's answering their phone in reservations to help me out. So Danny and I set out at 6:30 in the morning to catch an airport bus from another hotel, to get me to a flight I dont have tickets for. The bus, as it turns out, takes TWO hours to get to the airport, not one like I was planning. So I arrive at the airport at 9am for a 10am flight, and amazingly I was able to walk right up to the ticket counter, purchase the flight for a fantastic 500 CNY (about $67 USD) and make it straight to the gate as they're about to board! When I arrive in Guilin my bag is the ONLY one on the baggage carasel, hehehe. Not too many people travelling this week after the holiday.
I get to Yangshou, spend two and a half wonderful days with EJ, Jordan, and Ann Thai, during which time EJ gets into a barfight - verbal, no fists - before it's time to figure out how I'm gonna get myself to Vietnam.
Again, I know there's a train from Nanning to Hanoi, and it only runs on Monday's and Friday's, but I dont have tickets and I'm not sure if I need a bus, train, or plane to get me to Nanning. Fortunatly I know people and I work for people who know people, so the travel agent in Yangshou was able to get me tickets on the train direct from Guilin to Nanning to Hanoi. I am able to secure a bus for myself, an hour and a half from Yangshou to Guilin and arrive with an hour to spare.
I board the train and find that there's someone in my bed already. The attendant redirects me and I wind up with a very nice couple from Switzerland, who dont speak any English, but wouldnt you know they speak French! Beauty! We spent the next 20 hours on the train not speaking any English, and loving it. I only wish my Mandarin was picking up as quickly as my French, but Jordan keeps telling me I'm getting better so I'll take his word for it since he's fluent in Mandarin. The train ride was quite nice, but I could've done without the borader crossing into Vietnam at 3:30 in the morning. We had to take out all our packs, wait in immigration for an hour and reboard a different train that was very crappy. But that's okay, because I'm here now, despite the thrown together nature of my travel.
Whew! :-D
