Yangshou

While I had a great time in Xi'an, getting out wasn't the best experience. Since the train station in Xi'an is really busy it's difficult to get a sleeper ticket (lying down bed, rather than an upright seat) two days in advance, and the next day is near impossible. Regardless, my visa for China was running out, and I still needed to pick up a Vietnamese visa, so I didn't have much time to spare. As soon we arrived in Xi'an I booked my ticket to Nanning for the following day. Needless to say I wasn't looking forward to the 36 hour hard seat ride.

Maybe that's why my subconscious made me miss the train... maybe it was parting ways with the coolest Australian in Asia. Regardless, I ran into the station dripping with sweat from bouncing my 80L pack the four blocks from the hotel to find my gate closed. Wow did I feel stupid. "How the fuck did that happen", I though. Anyway, a security guard saw me staring blankly at the gate and ushered me into a back room. She stamped my ticket with the "MORON" stamp and wrote the next day's date on it. Well, at least I didn't burn the cost of the ticket; a small consolation prize for the loser of the daily half-wit contest.

I killed another day in Xi'an by wandering around and cursing my stupidity. That night I got to the train early, maybe too early, but at least I got on this time. Of course, it never occurred to me that someone else would have bought a ticket with the same seat number, and that mine was relatively useless if I expected to sit down. As the train filled up I was able to snag a number of seats, only to be disappointed that the train didn't pull away before the real owner showed up. When the train finally did pull out there wasn't a seat in sight. In fact, the space between cars was full of more no-seat losers.

Thankfully, a group of university students saw that I was in need and invited me to join them on their bench. They were super cool about making space for me. We shared food, talked about my travels and took turns listening to my ipod. We even had a little we hate Bush session. After 17 hours they got off. I was sad to see them go, but thankful for the extra space.

At about 25 hours into the trip I decided that there was no way that I could spend a second night on the train. My ass hurt, and I was really tired of sitting up. I traced out the route of the train, and found a touristy place to kill the weekend. Thanks to my great sense of timing I would have arrived in Nanning on Saturday morning anyway, with nothing to do until the consulate opened on Monday. I jumped ship at midnight in Guilin, and caught a bus to Yangshou.

Since I'm a little tired of typing, I'll give you the short story on Yangshou. I met an asshole hotel owner named Robert who wanted me to play bangbang with locals, pay him $100 for a bicycle ride around town, and then woke me up after 5 hours of sleep. Then I met a Finn named Takko that also hated Robert, we got along great. Takko and I were hired to star in a Chinese movie about two foreigners that get killed rock climbing in flip flops. We declined their offers, but accompanied the entourage into a cave. I went to Nanning and got my visa, and jumped the border into Vietnam with hours to spare on my Chinese visa. So nice to be back in South East Asia.

Sep 18, 2006

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