Midnight Train to Nanning PRCDec 21, 2009
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From train toward Guangzhou
Scenery from train
Just as we cross into Peoples Republic of China at Shenzhen
| As I write this I am laying on the middle bunk, left side of a six compartment sleeper train from Guangzhou to Nanning, China. Nickie is opposite me, napping. The upper 2 bunks are empty so far and the lower 2 are occupied by an older gentleman and I believe, his son (about 40). They are eating boiled peanuts and other great smelling food, Nickie and I have apples and bananas and bottled water, we know how to party. They seem like real nice folks and the distinguished older gentleman tried to strike up a conversation but unfortunately the communication barrier is too great. So we dug out our laptop and shared pictures of our home and family with them. I think they enjoyed them. At least they have some sense of who we are. ( oh yea, I showed them the picture of the big Mutton Snapper I caught in the Bahamas, couldn’t help myself, they got a kick out of that, they love their fish). It was a hard day, we went to bed last night without knowing if we had passage to Nanning, if we had a room the next day and with the knowledge that no one could speak English in the area (except the hotel clerk who spoke very little). Didn’t know where the train station was or how to get there or even to communicate with a taxi driver to express where we wanted to go. Needless to say we slept fitfully. When we got up in the morning and were packing Nickie noticed that her medications were missing and were not to be found (this is for asthma and is critical to the continuance of the trip). We were convinced she left them in Hong Kong and were about to make arrangements to backtrack as that is the only big city where we would have some likelihood of replacing them. We called the hotel back and no one there had seen them either. Keep going and hope for the best or backtrack and risk not finding right meds? All this descending on us it was a very black hour. We finally decided to continue as we had a room in Nanning and there were none available back in HK (at our old hotel where we were comfortable). About ready to leave Nickie turned the room lights off and I opened the curtains to let in some light and there they were!!!! Her meds. She had put her meds on the window sill the night before and forgot. Weight of the world lifted we left the sanctuary of our room and ventured into the very populated streets. We have seen no other foreigners since we left HK and we are definitely a novelty, very peculiar feeling. We hailed a cab but he could not understand where we wanted to go so I ran back into the hotel and the desk clerk wrote in Chinese which I then presented to the driver and off we went, 10 yen (about $1.60) and 10 km later we arrived at the busiest train station in southern China. We looked for an official that might understand some English and asked our questions, he had a very basic understanding of what we wanted, I.e. a train ticket to somewhere (hellooo) then along comes Jodhi Tan. Jodhi lives in a nearby town and attends school on Sundays to learn Arabic (her boss is Egyptian). She spoke English quite well and it just so happened she was a very kind and helpful person. About an hour of going between ticket desks and bank machines all over to find one that worked back to the ticket desk, they’re sold out, not deterred to another ticket desk, they have seats, whew!! Jodhi is a friend for life and invited to visit us in Canada. Nickie gave her a box of chocolates she had squirreled away, we had to insist. Now we wait outside in the teeming crowds for 4 hours until we’re allowed in the station, then wait another 2 hours, there is nowhere else to go. Approached by young female police officer who said we should not be standing outside as there were some shady characters watching us ready to steal our luggage. She suggested we wait in KFC (yep, that’s right. Our own Colonel). Well comrade Cnl Sanders was pretty amused as he witnessed us stretch out a 2 pc. Bucket with drinks (no coleslaw) into a 4 hour finger lickin‘ thumb suckin’ fest. Fortunately the other 857 Chinese people in there all had the same idea and it was a competition among us who would last the longest without having to go up for a recharge. We won , we’re cruisers! Now back in Nanning we bought our tickets to Hanoi and are now set to arrive on Christmas eve. The line ups were not too bad, you have to be patient as when we got to one counter they would send you off to another and you had to fight to keep your place, not bad though. Dinner at the hotel last night as it was recommended by a few travellers on a web site. Well.....we got off elevator on 7th floor and walked in to the restaurant, 200 seats and no one there, except for about 20 staff. I could write a book about this one. But quickly we hand 4 waitresses taking our order at one time with one who spoke some english. There were about 5 other lurkers as well, one who kept the tea pot constantly full. We got a ton of food as we didn't realize that each dish was for 2 or more people. I guess we should have known that but the menu didn't make it appear that way. It was an extremely comical interlude should have filmed it as it would have won an award. They were very pleasant and we all laughed at the absurdity of each other. Bottom line, food was great at 106 yuan ($17 including drinks) we got all and more of our value and a great laugh to boot. I guess it must be low season as there are very few people in the hotal. We are treated like royalty and nothing is a problem. We'll keep you posted. |
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