Making the most of our Hilton experience and still not feeling 100%, we had a lazy morning in our room and an eleven-course buffet breakfast:
At the train station, a young lady pushed in front of me as I entered the turnstile lane… And then realised she’d gone down the wrong side. I backed out and went the right way so her rudeness backfired. We both saw the funny side of it 🙂
Buying tickets for the 2pm train, the clerk pointed to some writing in red on his screen, looked mildly concerned and then offered me the 1646. When I confirmed I wanted the earlier train, he again pointed at the red writing. Problem was, it was all Chinese to me. Context gave away nothing, either. Turns out it was unreserved seating and it was busy. But, seeing our backpacks and western faces, once again the Chinese came into their own, making room for us to get ourselves comfortable:
It was just like being on the train home from London 😉 Except that smoking was allowed. Albeit only between the carriages. But it was still extremely unpleasant, especially for someone with an allergy. But apart from that, it was fine and after a main stop an hour or so into our journey, loads of people got off the train so we had a comfy seat the rest of the way. The carriages themselves were comfortable, large and clean:
Three times the (kind and friendly) guard cleaned the floor during our journey. That’s three times more than I’ve seen the floors of South West Trains being cleaned in the years that I’ve been using them. England, please take note.
Small hillocks defined the terrain:
In one town we passed, those in the way had been removed, leaving a chalk-coloured mound.
Train travel is quick and efficient – China has the money to go through mountains and over valleys:
Arriving in Kaili we went in search of a hotel. All full. Out came the Lonely Planet and, two taxi drivers later, we were stood outside their recommended hotel. It was shut. Pants. We wandered again. Full. Full. I began to wonder if this was the tourist effect in reverse: language difficulties (nobody speaks English here) make us too much hassle. Eventually we found somewhere. Small, damp and smelly, but dry. To bed early, tired and looking forward to our trip tomorrow (and, hopefully, a nicer hotel!).
