Day of worsts

I know I begin with a title that sounds dramatic, but it's true. I had a day and a half of my life filled with the worst experiences I have ever had. Character-building though.

Anyways, we had to somehow get from Hong Kong to Hanoi, and we chose to go via train, which is the only way to do it really except for bus (which could have been even more frightening) and flight (we are poor backpackers). So we leave on a train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, about three hours. Not bad - I'm feeling good at this point. The train is nice and I listen to my Ipod so I'm happy. Except that the batteries die at the end of the trip.

In Guangzhou, my relative in Hong Kong had arranged for someone to meet us there with our ticket, since we had to have it pre-purchased because of the new year, with everything being sold out until this time. So we took a taxi to the hotel he was staying at - about 25 minutes away. A successful handover - he gave us the tickets, and we had some food. When I say food, I mean vegetable sticks, because that was the only thing we could eat on the menu that didn't contain meat. Keep this in mind as I continue my story... we have not eaten a lot at this point. So we head back in the taxi to the train station, leaving just enough time. Now is my tiny piece of advice to anyone traveling in Guangzhou - there are TWO, count them TWO, train stations. One named Guangzhou Dong, the other Guangzhou. Duh. Of course we should have known that. Nevermind NOBODY asking us when we told them we were going to the train station, which one? Well we of course find this out when we get there, throw a quick panic attack, then hop in a taxi, Amazing Race-style, to just plain Guangzhou train station. And when we get there it is madness. They have added hundreds of trains to account for all the travelers over the holiday, so we are three of thousands, and the only westerns, so everyone is having a field day just staring at our misfortune. They literally just stare at us. After confusion from the staff about where to go, we run and just catch our train. Ok, now this train is an overnighter and we have bunks. But these bunks are three bunks tall, and you share a compartment with 5 others. And each train car has about 75 people on it. I am not kidding. And this was a 12 hour train ride, arriving at 4am. And lucky me gets the ticket by herself, so I have no one to talk with when I'm in my bed. Anyways, I decided this was going to be fun, even though we can't communicate with any of the Chinese people on the train. We eat rice and spinach, the only thing the meal cart people can understand, and then I get ready for bed. Now, anyone who knows me knows my biggest annoyance ever - snoring. So I consider it some sort of karma, that on a train with probably at least 20 train cars, each car having about 75 people, I get in the same compartment with three snorers. And I know some people are random snorers, but these were continual snorers. Going from about 10pm until we arrived. So Krissy did not sleep. Maybe an hour. Oh, and the worst part of this train ride was the toilet. The public toilets here are urinals in the ground. For girls. I won't paint the picture, but you can imagine. Well this toilet was the most disgusting I have ever seen in my life. I know I haven't seen too many disgusting toilets, but I swear if I had seen many many disgusting toilets in my life, THIS ONE would have been the worst. I have never smelled anything SO bad. So I didn't drink anything the rest of this trip.

It isn't over. SO we arrive in Nanning, the middle of nowhere really on the way to the border. We have to get out at 4.30am and buy tickets for the next leg of our train ride. And there are hundreds of us in line trying to fight our way to the front (please see previous blog post about Chinese and waiting in lines). Thank GOD we got tickets for this train, and we get onto one of the dirtiest trains I've seen (Geri witnessed a man vomiting through his hands) and have a three hour train ride to near the border.

So by this point, it's better. We take this fantastic taxi in a little buggy-type motorbike to the border, and the countryside is beautiful, everyone is smiling and waving as we pass, and we made it! We are in Hanoi now. I would write about it, but I am a bit exhausted from writing now and I bet you are a bit sick of reading, so I'll save my Vietnam post for next. Anyways, here is a photo of the train ride, for you to just imagine.