This afternoon, we left Zhongshan for our first vacation, to the Avatar mountains! I feel like it's still too early for us to have a vacation, but we've already been here for a month now! Just kind of crazy how fast time flies.
For our trip, we have had to catch a variety of different buses and trains to get where we needed to go. First, we caught the Kaiyin bus and rode it for forty five minutes to walking street. We then rode a two hour bus to Guangzhou, and then from Guangzhou, we boarded the train that would take us 14 hours northwest, to Zhangjiejia. Although that sounds like it should painless process, we managed to cause a scene, as we always do, while trying to get to each checkpoint on time.
We hardly had any trouble with the first bus, the Kaiyin bus, because we ride this nearly everyday. I met a really cute German family with a little four year old girl. Communication was slim, but I've gotten used to that here. Bus number two, not quite the same story. Our whole group bought bus tickets, but the bus couldn't fit us all. Only about half of us made it on the first bus, and Preston, Amanda, Brent, Tyler, Chloe, and I stayed back. However, I felt ok about this because Amanda is a smarty and she can also call Gloria if we're really struggling, so life would be ok.
We arrived in Guangzhou with just enough time to locate the train station and find our platform. The Shiqui girls, that met up with us on walking street, packed like two suitcases each, for a two day vacation. I guess they need a suitcase a day; they told us they packed lightly. This really caused a problem for getting places quickly, they had a heavy load.
Anyways, when we were in the station, we had a hard time finding our platform, so a cute little Asian man tried helping us. He followed us to this far away platform, and it ended up being the wrong one. Then, he sent us on our way with some lady that was going to the same train as we were. She, too, was struggling. We only realized this when she took us to wrong platform number two. When we got there, we were really limited on time an had just about ten minutes to find the right platform and board the train.
Since I chose to get seater seats, instead of sleeper, I was to find the train by myself now because everyone had chosen sleepers. The only other person in the group who bought seater seats was Konner, and he was in the group that left before we did. So, I was frantically running around the Guangzhou train station by myself, without a clue where I was going. Fortunately, enough Chinese people mumbling random things to me got me where I needed to be, and I found Konner. I have never been so happy to see someone in my life than I was when I saw him.
Since the plan was to sit on the train for the next 14 hours, with three people snuggly sat next to each other, facing another three people, we figured sleeping might help pass the time. I started out in the middle seat and Konner in the aisle. The man sitting across from us conked out quickly, along with just about everyone around us. Konner and I were casually chatting, when the sleepy man took a tumble from his seat, and was rudely awakened by the floor. He happened to nail his head on his own seat on his way down, as well. Poor guy had no idea what his his, and all the Chinese people, along with Konner and I, busted out laughing. We just couldn't help it.
After that funny encounter, Konner and I talked for about three hours straight. We got some serious life stories out; It was so fun getting to know him better, I rather enjoyed it just being us on the train without the mass posse.
The man sitting in front of us kept looking at us as we spoke, almost looking as if he understood what we were saying, with his occasional smile that crept on his face when we would say something funny. However, we introduced ourselves to him, in Chinese of course, and he responded in Chinese, no English. We were sadly disappointed, but we then decided we really liked him and we named him Pepe. He will be a true life long friend, I'm sure.
A few hours into the ride, Konner was nice enough to trade me spots, and he took the middle seat. I passed out as soon as I laid my head against his arm, I was exhausted. He is such a selfless one, I just love this kid.
Anyways, I was taking a beautiful nap when all of a sudden, I too was rudely awakened by the floor. I somehow fell out of my seat and crashed right into the same floor our neighbor had become so familiar with. I had no idea what was going on, I just woke up to all these Chinese people laughing at me. However, they did help me to my feet, but not before they got a good laugh in of course. I was so embarrassed, but also couldn't help but laugh. At least I wasn't the only one, right?
A few minutes after my tumble, I saw a few men hock their precious loogies onto the same floor that I had found myself getting so comfortable on. Then, Konner and I watched as everyone grabbed the trash from their table and threw it on the floor, and a man came and swept it up. I'm so glad I chose a great and clean place to sprawl my body out onto. Needless to say, my first train ride was a fun one.
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