Day 353: Empty Train (NOT!)

Xinhui – Guangzhou – Shanghai, China

A typhoon hit north China today. I woke up to a rainy morning. Wailong and I sent Christina off to the bus station where she’s catching a ride to Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, I plan to head to Guangzhou later on in the day on a bus then hop on an overnight train to Shanghai. As usual, I had no tickets and thought that I could just wing it like always.

Not too wise. First off, I left Wailong’s house during a torrential downpour. It felt as if somebody poured bucket load of water from the top.

As my bus pulled into Guangzhou after a 2-hour trip. I rushed to the train station in hope to still get ticket for the train that departed two hours later. The train station was packed! I totally forgot China is the most populated country in the world. Once I got hold of the ticket after a bit of queueing, I went to the street to hold off a cab. I was stopped and pointed to another long line for taxi. At this point, I was not going to make it in time to get to another train station in the other side of town to catch my Shanghai train.

Fortunately, a smart hustler saw me and offered to drive me there for RMB130 (USD 17). It’s quite a ripoff. I talked the price down to RMB100, which is still a lot. To put things in perspective. My 16-hour train ride to Shanghai is RMB210.

I had wanted to book a bunk seat for the trip but somehow this train only had hard seats. It’s one hell of a ride, sitting on a hard seat for 16 hours. However, after the train departed, I realized that I should really considered myself one of the lucky ones. For each seated passenger, there’s just as many standing ones. Soon enough, they all positioned themselves wherever they could: sleeping on the aisles, underneath others’ seats, laying down in front of the toilets. It’s unreal! And then the stewardesses would yell at them to be out of the way as they pushes their carts selling anything from food to extra battery packs. So far, this has been my wildest and most ridiculous experience in my trip after Morocco. South America didn’t even come close. (All the pictures I took was prior to the “madness” so they all look okay. It may seem to you that I’m exaggerating. Trust me, I’m not. I was too tired and too frustrated to take pictures of the people sleeping on the aisle).

Note to self: Get a sleeper bunk bed next time around.