The morning is gloomy again and the town is quiet with only a few
market traders on the streets selling fruit.
I have a coffee in a little cafe and feel sad at leaving this
outpost. Gradually I will be going back to the North and city life.
The coffee is Blue Mountain and it's served in a beautiful green china
cup: I wish I'd brought my camera. I feel a sense of loss as I always
do when contemplating a journey or leaving somewhere. I suppose this
is my sometimes overactive imagination at work, or maybe it's my
reaction to travel. I had arranged to see Greg and his wife at their
restaurant one last time before leaving: sadly owing to some family
emergency they have this does not transpire. So I sit and have a
couple of beers then go and have lunch in a different shop. I like it
in Greg's place but I came to see him and his wife. If I'm going to
be by myself I would like a change.
Following this I make my way to the bus station taking the shuttle to
the railway station. I notice the landscape changing on the train,
becoming less dramatic as I approach Guilin.
At the station in Guilin I have to fend off aggressive taxi touts as
firmly as I can until I find a cab at the taxi rank. The taxi ride
from Guilin North station to my hotel seems to drag on interminably
and I notice that he crosses the river 3 times: I begin to suspect
that he is driving around in circles either because he is lost or
because he is trying to maximise the fare. Either way I show him the
address again and we arrive at the hotel at something like 4.30 pm:
the train arrived at around 3.10 pm, so allowing for time to get out
of the station, I must have been in the taxi for about an hour. It
costs RMB 40 which is fairly expensive in China.
The room borders on opulence; I've forgotten what kind of room I've
booked but it's fantastic for the price: something like RMB 275 a
night. You can't stay in a private room in a YHA in England for
that.
I'm tired from the trip and my nerves are in tatters. I have to say I
sometimes hate transfers in China: I'm a nervous traveller and they
can be very stress-inducing. So I have a hot shower and head out for
dinner. In Guilin the weather is just as it was the last time I was
here: the sky is a uniform gunmetal grey and the drizzle pours down
relentlessly. I begin to wonder whether this is a city of eternal
rains: it is certainly a drab town. Unfortunately my hotel though
great value for money and extremely comfortable, is in an
inconvenient location: it is something like 45 minutes away from
Guilin North station and about 30 minutes walk from Guilin Central.
(or 10 minutes in a cab so if you are taking a taxi I suppose this
is fair: after all I took taxis last time.) So it takes about an hour
for me to walk to the pedestrianised bar strip where I have some food
in the bustling indoor food market and fetch up in the Irish pub for
a beer. My friend Phantom contacts me from Beijing and we arrange to
meet up on Friday night.
That night I don't sleep as well as I thought I would: the bed is
rather hard as is common in China. Last year I took one of my
inflatable mattresses with me. The following morning I rise at about
10 am and there is a hill walk just outside the hotel which leads up
a slightly perilous path but yields some good views of Guilin
Today the rain has gone and the sun occasionally peers throught he
clouds: however it is very windy and chilly today. Well, I suppose
you cannot have everything, after all the wind has probably blown the
rain away. It may even portend an early spring! The roads are choked
with traffic as always seems the case in Guilin: I feel it is a kind
of transport hub for Guangxi tourism.
I hole up in the Irish pub for lunch. I sometimes wonder if it would
attract more customers if it played Irish music or had a band?
Probably only more foreigners. It does have draught Guinness but this
is expensive at something like £6 a pint. Owing to my hotel location
I take taxis around Guilin. This can be trying: the roads are
constantly congested and it's slow going. Also Guilin cab drivers
seem to take tortuous routes to go anywhere provoking suspicion. I
need to buy some snack food so after dinner that evening pass a shop
and get some instant noodles and buns. I also have some fruit: the
last time I saw her Greg's Chinese wife gave me a sackful of oranges:
more than I could possibly eat! I gave most of them away in the
hostel but I also have plenty left for the train journey!(The hotel
corridors remind me of the film “The Shining”) By now I have altered my travel plans back to Beijing and have booked the same hotel on arrival as I did when I left: the big hotel next to the railway station with the Japanese style room. I don't imagine I will be able to make the transfer to Dongcheng North after arriving so late!
The marathon 10.5 hour train journey back to Beijing is like flying
long-haul. To ease the boredom I have a book with me and talk to a
Chinese passenger who speaks English and is also going to Beijing. To
my surprise and dismay there is no bar carriage, only a trolley
service, which is annoying as the journey is so long and I'm stuck in
a cramped compartment.
The weather outside seems fine and sunny today although it's
obviously cold as the onboard LED screens display it at 10C. At least
it is clear today with none of the immense blanket of fog that
covered the country when I came down to Guilin. I become aware that
the train is actually two trains linked together which probably
accounts for the lack of a bar carriage. (Also the reason why I could
not get a first class ticket this time seems to be because there is
not a first-class compartment.) I imagine there is some link between
the size of the train and the number of expected passengers. On the
way I'm constantly assailed by the sounds of announcements, telephone
calls, games, chatter and an incessantly wailing child.
I have an expensive meal on the train at lunch and instant soup
noodles at about 5.30 pm ,(there is no dignified way to eat these,)
and as the day wears on and I hurtle north at 200mph, the landscape
flashes endlessly past.
At one stage I can clearly see the moon in the blue sky over the
fields in the distance which is rare as the sky is not often clear
enough for this even in England. The sun sets and as night comes I
begin to feel I'm on a ghost train hurtling endlessly into the night.
Finally at long last the train arrives in Beijing around 9.10 pm and
I check into my hotel near the station. The journey has been long and
tiring but not as bad as I expected it to be. All the same I am
almost exhausted so after a quick supper at the Golden Arches and a
hot shower I fall gratefully into my futon bed!
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