Trip to the south

Our first experience with Chinese trains. You can choose hard/soft seat of hard/soft sleeper. We took the train around midnight and would arrive at 6o'clock in the morning so we wouldn't have to pay for a night in a hotel. We tought we would be smart and safe money but eventually the first thing we did when we arrived in the morning was searching a hotel and sleep for another 4 hours :) . We took the hard sleepers, like we would do the rest of our journey. You can see it in the pictures, we sleep in an open dorm with six beds in one litlle place. For those six hours it was okay, we slept 5 hours because they woke us up at 5 o'clock, tapping our but the whole time to wake up. The trains are less comfortable and less clean then in Russia but they can be filled with much more people.

So after a good nap at a descend hotel, weird but true there are no hostels in Datong, we met Catrina and Daniel again. We met them in Beijing and they were gonna do almost the same trip like us so why not spend some time together?
So we waited for a bus who would bring us to the ancient Yunan Caves. It was suppose to leave in 5 minutes but left after 45 minutes when it was fully crowded and it dropped us off in the middle of the road. We were surprised, where were we? Surrounded by ten screaming motorcycling riders, we eventually gave in and payed them 5 yuan to bring us to the caves. And it was amazing. Even if all the touristic things around it irritated me so much, it was still worth it going there.

The next morning we met a taxidriver who wanted to bring us to the hanging monastery and a big ancient Pagoda. I can say that the Hanging monastery was nice to see but really disappointing if you pay for it to go up. You can see the monastery outside the gates and so it's really stupid to pay to go up and see nothing but the ticket office :/ But we don't have to moan because we could sneak in with the studentcards from Daniel and Catrina (many thanks by the way!). The same for the Pagoda, you can see it from the outside not worth to pay for it.
So we managed to get back before 4 O'clock and we hurried to change our trainticket so that we could arrive in Taiyuan before midnight. There was nothing more to see in the industrial city of Datong.

We arranged a sleeping place with Nancy, a couchsurfer from Taiyuan. So it was really relaxed to know that we already had a sleepingplace. Nancy was very nice but it was a bit a strange meeting an things didn't quit worked out. And the only thing we wanted to see was a museum, that was nice but not that we had to stop only for that. If you know what I mean. So we wanted to leave after 1 day but it started to snow, all lovely in the beginning. But after a couple of hours it was a lot. More then 0,5 m fell and it was total chaos in the city. We wanted to take the train but after 2,5hours waiting we knew he wasn't coming. So we booked a hotel, slept a good night and had a new idea the next morning: a bus! But stupid as we are, if there is a snowstorm, busses don't leave either :) So the only option : go back to the trainstation and wait. We were lucky, only 30 minutes later a train took us to our next stop : Pingyao.

The train we took was less comfortable :) We had hard seats that we had to share with 3 women and their babies. I'm so fond of little creatures, but these little ones in China don't have diapers on and it is so grose when they pee everywhere :/ Simon had his rainpants on, so he could sit in the peearea :) The wagon was filthy with spit and trash so we were happy it only lasted an hour.
Pingyao is a really old little village. Nice to wander arround for a couple of days. It was snowing here too, a lot of it. So when we wanted to take the train to Xi'an in the middle of the night, a couple of trains were canceled and delayed. The people we met in the hostel had to take a train with standingtickets for 10 hours (because there were so many people)! We were lucky, our train was delayed for only 30 minutes and we still had our sleepingplaces. But it was scary because some people said that there was another snowstorm coming and if we didn't leave on the next train we would be stuck for at least 4days!

When we arrived in Xi'an we went to an hostel, went for food and jumped on a bus to see the great terracotta warriors. I didn't had high expectations, about none of the touristic places, but it was great. We took a guide for the first time during our trip and it was worth it. She gave a lot of info, sometimes a bit like a robot, but Simon asked so many questions that we had the feeling that it is better to take a guide because otherwise you see some statues without the meaning. It was also good we went very late and the troops of tourists were already gone.
In the evening we met Sam and Amy again, our companions through Mongolia. It felt good to see them again. It was like seeing friends again after a while.

Next day we spent wondering around in the city, swabbing some books and try to stay warm. We met with Catrina and Daniel again and took the train to the south, to Guilin. 27 hours on the train, I can assure you, it's a lot! it was enough, espessially for Simon who became sicker by the hour.

Guilin is beautiful, I mean the nature. The city is one touristic place, but the suroundings are nice. Simon spent 3 days in bed while I arranged our visa-extension. Luckily he was better after a few days and we good go to the 'countryside'. Especially Yangshuo were we spent our time hiking and biking. A really relaxing time.

One week later we took the train to Chengdu, we stayed here one week relaxing, searching people to join us to Tibet ( who we almost found :) and tomorrow we leave for a nature park in the north for hiking.

Time for bed, good night,
big kiss

Saartje