Another border crossing loomed in front of us. Back into China via the Shenzhen border crossing. This time we were in line at 7 a.m., having hustled to pack at sleepy eyed 5 a.m. and nearly running down the darkened street to make our express bus. We were streamlined through the customs and immigration lines and were soon back in Guangzhou, shuffling along in line to buy our 26 hour train ticket all the way to Kunming (the capital of the Yunnan Province).
Lucky us, they only had the squished top bunks available. However, we had no desire to hang around Guangzhou for another day and already had our bags at the train station so we gave in and parted with 333 yuan. I managed to sleep for the majority of our 26 hour ride – not sure how as I am usually wide awake for any sort of transportation, especially trains. My ear plugs came in handy as the man below me was the most enthusiastic sleeper I’ve ever met (i.e. – he snored horribly)! Once again, we missed the dinner cart rolling through the isle (because they eat so darn early here!) but we luckily had our stock of pot noodles and bananas. I’ll never look at instant noodles the same way again!
We are loving the Yunnan Province so far. Kunming is gorgeous!!! Blue, blue skies as far as the eye can see. We are finally warm and have stripped off our thermals and heavy scarves. HUMP hostel seems to be the only one available in Kunming, but we haven’t ventured out to seek other places. Of course, we got lost trying to find the place, boarded two wrong buses, and walked in circles for a few hours before finally settling down on the beautiful rooftop veranda. Lijiang is the next stop on our Yunnan experience. The small Tibetan town is the starting point for the fabulous Tiger Leaping Gorge – a multiday hike through the mountains. We have an overnight bus tomorrow night – another sleeper bus if you can believe it. I swore to myself that I would never again take a sleeper bus in China and am hoping this one will be better than my last episode. Time will tell…..
