A Travel Day (a really really really long travel day)

Reid here, even though the tagline up there says Dyanne.  One of us had the foresight to set up posting by email.  One of us gets to post under his wife's name.  I'll let you guess who is who. 

We just had our first true travel day (actually, we're still in the midst of it).  We left Shanghai this morning and our goal was to get to Yangshuo, a great little backpacker hangout in a rural area of china about 12 hours from Hong Kong where we plan to rent bikes and ride around the countryside.  We will take Tai Chi classes.  It will be a bucolic idyll.  But first we have to get there.  Our plan had been to take the third leg of our RTW ticket from Shanghai to Hong Kong and then get cheap local transit to Yangshuo.  It was until a few days ago that we realized that China is Really Big, and that close on the map does not mean close in real life.  

We are sitting here at the Tea Leaf Cafe in the Shenzhen airport drinking Tsingtaos and eating vegetable noodles while we wait for our plane to Guilin.  (As a side note, China has a very loose association with "vegetables" - in this case, three pieces of lettuce and a bit of shredded carrots qualified the soup for that status).  We have been traveling for about 14 hours, with a few more ahead of us.  But it has been an Adventure (or so we are telling ourselves).  

We got packed up and checked out of our Shanghai hotel in good order this morning (though a bit behind schedule) and took the metro to the Mag Lev train that runs out to Pudong airport.  I am glad to say that I have ridden on a mag lev train, but I would probably recommend that people just budget a bit of extra time and take the metro to the airport.  

We almost missed our plane.  First, the airline couldn't find either of our tickets.  Then they solved half of the problem by finding my ticket, but saying Dyanne had cancelled hers.  Eventually, both were located and printed.  Then we hit security.  And the most thorough team of screeners ever to be assembled.  Once our bags were repacked (thank god for packing cubes), we heard our flight announced for a last boarding call.  We ran through a strange maze of hallways and got the gate just in time to jump into the transit bus out to our plane.  We got into our seats on the mostly empty flight and sat back with a great deal of relief.  It felt good to sit.  But then, we realized that the plane was sitting too.  It was apparently tired, because that's what it did for the next 4 hours. Sit.  We never got any clarification on why, but they gave us beer and a meal, so I felt that was an acceptable compromise.  

By the time we arrived in Hong Kong, we had missed any chance to catch the overnight train to Guilin that left from nearby Shenzhen airport (back in mainland China).  We had also missed the last ferry to the Shenzhen airport that would have let us bypass Hong Kong immigration.  So we officially left China and entered Hong Kong.  Then we found bus tickets to Shenzhen airport (and got just a bit ripped off, but that's a post for another time).  We grabbed a quick bite and boarded the bus to Shenzhen (a mostly empty coach bus, quite comfortable).  It turned out to be mostly empty because there was another identical bus for about 80 yuan less (~$10).  Oops.  

The drive through Hong Kong was fantastic.  It looks like a fairy tale south east asian archipelago, all jungle covered mountains jutting out of the sea, and everywhere with a flat bit of land was covered in skyscrapers.  I definitely am looking forward to going back and taking a closer look at the city.  After about an hour, we reached the land border with china and the bus spit us out to cross back through customs and immigration.  By the time we made it back through, we had missed our connecting bus to the airport, and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one.  Then we sat in traffic for a while.  Finally, we arrived at the airport.  

We had researched prices for flights to Guilin, and had been told that you could usually get a cheaper rate by asking at the ticket desk at the airport.  I can't speak to the general rule, but this time was an exception.  After asking at several different ticket desks, we realized that (a) the prices seemed to be set in stone and (b) all of the ticket agents worked for the same company and could ticket for any of the flights.  We fired up our laptop and confirmed that the internets couldn't get us a better deal and bought two tickets.  

That seems to bring us current.  I am sure that I am leaving out something or another, but on my four hours of sleep, I think that is all that I will be able to manage :)  So now we fly to Guilin, get a cheap dorm room for the night, and take a bus to Yangshuo tomorrow morning where we hope to check into the Bamboo House hostel for a week of relaxation.