SQUUAAAARRKKK Maverick here on a rattley, noisy, shakey train bound for Hong Kong and its 2:am in the morning! We've just been woken up by the guard and we're arriving at the border and nearly in China.
We're at the border, all the kids are tired and are waiting in the queue for our PassPorts to be checked and stamped. Sammy was nearly asleep and everyone looked tired. Once everyone was through we had to wait for the train to be checked. This took 2 hours and Sam sat on his bag and nearly fell asleep. That didn't do any good for his luggage. Finally we could go back to the train and James was quick to get into his bed. He was nearly asleep by the time everyone else got into bed.
No one really slept because something happened, the trains generator stopped also the air con was off and the train didn't move an inch. There was a moment where the train started then stopped once again. Then finally the train worked and we were moving. It was really noisy. Making it harder to sleep. The train creaked, squeaked and whined but somehow everyone got to sleep.
When the sun rose everyone was up bright and early and on their beds looking out the window to see the rural area of China. There were rice fields and corn fields. Dirt roads and streams. It all looked very green until we got close to the cities...
We are at the end of the line for this train in the city called Nanning and the heat is unbearable! Even better, we had to play the queuing game three times in a row to get our other train tickets. Every time we played the game the queue got longer but finally we got the tickets.
We're setting off to the station for are BULLET TRAIN!!! This kakapo is gonna go over 200kph on the ground and I'm going to be the fastest kakapo alive! We caught a taxi and we are going to the station. We're nearly there. We're at the station and are eating lunch at a cafe in the station. Oh, did I mention this station is way better then the other intimidating station where we got on our over night train.
10 minutes until we board I can't wait. "Dun dun dun din" (speaker noise) " good afternoon everyone the bullet train on platform 10 and 11 is ready to board" said the speakers. Yes we're boarding are train. I'm so excited. We're on our train and its huge and its like a big snake and goes all the way down to the other side of the station.
The doors are closing and now are shut. The train is starting to move and it wasn't shaking or squeaking it gliding across the rails like it was hovering and was starting to get faster and faster the speed was amazing 50 kilometres an hour, 60,70,80,90,100,110,120,130 and still going faster. Now the world is shooting past.
The train went for 8 hours at its unrealistic speed and the kids where gazing out of the window. Looking at hills crossing rivers and passing cities in minutes. Until the sun went and then disappeared the kids then resumed to the games. Toni said " that we should do are blogs". We arrived at our station. We are at the west station but are not yet at Hong Kong. One more train to go until we're at Hong Kong.
We caught a taxi and set off for the East Station to get are next train. The taxi brought us on a 45 minute city tour that went in circles. John knew something wasn't right and asked to go right to the station or we'll be late. The driver said nothing. Then finally we got to the station.
The usual price of a taxi to the station is 80 yuan instead he charged us 180 yuan and dad took a picture of the meter.
We had arrived 10 minutes late and the train was gone this had done it for Sam and he was starting to cry even though it was just a train, ( he even cries about Internet ). We had to go on the train tomorrow. We had to book a hotel that was close to the station and call it a day and go to bed Sam went to sleep and luckily I also went to sleep. Then finally the place had gone quite and every one was asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment