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Clockwise from top left:
Ice with Dan, Adam & Chris in hotel lobby; Chris in the sleeper bunk; dining car; hallway outside of sleeping berths.
Today was devoted to travel or killing time while waiting for transportation. We had to check out by 11:00 but weren’t catching the night train from Guilin until 9:50PM. We convinced the kids running the hotel to hold our bags & headed out to wander. Judy stopped at a chop shop, where she bought a couple of chops that would be inscribed with names using Chinese characters that came as close phonetically as possible. Chris brought along a chop he’d gotten as part of a calligraphy set. Getting a phonetic match for “Chris” will be tough, as no Mandarin words end with the “s” sound. In fact, the only consonant endings are “n” and “ng.”
By 11:30, we were back to the Feel Magazine Café, if only to show the menu to Dan & see if through Ice we could gain insight into some of the more interesting translations. Unfortunately, Ice knows almost no English and Dan too little Chinese, so we were unable to fill the gaps.
We also experienced the slowest, most incompetent wait staff on the planet, and perhaps in the history of the planet. First, we ordered drinks – 2 cups of regular and 2 cups of chocolate almond coffee, plus a Coke. The fuyuan (waitress or any female staff) didn’t write anything down, but trotted away. 10-15 minutes later, she came back & informed us that she couldn’t make the flavored coffee. We switched to iced coffee, and she scampered off. 10 minutes later, the first cup of regular coffee arrived. 5 minutes after, the second cup. Some time later, the first cup of iced coffee. Another 5 minutes, the second.
By now, it’s 12:15 (45 minutes later). We decide to order food. Ice starts with “pat the cucumber” and some meat dish. Chris follows, with an order of chicken fried rice. Before Adam can order, fuyuan runs off. Five minutes later, she comes back and he orders fried noodles. She leaves before Judy, Dan or I can order. When she returns after awhile, I order egg fried rice. Before she can disappear again, Judy grabs her and orders curry-fried rice & fruit yogurt, and Dan says (in Chinese) that he’ll have the rice as well: that's 2 orders of curry-fried rice.
Five minutes later, my egg-fried rice arrives. Another 5 minutes, and fuyuan tells Ice that they can’t make her meat dish. A little later, another dish arrives: Yangshuo rice, which nobody ordered. She drops the plate in front of Adam and leaves, oblivious to the protests. Next – all in 5-10 minute intervals – Ice’s “pat the cucumber” arrives. Chris gets his chicken-fried rice, which looks exactly like the Yangshuo rice, still sitting untouched in front of Adam. Somewhere in this, Ice explains to fuyuan that Adam had ordered noodles, not rice. Judy gets her curry-fried rice, which appears to be Yangshuo rice with curry powder sprinkled on. Adam’s correct noodle dish arrives. Another 15 minutes passes. The fuyuan happens by and Dan indicates that he never got his curry-fried rice and Judy never got her yogurt. A minute later, Dan’s dish arrives. One can only presume that the cook put it out with Judy’s and fuyuan didn’t want to carry 2 dishes at a time & promptly forgot about Dan after delivering Judy’s food. You’d think that simply passing a table that’s been sitting well over an hour when only half have a plate might be a cue that something is amiss. Apparently not.
Anyway, Judy’s yogurt arrived right after Dan’s plate, inexplicably quickly. Oh, did I mention that we were the only customers in the restaurant? Presumably, this indicates that (1) fuyuan was not busy with other customers, and (2) there might be a reason there are no other customers.
We didn’t really care. We were trying to kill time and fuyuan had obliged, exceeding our wildest expectations. We didn’t finish our simple meal – one that would have taken 5-10 minutes to get anywhere else – until sometime near 2:00. We agreed to meet back at the hotel at 3:00. Ice would accompany us as far as Guilin, where she would catch a bus back to Changsha and we would catch our train to Shenzhen en route to Hong Kong.
Adam, Dan & Ice did some last-minute shopping. The rest of us were shopped out. We found a shady place with something like a breeze now & then – a stone alcove overlooking a canal next to our hotel – and parked. Chris started reading a book & Judy worked on a Juneau, Alaska cross-stitch she’d had for years. It’ll get done this trip. We were joined by a Chinese family & they were fascinated by the Laowai working on the cross-stitch. Not the first time, nor the last. They offered us some fruit from a bag, and gave Chris a piece of newspaper to sit on. Chinese don’t like to sit on bare walls and benches – pretty sensible when anyplace is considered a reasonable location to expectorate or urinate. We stayed until the breeze died completely, then retreated to our little oasis, the Belleview Café, where the beverages are cold, the room is air-conditioned, and the fuyuans are attentive and prompt.
The place was packed with westerners who had arrived together on a tour, including a large (8-10) African-American extended family. Whites are not very common in most of China. These were the first blacks we’d seen in China, and it’s a huge family. After the circus that we’ve generated, I can’t imagine what it’s like for them!
The trip to Guilin was uneventful and took 1 ½ hours. We said goodbye to Ice & were able to check our luggage at the train station, adjacent to the bus stop, for 70 yuan. We had almost 5 hours to kill, so ate at McDonalds (again), wandered through some stores, and spent some time in an internet café where the fuyuan tried very hard to speak English & wanted to know what we thought of Guilin. I said it seemed like a very nice city & she was pleased. “We are very proud of it!”
Guilin does seem like a very nice city, if wandering a mile or 2 down the main drag is any way to judge such a thing. Judy was struck by how clean it is, while country towns like Ningyuan are filthy. She thought it was the opposite in the U.S. I’m not sure I’d agree, but maybe the rule of thumb holds. Here, I think it’s a matter of infrastructure. Guilin's main drag has trash containers on every block, and they’re not overflowing. Interestingly, each has separate holes for “recycling” and “other trash,” but both holes empty into the same plastic bag. Hmmm.
We boarded the train to Shenzhen around 9:30. It’s divided into sections. There’s general seating with hard wood seats, which would be miserable on a trip of any length.
By 11:30, we were back to the Feel Magazine Café, if only to show the menu to Dan & see if through Ice we could gain insight into some of the more interesting translations. Unfortunately, Ice knows almost no English and Dan too little Chinese, so we were unable to fill the gaps.
We also experienced the slowest, most incompetent wait staff on the planet, and perhaps in the history of the planet. First, we ordered drinks – 2 cups of regular and 2 cups of chocolate almond coffee, plus a Coke. The fuyuan (waitress or any female staff) didn’t write anything down, but trotted away. 10-15 minutes later, she came back & informed us that she couldn’t make the flavored coffee. We switched to iced coffee, and she scampered off. 10 minutes later, the first cup of regular coffee arrived. 5 minutes after, the second cup. Some time later, the first cup of iced coffee. Another 5 minutes, the second.
By now, it’s 12:15 (45 minutes later). We decide to order food. Ice starts with “pat the cucumber” and some meat dish. Chris follows, with an order of chicken fried rice. Before Adam can order, fuyuan runs off. Five minutes later, she comes back and he orders fried noodles. She leaves before Judy, Dan or I can order. When she returns after awhile, I order egg fried rice. Before she can disappear again, Judy grabs her and orders curry-fried rice & fruit yogurt, and Dan says (in Chinese) that he’ll have the rice as well: that's 2 orders of curry-fried rice.
Five minutes later, my egg-fried rice arrives. Another 5 minutes, and fuyuan tells Ice that they can’t make her meat dish. A little later, another dish arrives: Yangshuo rice, which nobody ordered. She drops the plate in front of Adam and leaves, oblivious to the protests. Next – all in 5-10 minute intervals – Ice’s “pat the cucumber” arrives. Chris gets his chicken-fried rice, which looks exactly like the Yangshuo rice, still sitting untouched in front of Adam. Somewhere in this, Ice explains to fuyuan that Adam had ordered noodles, not rice. Judy gets her curry-fried rice, which appears to be Yangshuo rice with curry powder sprinkled on. Adam’s correct noodle dish arrives. Another 15 minutes passes. The fuyuan happens by and Dan indicates that he never got his curry-fried rice and Judy never got her yogurt. A minute later, Dan’s dish arrives. One can only presume that the cook put it out with Judy’s and fuyuan didn’t want to carry 2 dishes at a time & promptly forgot about Dan after delivering Judy’s food. You’d think that simply passing a table that’s been sitting well over an hour when only half have a plate might be a cue that something is amiss. Apparently not.
Anyway, Judy’s yogurt arrived right after Dan’s plate, inexplicably quickly. Oh, did I mention that we were the only customers in the restaurant? Presumably, this indicates that (1) fuyuan was not busy with other customers, and (2) there might be a reason there are no other customers.
We didn’t really care. We were trying to kill time and fuyuan had obliged, exceeding our wildest expectations. We didn’t finish our simple meal – one that would have taken 5-10 minutes to get anywhere else – until sometime near 2:00. We agreed to meet back at the hotel at 3:00. Ice would accompany us as far as Guilin, where she would catch a bus back to Changsha and we would catch our train to Shenzhen en route to Hong Kong.
Adam, Dan & Ice did some last-minute shopping. The rest of us were shopped out. We found a shady place with something like a breeze now & then – a stone alcove overlooking a canal next to our hotel – and parked. Chris started reading a book & Judy worked on a Juneau, Alaska cross-stitch she’d had for years. It’ll get done this trip. We were joined by a Chinese family & they were fascinated by the Laowai working on the cross-stitch. Not the first time, nor the last. They offered us some fruit from a bag, and gave Chris a piece of newspaper to sit on. Chinese don’t like to sit on bare walls and benches – pretty sensible when anyplace is considered a reasonable location to expectorate or urinate. We stayed until the breeze died completely, then retreated to our little oasis, the Belleview Café, where the beverages are cold, the room is air-conditioned, and the fuyuans are attentive and prompt.
The place was packed with westerners who had arrived together on a tour, including a large (8-10) African-American extended family. Whites are not very common in most of China. These were the first blacks we’d seen in China, and it’s a huge family. After the circus that we’ve generated, I can’t imagine what it’s like for them!
The trip to Guilin was uneventful and took 1 ½ hours. We said goodbye to Ice & were able to check our luggage at the train station, adjacent to the bus stop, for 70 yuan. We had almost 5 hours to kill, so ate at McDonalds (again), wandered through some stores, and spent some time in an internet café where the fuyuan tried very hard to speak English & wanted to know what we thought of Guilin. I said it seemed like a very nice city & she was pleased. “We are very proud of it!”
Guilin does seem like a very nice city, if wandering a mile or 2 down the main drag is any way to judge such a thing. Judy was struck by how clean it is, while country towns like Ningyuan are filthy. She thought it was the opposite in the U.S. I’m not sure I’d agree, but maybe the rule of thumb holds. Here, I think it’s a matter of infrastructure. Guilin's main drag has trash containers on every block, and they’re not overflowing. Interestingly, each has separate holes for “recycling” and “other trash,” but both holes empty into the same plastic bag. Hmmm.
We boarded the train to Shenzhen around 9:30. It’s divided into sections. There’s general seating with hard wood seats, which would be miserable on a trip of any length.
There are economy “hard sleepers,” with 6 berths each (3 on a side). The bottom bunks have about 3 feet of head space: enough to sit up, plus stowage underneath. The middle and top bunks don’t have the headroom to sit. We had 4 top bunks (the boys and me) and one middle (Judy). There’s some storage at the foot of the top bunks, and we crammed as much of our stuff in there as possible.
The elite “soft sleepers” have just 4 bunks to a compartment, with thick mattresses, padded backs on the wall so they can serve as sofas, and closing doors for privacy. Would’ve been nice, but we booked too late.
There’s also a nice dining car, open to those with sleepers but not to those in general seating.
The A/C in our car was inadequate but otherwise it was OK & the motion of the train rocks you to sleep. All our train shots are here: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=172069167/a=102868539_102868539/t_=102868539.
The elite “soft sleepers” have just 4 bunks to a compartment, with thick mattresses, padded backs on the wall so they can serve as sofas, and closing doors for privacy. Would’ve been nice, but we booked too late.
There’s also a nice dining car, open to those with sleepers but not to those in general seating.
The A/C in our car was inadequate but otherwise it was OK & the motion of the train rocks you to sleep. All our train shots are here: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=172069167/a=102868539_102868539/t_=102868539.
The bunk below mine & across from Judy housed a young Chinese woman who spoke English: she was leaving to study in England in mid-August. She & Judy struck up a conversation & ultimately she joined Judy & the boys in the dining car, where they played cards until 1:00AM. I had managed to cram our stuff (and myself) into a top berth, so stayed with the stuff & slept. It wasn’t bad, except for a period where they attached an engine at our end or the train (making us the front car instead of the back). The engine sounds its horn frequently. You don’t hear it when you’re the “tail,” but it’s loud when you’re up front.
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