Cattle class, missed connection + expert recovery - Nanning, China
Nanning, China
We are up early for the train and enjoy our last breakfast on the riverside terrace. On check out, I hand over own China lonely planet guide (which I took from the Beijing hostel) for another tourist to utilise. Now well adverse to the train system in china we have our voucher printed, locate the ticket booths and collect the tickets and enter the station through the 3 security check points to sit in the waiting room next to our trains platform.......smoothly does it. With our remaining 22RMB, I source noodles, sesame biscuits and a chocolate treat from the shop. Not an apple, pear or banana in this shop unfortunately! To start the days panics, the train is delayed by 30 minutes but it still gives us well over an hour in Nanning to change to our Hanoi train. On the train, we are crammed into cattle class. The tour operator has booked us a hard seat. We actually requested a soft sleeper which is a four berth cabin with beds, always thinking of the siesta especially after a very early start. The class below the sleeper is the soft seat, which is like second class in England and would also have done fine but no, we are in the hard seats and it is just that. There are over 100 people in the cabin, you are allowed to smoke and they can over book meaning there are a lot of people standing in the aisle. And this number of people and smokers means its hot and smoggy and the AC is struggling with the volume. I don't understand why so many people here wear surgical style masks to protect from pollution yet sit happily in a smokey cabin.....yuk. And we have this for (unfortunately) 8 hours as our train frustratingly is delayed and more annoying sat outside Nanning station awaiting a platform. We watch anxiously as up to 2 hours of minutes tick by and 20 minutes past the departure time of our next train. Hopeful that the Hanoi train may also be delayed we dart off the train as soon as it's docked. The Chinese push so we have learned the habit and push in and past the crowd picking up speed despite our 15kg packs on our back. We locate the international trains and push through security but to find the train has gone on time......typical. We are stuck in China and I know from prior trip planning that the trains to Hanoi only go on Friday and Monday.......**** (was the politest expression we used for the situation). A kind security guard at the station, who spoke good English, assessed our tickets and told us to go to ticket booth 16. On finding ticket booth 16 we also found its 40 people long queue. Hot, sweating, tired, hungry having not eaten on the cattle train and feeling claustrophobic in the mass of people, we felt on the verge of giving up. Then James with a technique learned from the Chinese, thought to Q jump to the front to confirm we were in the right place and effectively pushing in he was given a refund for our tickets as it was there fault the train was missed. Unfortunately we only got the face value back and not the extortionate booking fee (foreigners have to buy tickets through an agent so there is no control on the fees they can charge) but it was better than nothing and his cheekiness got us out of the station in 10 minutes and not the 2 hours it could have been. On exiting the station, we spotted a city inn and trying not to look desperate (and get a higher room rate) we went in to enquire about room prices and wifi so we could look up flights to Hanoi. With a room checked in at a bargain of £28 (its the Chinese version of travelodge), we got on the Internet to arrange flights for the next day. Sadly, this wasn't possible unless taking an 8 hr plane to Beijing and then to Hanoi.....bonkers!!!) and also came with a price tag of £500.......dreams of fizz and luxury in Vietnam fading as the budget takes a swipe. With more research though we found a bus and dived back out into the madness of the city in hope to find the ticket office open. Thankfully this was the case and we were able to buy 2 tickets for the coach for £30 for tomorrow morning, meaning we would reach Hanoi and to the arranged hotel on the same day.......disaster averted and a expert recovery! On returning via the supermarket, James fills the rucksack with fruit and coach supplies but to add to the days events the zip breaks and spills everything out onto the street in front of many starring eyes.....what an end to the day! We feast on our Chinese version of pot noodles before collapsing onto the bed to sleep for the coach tomorrow. Our last day in China.