Adventures in Guangzhou!

The next morning was a bit rough. Neither David nor I had slept much because some friends of the family had stayed up until about 5am playing mahjong right next to our heads. David's aunt made us noodles for breakfast but about two bites in I realized they were the exact same beef noodles that we had eaten about 5 days ago (not the same recipe but the same batch) and I got minorly sick to my stomach. I couldn't finish the bowl and I just had to get some fresh air. It wasn't pretty.

We walked to the bus stop though and once I napped for a while I was good to go once again. We headed into Changsha, this time to see the Provincial Museum, famous for the most well-preserved mummy in the known world. Very cool! It was found in the seventies and dates back about 2200 years to the Han dynasty. There were incredible artifacts to go along with the body and I was amazed by the musical instruments most. They had a number of string instruments and even tuning forks that were almost exactly in line with the western octave scale. Incredible. There was also an incredible display about calligraphy from different dynasties that was breathtaking.

I must admit that I have been somewhat spoiled by my previous travels to Rome and Israel. I saw some amazing sites and artifacts that were extremely old and decently well-preserved. I expected to find much of the same in China, given its long history, but so far had been disappointed. This was the jackpot. I could have spent 2 or 3 days in that place just staring at some of the stuff they found. So cool, and so very different from the items I saw in Jerusalem or Pompeii.

We took the bus back to Zhentou, made it back just in time for dinner with his aunt & uncle, and had one last night to spend with the family before taking off for home sweet home. A number of family members came to see us off the morning of the 5th and it made me sad to see them so upset saying goodbye. I guess when you only see your brother/nephew/cousin once every two years, it's a pretty big deal when he leaves. We took some pictures and then hopped a minibus to the Zhuzhou train station.

Traveling during the spring festival is awful. There's just no way around it. Train tickets are almost impossible to buy so I figured we'd have to suffer through the bus again. As it was, David's brother knew somebody who worked in the train station so he hooked us up with tickets... or so we thought. We were told that it would be 150 kuai for a hard sleeper back. That's a pretty good deal--conditions are good and you can sleep the day away. Well we arrived and some dude came out and said it was 200 a piece. We asked why, he said it's spring festival inflation. Fair enough, except that when he handed over the tickets and hopped out of the car, we saw that the tickets were for hard seats at a face value of 45 kuai. Ugh.

The hard seat section is just chaos. We got on to the bus and literally had to step over people sitting in the aisles to get to our seats. They sell standing room tickets that people buy and just sit in the middle of the floor. It was loud, it was dirty, it was filled with cigarette smoke, and it was hot. Not ideal, but at least we wouldn't have any traffic, right? Wrong. Our train was a special added train for the high traffic holiday week and thus had to move aside and let all scheduled trains pass whenever they needed. That meant that our 7 or 8 hour trip ended up taking about 13 hours. Add in the fact that the bathrooms were locked (not that I could reach them anyway) and it all made for a torturous ride. I read for a while but then I got a headache and couldn't focus.

We arrived back in Guangzhou at around 2am and tried to grab a taxi. Once again, they opportunistically wanted to charge exorbitant amounts to take us home. Uh uh. We went over to the buses and literally fought our way through crowds to get on the bus. There were police there regulating but it didn't stop a few people from throwing punches after getting elbowed out of line. Serious stuff. After we eventually got on, I stared out the window at all the familiar sights. It was nice to be home, that was for sure. I got back into my apartment and took a shower. Then I took another shower. Why? Because I could.

As I went to bed on my comfortable queen-sized mattress, I tried to reflect back. It wasn't the most fun vacation I ever had but it sure was the most interesting. I think I experienced things that very few westerners will ever get to see or do. That right there made it all worth it and I definitely feel like a lucky guy for having the opportunity. I have no idea how I can ever top that, but I will certainly try. Special shout-out to David for inviting me along and being such a great travel companion. We'll definitely have to do it again sometime.

And, finally, here is the photographic evidence of the madness. Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03