A bike ride in the sun

Trip Start Aug 10, 2008
1
27
59
Trip End Ongoing


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of China  , Shanxi,
Monday, October 27, 2008

Oooo what a journey we had last night! The train was late and when it arrived we only had a few minutes to get along so everyone ran to the carriages with their huge bags. We'd opted for hard seats again but it was far more crowded and rough-looking than the previous night. There was no room for our bags on the racks so we had to squeeze them under seats and sit with some on our laps. On top of this, a guy sat in the aisle next to us and had motion sickness so threw-up on the floor all through the night. The puke was rolling everywhere - including towards our bags - and I gave him a plastic bag but by then the worst had come up anyway! We were uneasy about the company so at first Zsuzsanna and I took turned to sleep and keep guard - we didn't have a very good night!

Fortunately, when I'd felt so bad the night before, I'd booked into a hostel that provided a free pickup service. We were collected from the station in a tuk tuk and we collapsed into bed for a couple of hours! Fortunately we'd arrived early enough that when we got up, refreshed we still had the day ahead of us. We had some nice breakfast and then hired some bikes to explore the city. It was beautiful and such a change from the previous places. It's a small, well preserved ancient walled city, that doesn't even have a bank. Our smiled stretched across our faces as we rode around in the sun, people calling hello as we passed, and stopping to try and communicate with the friendliest of them. The sun was shining and our previous night of the train was soon forgotten.

If we could handle it last night we could do it again and after a quick wash back at the hostel they took us back to the station for our 3rd night on hard seats....
Slideshow Print this entry