Platform 9 3/4

Today we said goodbye to Beijing and hello to inter-country train travel. We were in the #7 coach, #2 cabin of the T97 train from Beijing to Guangzhou.

We bought the extra bed so that we didn't have to share with a random Chinese dude. Best decision we ever made. The cabins were small and to share with someone we didn't know would have been bad news. We are already the circus side show ... the last thing we need is to be stared at for 21 hours.

Ping drove us to the train and walked us inside and showed us around. He was able to use our extra ticket to get inside the station. We had some lunch and waited in the VIP section! Hell yeah soft sleeper!

Then the insanity began as everyone with seat tickets rushed to get good seats. We got swept into the crowd. Jack kept pointing us in the right direction. We found our coach and found our cabin. Jack was smiling from ear to ear. He was so excited.

Note to those that will follow in our footsteps. When they call to board the train, just stay seated and wait for the mob to go. They are racing for good seats, whereas our cabin is assigned, so there is no rush! Trust me on this!

We left at exactly 1:08 pm. This is my first overnight train. It was very calm and the sway of the train was so much better than the turbulence of a plane.

I fell asleep for an hour and a half almost immediately. I was exhausted. I think I was so scared we would screw this up. Our adoption agency thought we were a little nuts to take a train so far across China and the people who booked the tickets asked us about 4 times if we were sure. "Tickets cannot be refunded if you buy ... you buy, you ride, or you walk!"

But we made it. Jack was having the time of his life and we were just happy to be on an adventure.

Train car 1 had the engine, 2 was a luggage car, 3-6 were hard sleepers (6 beds per cabin, no door, smoking, smells you can't imagine, bad toilets! Then 7-9 are soft sleepers, 4 beds each cabin, with doors ... and very quiet. No one in the halls (this is where we were). Car 10 is the deluxe soft sleepers. These have 2 beds with private bath. Very very nice. If it had just been Steve and I, we would have gone this route. But we needed the extra room. Car 11 is the food car, 12-15 are more hard sleepers, and 15+ are the seats. There is a guard at the door to keep people from coming and going in these cars. The seat cars are packed to the brim! I think a seat will cost you about $35+, hard sleeper is $75+, soft sleeper bed is $130, and deluxe is $190.

I cannot imagine sitting in a seat for 21 hours with people smoking, yelling, and some seriously bad hygiene!

Our train ride consisted of UNO, Chinese checkers, comic books, video games, naps, snacks, drawing, booze (Steve got a bottle of vodka for $.80!!!).

We bought some pre-packaged dinners off the cart for $3.25/piece. Pretty good too. It totally felt like we were going to hogwarts!

After watching Harry Potter 4 (seemed appropriate), we fell asleep around 10:30. The train made two stops in the night to let people off. We all seemed to sleep like babies. The beds were not "soft" but they did the trick.

We got up, packed, had some noodles for breakfast, and enjoyed the last three hours of our journey. The train was about an hour and a half behind schedule when we arrived in GZ. Yet a late train felt easier to deal with than a delayed plane, probably because you can lay down, go to the bathroom, make some noodles!

Wow what a great experience. It was one of the best decisions made when planning this trip. Saved us about $400 and it was a lot of fun. I truly look forward to doing it again one day.

We took a taxi to the Victory from the train station. This was also a first for us. We have used subways, ferries, buses, or Ping to get around up to now. While we are in GZ we will be using taxis and maybe the subway to get around. We could not find a taxi that would run the meter. But we negotiated the driver down and off we went! To be kidnapped or taken to our hotel we didn't know!

We made it to the Victory and checked in. It is beautiful. More on that later. Showers, lunch, and a trip to the pool, finished us off for the day. Enjoy the pictures!