December 25 -Train Ride and Reed Flute Caves

It was an early start to the day as we made our way to the train station. Our group was heading to Guilin, Guangxi – a place of indescribable beauty. This area has been on my bucket list for years!

Traveling by train is usually quite comfortable in China. The train stations, however, can be quite busy and chaotic. Our guide, Michael, was able to stay with us until we made it to the waiting area, which was very helpful.

We couldn’t have asked a better guide. Michael is organized, looks after every little detail, and has a wicked sense of humour. A fantastic way to start the trip! He thought of everything before we would even have a chance to ask. Saying goodbye to Michael was hard, as we wish we could have brought him with us for the rest of the trip!

We were expecting to be on a bullet train with regular seats. What awaited us was in fact a sleeper train, where three people were assigned a lower bed to use as seats. The top beds were used to hold the luggage. Just getting on the train and down the narrow hallway to our ‘cabins’ was an adventure in itself and each cabin held six people. A train station worker sent us down the opposite way of the rest of the passengers, which made for a tight squeeze and confusion all around. By the time we got to our cabins, everyone was stressed and a little done in. In the end, it turned out to be one of my favourite experiences of the trip so far!

We crammed as many of us as we could into one of the cabins, as the other two cabins were shared with other people. When another single passenger, whose ticket showed that he was to be sitting in the same cabin, saw us loud and crazy people coming in the room, he took off! I said, “He’s abandoning ship” and he must have understood English, because he turned around and laughed. The kids got out their tablets and were happy to sit for awhile. The rest of us started chatting and then all of a sudden,  Tyler, who joined us on this trip, realized that the water he was drinking was not the one he brought with him, but one that had been left behind by another passenger. Tyler is hilarious as it is, so this just threw us all into fits of laughter, to the point where an announcement came on reminding passengers to be respectful of other people in the train – in English!

We work quite well as a team – we had the luggage organized and ready to get off the train quickly, kids lined up and a plan for who is helping who get everything and everyone off the train as quickly as possible.

This time we were met by our guide named Sharon. We all yelped in happiness when we saw our bus – the golden bus tradition lived on - #puregold (our first bus in Guangzhou was also golden in colour). The kids immediately took over the back row and happily played while we made our way to a restaurant for lunch.

After lunch, we headed to the Reed Flute Cave, which I was really looking forward to seeing. We parked the bus and had to walk along a street without a sidewalk to get to the entrance – we called it the street of death. Just a little bit scary! Then we had to climb a LOT of stairs, but in the end, the kids loved it and it was totally worthwhile. They adored the lights, the little ponds, and the stones they could touch. Ailee said this was her favourite part of the trip so far and wanted to keep exploring. She was not happy, though, that the guide was the only one to get a flashlight – the Scientist in her was not impressed!

Once we exited the cave, we walked alongside the river for a more scenic route and to avoid the ‘street of death.’ There, we were bombarded by people wanting to take our pictures. I cannot tell you how many people have jumped into pictures with us or who ask to have their picture taken with us.

Then it was time to head to the hotel and check-in. The kids wanted to hit the pool, but it closed quite early, so that one had to be saved for the next day. We had two rooms for our family in this hotel, so one of the rooms was designated the ‘kids room,’ and Ella joined them and slept over with them. It kept them very happy and busy.

Tyler and Nancy took one for the team and headed to McDonald’s to grab us all food. It was a lot of fun to hang out and chat about our adventures that day. We had a ton of laughs and a great end to a great day.