July 22, 2006

Sleeper bus from hell

At 9:48am this morning, I hit the low point of my 10 week trip. Exhausted, filthy, hungry, and suffering from an asthma attack after 16hrs on a sleeper bus, I had just been told by the fifth hotel in a row that they were fully booked. I slumped over in the middle of the road, let out a slow wail, then composed myself and followed plan B.

I walked into the middle of the pedestrian street, put away my guidebook and looked completely clueless. Sure enough, within 5 minutes, a tout had approached me, offering "sleeping room?" I was willing to pay anything to collapse on a bed. She took me to a chinese hotel and showed me the "deluxe double." Even in my addled, exhausted state, I managed to negotiate a 50% discount. I spent today passed out, recovering from the one of the worst bus rides of my life.

Yesterday afternoon, at the bus station, the sleeper bus seemed like a good idea. A couple of friendly post-doctorate chinese students also encouraged me, telling me that it was likely that the train would be sold out. I had heard about these sleeper buses - picture a bus filled with bunk beds, 36 beds in all, piled 2 high, and arranged 3 bunks wide. Again, I thought, what a great concept! Alas, I didn't figure on the beds being sized for the average asian. My legs were too long and the bunk was wide enough just for my body and arms if I lied on my back. Thus, for 16 hours, I was lying down, curled up in some form or another, hanging on for my dear life as the insane bus driver threw the bus into wild turns. He had put me in the absolute worst spot: the top bunk right in front. I was right over the wheel, so I felt every bone-jarring bump, and I was also swung from side to side as he went into turns. To make matters worse, the driver's buddy, who sat right underneath my bunk, kept chain-smoking, despite the prominent no-smoking signs. My attempts to get him to stop were in vain, so I suffered through an asthma attack and drippy nose. My sole consolation was that my used tissues kept falling on the rogue smoker. I arrived in Guangzhou (aka Canton), thoroughly exhausted, but glad to be off the bus from hell.

To console myself, I bought myself a $3 latte and I'm planning to take myself out for a nice dinner. GZ is known for its food. My buddy Korn arrives tomorrow so I'm looking forward to a week of Seinfeld references and silly jokes.

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