18th December: Yangshuo, China to Kunming, China

I had my final stroll around Yangshuo, drinking my usual cheap but delicious coffee. I’ve been sticking to lattes but the place I’ve been using have an eclectic selection, including: pomelo juice with coffee on top, like a kind of reverse tequila sunrise (they call this American style); latte but made with cheese (allegedly this is New Zealand style); and a mixture of espresso, water, orange juice, and mulled wine (European style, obviously). I should really try some of them! Kaja has a mighty fine collection of teas.

Breakfast was bananas and kumquats from the stall downstairs. Given the lack of information on buses, we decided to abandon the plan to go by bus to Guilin station and instead took a shared taxi out to Yangshuo station for a connecting train. This was surprisingly fun as we chatted with the other passenger about our trips – he was on business from Nanjing. The connecting journey was short but beautiful. In places the karst hills were being eaten away by machinery for a new infrastructure project, exposing the white rock. For some reason, this conjured up the image of Wallace and Gromit eating the moon for cheese! I felt properly relaxed for the first time in quite a while, after our lovely, chilled time recently. I don’t want to speak too soon but I think I’ve started to get my energy back. Hopefully.

Food was hard to find at the small stations in both Yangshuo and Guilin West, just as it has proved before leaving Yangshuo West Street in the morning. We ended up having some very questionable dumplings which definitely had egg in and a bowl of plain noodles (the vegetarian option) with tofu which they fished out of a chicken feet broth! Otherwise, it was unhealthy snacks all of the way today.

Our train today stopped just once, in Guiyang. Coupled with speed, this is how high-speed trains in China are so effective at replacing air travel. On our second train today, we covered almost exactly 1,000km in 4 hours. This is the same distance as the much hyped (and very welcome) new Paris to Berlin service, but in half the time.

Nothing is left to chance on trains here. There are full airport-style security checks at each station (and metro stop), but these are so well managed as to rarely slow you down by more than about 10-15 seconds. Platforms are closed 5 minutes before departure and people usually queue up where their door is going to be (although often then bizarrely try to push on whilst people are getting off and always get told off by the attendants). Once on board, the train, including the floors, is cleaned every hour. After every stop, the train attendant checks that no straps are hanging from overhead bags and that there aren’t any bottles or items which could fall out of side pockets.

After arriving at Kunming 10 minutes early, we jumped on the metro. So much for no more big cities! It turns out that this place has the same population as London. The theme here at night seems to be thin, stripy lights on all large buildings. We checked in and this hotel has a different solution to the ‘4=death problem’ and it’s one we’ve seen a few times already. All room numbers have an extra 8 in front for luck. So, on floor 4 we are in room 8405. We know by now not to go to the eighth floor when your room number starts with 8!