And So It Ends...

When I got back to the hostel, a Dutch couple I met the other day on the tour was waiting for their taxi. I sat with them and we talked about travel. They only reinforced how I feel that traveling makes you feel truly alive. After we talked for about an hour, they took me back over to the Muslim quarter to try some street food they’d sampled the day before.

“Don’t think about it,” the guy said (I never caught their names.) “Just eat it.”

It tasted great whatever it was. It was some sort of flat bread, sliced in half like a bun. In the middle was shredded lamb with some sort of sour and spicy sauce. It came with a cup of that sweet and bitter tea that I’d had the other day. It was definitely better than the lamb soup I had the other day. In fact, it’s on the list of best things I’ve eaten in China.

We also bumped into a British kid who is staying at our hostel. We toured him around a little bit while talking world events including Scotland wanting to leave the UK and rather or not America should get involved in Ukraine.

“I think America has to help,” the guy said again. “It is hard because people will always be mad at you for getting involved, but you are one of the few countries that has the resources to help other countries.”

When we got back to the hostel, we sat in the café and got drinks. Johnny (the British kid) made the comment, “Going home from China is going to be so hard. No one is ever going to understand.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. We again reminisced over stories and decided for a third time that traveling truly makes you feel alive. It’s nice to meet other people that feel the same wanderlust.

About 3:00 I headed out. We exchanged email addresses and promised to look each other up on Facebook at some point. The girl at the front desk wrote out “please take me to the main train station” In Chinese for me on a slip of paper and I went out to find a cab.

In that moment, I felt like a real adventurer. With everything I own on my back, and 14 incredible days on the road under my belt, I realized I really am capable of so much more than I give myself credit for.

Except apparently hailing cabs! Not only could I barely get one to stop for me, but the two that did declined to take me to the train station. One guy on a tuck-tuck bike offered but wanted 30RMB. I only had 20 on me (I had more but not in small bills) so I wasn’t budging on my price. Eventually a guy on a motorcycle agreed to take me—after about 5 minutes of fierce bi-lingual negotiating.

As I climbed on the back of his motorcycle, I realized this broke every “don’t talk to strangers rule” I’ve ever been taught. I was now on the back of a motorcycle with some strange guy who barely spoke English, with no helmet, with everything I own on my back, bobbing and weaving through Chinese traffic. It struck me that if you wanted to kidnap and American and take all their stuff, this would be a perfect way to do it.

But in a very odd and terrifying way…it was awesome!

He didn’t take me all the way to the train station but dropped me off about ¼ mile away. He said he wasn’t allowed closer and given all the bus traffic, he might have been right. Either way, I was here.

I got my ticket in the hottest sweatiest room I have ever been in (which is saying something in China) and then went to wait in line for the train. Initially when I asked a woman for directions she shook her head and started to walk away. I think she then put together the lost look on my face and came back over and pointed the way for me.

After standing in line for about an hour, our train boarded. I found my sleeper compartment and luckily had a bottom bunk. The compartment actually is very nice. The bunks are more like couches and I’m only sharing it with 3 other people.

I changed into clean clothes when the train started moving. I am yet to sleep on the floor of a train station and I don’t really want to bring the germs off of one into my bed. The rocking motion of the train is very relaxing to me, and I fell asleep pretty quickly. After a nice little two hour nap, I woke up to find that my compartment-mates are also sleeping. I’m about to go find some hot water to add to the cup of noodles I brought with me.

My only frustration with this over night train ride is that I don’t have a book to read. Then again, I have all 160 journal entries from my trip saved on my tablet. Maybe rereading that is exactly what I need to bring closure to this awesome adventure.