This detailed account of my travel day into China is not for the faint of heart! You've been warned!
Monday, Oct 10th
5:00 pm – Arrive at Cagayan De Oro airport
7:00 pm – Board plane
9:00 pm – Land in Manila
10:30 pm – Arrive at Kim Manila
11:00 pm – Team and Logistics meetings (3 hours)
Tuesday, Oct. 11th
2:00 am – Go to bed
5:00 am – Worship
6:00 am – Breakfast
6:30 am – On the bus to the airport
8:00 am – Arrive at Manila Airport
11:00 am – Flight to Hong Kong
1:00 pm – Land in Hong Kong
2:30 pm – Board bus to go into mainland China. Destination Guanzhou Main Railway Station
3:00 pm – China border crossing
6:30 pm – Arrive at train station, wrong station. David and Chris run around trying to figure out how to get 41 people to the correct station. Two teams have a 7:45 train.
7:15 pm – Load the two teams that have the 7:45 train onto the subway.
8:00 – Rest of the squad boards subway to correct station
8:30 – Arrive in Guangzhou Main
11:30 – Board train to Lanzhou
Wednesday, Oct. 12th
All Day – Train ride. Slept in the aisle.
Thursday, Oct. 13th
8:00 am – Deboard train
9:00 am – Arrive at hotel
Rest of the day – Spent in a city.
Friday, Oct 14th
6:30 am – leave hotel and head to bus station via taxi. Four people in a taxi with backpacks in laps
7:45 am – Board bus
11:30 am – Arrive at smaller city and switch buses.
1:30 pm – Board a bus supposedly to our destination city, City X.
3:00 pm – Arrive in random city, not sure if it is our destination city. Find out its not. Bus driver refuses to take us farther.
3:30 pm – Find a taxi to take us to City X
4:30 pm – Finally arrive in City X
5:00 pm – Check into our “hotel”. We found two bowls of rotting food with chopsticks still in them in our dresser drawer
6:00 pm – Discover a “nicer” hotel. Stay the night in first hotel.
Saturday, Oct 15th
9:00 am – Switch hotels.
Stats
Total Time in Transit (bus, plane, train, etc.) = 2 Days, 1 Hour, and 30 Minutes
Total Time to Destination: 5 days
Total Time asleep: Not nearly enough
