Let me explain to you what a World Race travel day might look like… and for this particular travel day, I am gonna share with you what our trip to China looked like…
It all started early on Tuesday morning… VERY EARLY…
4:30am to be exact! Our team woke up and packed up all our belongings back into our packs to prepare for the long days a head.
5:00am we had squad worship. It was an amazing time to just praise God for the month we all just experienced and thank Him for allowing us all to be back together.
5:45am we had our breakfast.
6am we were all loaded up on the bus and for the next 2.5 hours we set on a charter bus as we made our way to the airport in Manila, Philippines for our flight to Hong Kong.
10:45am our flight took off and we said goodbye to what had been our home for the last month. The next hour or so would soon become one of the worst flights I have EVER been on. FYI, for y’all who don’t know me very well… I really DO NOT like flying. Our plan hit multiple air pockets and kept dropping… Not a fun flight for any of us.
We landed in Hong Kong (praise the Lord) and collected all our stuff and made our way to another bus.
3pm we loaded the bus and made our 2.5 hour bus ride to main-land China. Once there, you have to unload the bus and walk through customes to get into China. Eventually all 42 of us made it through customes and security stuff and it was back on the bus… again.
We took another bus ride (about 2 hours) to the train station in Guangzhou and started to check in about 7pm… Only to find out that our bus driver (who spoke NO ENGLISH) had dropped us off in the wrong train station… Actually the complete opposite one from where we needed to be! HAHA… So we hopped a subway and arrived at the correct train station at about 8:35…
At 8:45pm our train was scheduled to take off… This meant that we RAN LIKE CRAZY through the train station to get there on time! After climbing several flights of stairs, running with 2 backpacks on each, and “taking out” a few Chinese folks, we boarded our train, but just barely made it.
8:45pm, we took off from the train station and would spend the next 20 hours on this train… sitting straight up, no air conditioning, and nothing to do. Fun times on the World Race! Haha. I eventually found myself sleeping on a dirty floor under the seats… seats in which a few of my other team mates were sleeping on. Probably one of the longest nights ever, but looking back now its funny and I would not change it for nothing! In the future, we will for sure be sure and purchase tickets in the “sleeper carts” where there are beds 🙂
At 4pm the following day, we finally arrived in Zhengzhou, China! We got off the train and instantly thanked the Lord for cold weather! Haha, after spending a month on an island where it is 80% + humidity EVERYDAY, you welcome cooler weather!
5:35pm we boarded another bus and took a 2.5 hour bus ride to Jiaozuo, China where we would finally meet our ministry host, Donna! The rest was smooth sailing!
So after nearly 48 hours of travel… WE MADE IT TO JIAOZUO (Jow Zoe Uh), CHINA! So that is just a little glimpse into the life of a World Racer on a travel day!
