Days 7 and 8
We boarded the 14 hour sleeper train from Changsha to Beijing at 1.13 am. In a compartment of six bunks, we had the top two. Unfortunately, the bunks were only big enough for 1 thin person, not two. Plus, my lady would not take kindly to public, erm, displays of affection. So we had to make do with holding hands across the bunks until our arms dropped off.
My lady arranged our packed lunch across the storage compartment next to our bunks like a pro. It was an impressive display.
We arrived in Beijing in the mid-afternoon, and there was a cold, biting wind. My lady could not stop shivering. Not Changsha weather at all. I gave her my coat. I didn't need it. I am from lovely England. We are made of sterner stuff.
We booked into a hotel near the station. We checked out the shuttle buses to the airport the next day, looked into flights for her to Guangzhou. But she was a little bit nervous, never having flown before, so she decided to take a very long train to Guangzhou. We ate in the hotel restaurant. It was basically a big bowl of soup and you chucked everything in.. My lady taught me how to split the cabbage into strips with the chopsticks, then she proceeded to feed me as if I were some kind of hungry horse. I ate about 10 times the amount I would normally eat. I didn't really have a choice. Ha ha! Strange thing, there was no rice and no tea. I thought these things come as standard.
We went to bed quite early. I got a slight bout of superstition, because the beds were facing the same way as they had been when we had our not good night, but it didn't matter. We had the absolutely most bissful night. The only bad thing was that we had to get up to go to the airport the next morning.
The next day (
, it was SNOWING outside our window. We took the shuttle bus. My lady was like ice, and it took ages to warm her up. I checked my bag in and we went to the airport Starbucks. It was quite quiet and sombre between us. She kept on trying to give me food and drink to take with me and I told her I wasn't allowed them on the plane. We kissed goodbye at the customs. I tickled her under her arm to make her laugh, because I didn't want to see her looking sad. Then I went through security and disppeared down the escalator. She texted me a few minutes later to say that when she saw my shadow disappear, her heart pounded up and down and she burst into tears.
Because of the snow, and the lack of proper de-icing facilities, I was stuck in the plane for 7 hours. I was supposed to get back to London at about 3 pm. I ended up getting home after midnight with work next day.
The trip was about as successful as I could possibly hope for from a first visit. We love each other, she is real, we are physically compatible, I like her friends and relatives; they like me. I had some great adventures.
But now I have been back a week, I am all too aware that this is just the beginning and we have an awful long way to go. I will catch up with myself in future updates, because quite a lot has happened since I returned, but for now, this has been the story of my trip.
p.s. this photo was taken at the Sun Yat-Sen museum on the first day
