Stuck between a metal bar and a toilet

I realized a whole visa (6 months) has gone by since I last wrote.
Of the many things I could write about regarding my first trip to Hong Kong, which I might do in a little while, I wanted to share how I knew I was back on the mainland.

It didn’t take a very long time to see the little more waste that was on the ground and people who were speaking a language that i could understand (Cantonese does not sound much of anything like Mandarin). But my adventure was getting on a bus back home from the train station.

After being directed to a ticket counter tucked away in the corner of a Chinese trinket store, I grabbed a ticket and was told to come back in 40 minutes to board the bus. When I returned, I was directed out behind the store to a 15 passenger van. I threw my stuff in the back and jumped in. Before getting too suspicious, I confirmed I wasn’t going to be taking a 9 hour bus ride in this vehicle, which I was quickly assured was not the case.

Thinking the bus might be a few minutes away I sat and observed the sights around me and struck up a conversation with a few people about how Hong Kong not being as fun as people said it was. After a 40 minute bus ride, we finally came to…the side of the highway. That’s right, we stopped on the side of a highway. No sign, lights, or people anywhere to be seen. Even all the other Chinese on the bus looked quite perplexed and asked, “Where is the bus?” Apparently the scheme is a hybrid between the traditional bus loading system where the bus gets a few people, then leaves and picks up whoever waves their hand on the road and the bus system we all know of leaving at a certain time and no interest in picking up stragglers on the road. In this case, all the people in a certain area that wanted to take the bus were rounded up and put in a convenient location (on the side of the highway).

After about 30-35 minutes of stretching my legs and getting bitten by mosquitos I couldn’t really see, the bus came and we got on. I wasn’t in a rush getting on the bus because I knew I wasn’t going to be moving once I got on the bus. Note, sleeper buses here are 3 bunks wide with 2 center aisles, so it’s a pretty tight fit. Little did I know that the last two people to get on the bus would get the sleepers at the very back of the bus. There was no aisle between the beds in the back of the bus so the only separation between the three beds were metal bars. And for those long trips you can probably guess what was next to that row of beds… (yup, the toilet). Ok, there was a door and all, but it definitely made for fun smells in the middle of the night. So my position was between the metal bar and the toilet. It was quite a funny sight not just for myself but for several of the other passengers who also laughed when they saw how the events transpired, a 6'2" foreigner pilling into the back of a little sleeper bus that is made for southern Chinese, which average not a hare about 5'4".

Throughout the night I was always afraid I would extend beyond the 20” wide sleeper onto the guy (thank goodness) next to me. I only could sleep on my side and keep my knees bent: just enough so that I could fit in the bed, but not too much that I bumped the guy next to me.
Lets just say, it was a fun ride!


But through it all, I went to sleep very glad. To be back in on the mainland, where food is bought off the back of bicycles, intersections are filled with cars going every direction possible, and everyone is on the right side of the road … usually.