Five days ago it was in the mid 20's in China and sleeting. If you live south of the Yellow River (which we do) there is no central heating, so it is cold everywhere. We survive by wearing at least 3 layers of clothes, with one or two being something made by Under Armour or North Face. Every February our company has a meeting in Thailand for all the teachers. It is a time to rest and recharge, as well as a time to be filled. Tired of being cold, Allie and I dipped into our savings and went down to Thailand early! We headed to the train station where it was still epically cold. Thankfully we met a man there named Li who had lived in New York for 15 years-- he was a God send! He helped us to stay sane when the board with our train listing changed and had all of these crazy Chinese characters that we couldn't understand.
Our train ended up being delayed about 2 hours, so around 1:30am we finally got on board and headed to our sleeper car. The sleeper cars were nicer than we thought they would be-- the "bed" was actually long enough for me to fit on! There are 6 beds per room (2 bunks, 3 beds high). Of course, it was still freezing... this is the only time I can remember sleeping in 3 layers of clothes, wool socks, and gloves!
After our overnight train from Hengyang to Guangzhou, we flew from Guangzhou to Bangkok, flew from Bangkok to Phuket, then took a car an hour north from Phuket to Koh Lak. All in all, the travel experience took almost a full day! I've gotta admit though, it was definitely worth it. We went from 20 degrees and sleeting to this:
Is that.. is that.. is that.. BLUE SKY! We should have dipped! We should have dipped!
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