The Crazy Way to China

Flying halfway around the world is a little exhausting on it's own, but I decided to make it really difficult on my last trip. I left Grand Rapids, MI on Tuesday, June 11th and here's what my journey looked like:

• 5 AM | T + 0 Hours: Wake up and shower (it's gonna be a while before I get that luxury); take a Lyft to the train station.
• 6 AM | T + 1 Hour: Train leaves for Chicago; try to sleep but don't because the sun is too bright.
• 9:30 AM (Central Time) | T + 5.5 Hours: Arrive in Chicago and find something to eat; take the L out to O'Hare Airport.
• 11 AM | T + 7 Hours: Get checked in and survive the TSA.
• 12:30 PM | T + 8.5 Hours: Board the first flight to Seoul, South Korea. Also take a moment to say hi to Japan!

• 4:30 PM (Korean Standard Time, on Wednesday) | T + 23.5 Hours: After a lovely 15 hour flight, land at my 4.5 hour layover in Seoul. Luckily, the Seoul Incheon Airport is among the nicest in the world, so it was relaxing.

• 9 PM | T + 28 Hours: Take off on 4 hour flight to Hong Kong
• 12 AM (China Standard Time, on Thursday) | T + 32 Hours: Land in Hong Kong and make my way through Hong Kong immigration; usually this is a fast process. Then board the last running Airport Express train to downtown Hong Kong.
• 1 AM | T + 33 Hours: Arrive at Kowloon Station. At this point, I only know one thing. I need to cross the border to Shenzhen to catch a 7 AM train. I spend a good amount of time attempting to find the bus depot where the overnight busses allegedly depart from. Luckily it wasn't too hard, but some better signage would be appreciated; they basically depart from a parking garage you can only access from a large alleyway.
• 2 AM | T + 34 Hours: Depart on the overnight bus. The journey to the border crossing is short, and I spend my time wondering why the guy next to me spends the whole trip watching a single video of an early 2000's flight simulator. Spoiler: Nothing remotely interesting happened.
• 3 AM | T + 35 Hours: Cross the border into China; turned out to be one of the easiest crossings yet. Yay a new stamp! Now to wait for the shuttle to Shenzhen.
• 3:30 AM | T + 35.5 Hours: Take the quick shuttle to the bus port in Shenzhen. Avoid the taxi scams and find a snack somewhere. Also, wonderfully, it began pouring rain and I stepped in a huge puddle that soaked both my feet through my shoes.
• 4 AM | T + 36 Hours: After drinking some canned coffee I take a taxi to the Shenzhen North Railway Station which is a bit away from downtown. After getting dropped off, it takes a while to walk to the doors of the station.
• 5 AM | T + 37 Hours: I make a little spot outside of train station to hang out before the ticket office opens at 6 AM. A lot of people are also camped out waiting for the station to open.

• 7 AM | T + 39 Hours: Board the train to Nanning and do my best to sleep.
• 11 AM | T + 43 Hours: Arrive in Nanning and finally meet with Alix. Still have to get home from the station.
• 12 PM | T + 44 Hours: Finally, 44 hours later I'm home with Alix and Elwood and VERY tired.

To most people, 44 hours of straight travel seems insane. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely not a nice experience. I usually don't have a layover between Chicago and Hong Kong and I usually get a hotel in either Hong Kong or Shenzhen to split up the trip with some real, comfortable sleep.

For this trip though I really wanted to get back to see Alix. It had been almost two weeks, which is longer than we like to spend away from each other; so I tried to not waste any time on the trip home. My long distance travel philosophy is to count a day on each end as void. It will be spent travelling and feeling exhausted from travelling, any extra "awake" time on either end is a bonus. That philosophy meshed well with this trip, because I basically crashed as soon as I got home. But it was good crash, filled with snuggling and waking only to eat some much missed Chinese food.