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!

Hi 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.

It has a park inside. Seriously.

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.

I wonder how long they were waiting there.

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.

(Hopefully) happy that I'm back.

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.