The Worst Bus Ever

Shenzhen, there are many unflattering nicknames bequeathed to this city, however for most its just the entry to Hong Kong. As we devoured travel guides and spoke with fellow travelers we realized that Shenzhen is only a means to get to Hong Kong, not really a place you would want to stay. It is also much cheaper to get to Hong Kong via Shenzhen. A ticket to Hong Kong will cost hundreds of yuan more whereas a ticket to Shenzhen is cheap and then you can just walk across the border.

By this part in our trip we were accustomed to overnight trains, having been on so many we created our own rating system. We figured that Yangshuo was such a tourist destination that the buses must be high quality and we assumed that the bus would be similar to the one from Xishuangbana to Kunming. Never assume. How does the saying go? “Never assume or you make an ass of you and me?” Well I will never assume anything about future Chinese transportation again.

Although the trip was an overnight trip, our bus was not an overnight bus. We had actual seats, regular sit up seats. For a 10 hour ride????????? Mind you our feet were all still wet from having stood in a river earlier today. The ride was horrible, we were so tired and wet, plus there was no bathroom on the bus, and we only made on stop. What we hadn’t realized was that this was the last day off from Spring Festival and everyone was traveling back home, our bus got to Shenzhen about 5 hours late. I’m pretty sure at times we went over an hour without moving more that a quarter of a mile.