We had another overnight train ride that night to get to
Beijing, our last stop on the tour. I think almost every person on our tour
will site this as one of the most memorable, impacting, and scariest evenings of
our entire trip.
We got to this train station and it was the definition of a
mad house. People were camped out outside sitting on their bags. The line to
just get to security was jam packed with people literally mashed in together
wobbling their way forward two tiny steps at a time whenever the crowd would
inch ahead. Our group was instantly elongated and separated. I switched into
pushy American mode and I was not letting anyone in front of me. Ryan was right
behind me. I kept a hawk eye on our family in front of us and I pushed ahead
with the Chinese. Except after a few minutes I turned around and Ryan was not right behind me.
He was stuck in his wimpy pushover Australian mode and had somehow ended up about
5 people behind me in line! There was a tiny relief break when we moved from
the line to get to security to the actual security line. He got behind me again
and this time we were packed even tighter, like there was no way a person could
even fit between two other people because our shoulders were squished together.
Except by the time we got to security he again was three people behind me! How
did that even happen?! Stay with me dognnamit you gotta be aggressive in these
situations!
But here’s the scary part. I got through security first and
I apparently was the half way mark of our group because our collection moved
into the waiting room. Even the waiting room was packed and we had to stand by
the door. I wasn’t worried at first because I was with the others and I knew
Ryan was with Gump. It came time to board the train. I saw Gump come through
the door of the waiting room and the rest of our group following him. Except I
didn’t see Ryan. My two British friends Les and George started tugging on me to
follow the group to the train. But I didn’t see Ryan. Don’t worry about him,
they said, you need to stay with the group we’re not leaving you behind. So I
followed them out to the hallway towards the train, but I kept looking back, I
saw almost every other person in the group except Ryan and I started getting
worried. Did he try and follow me after getting through security and get lost??
As we walked down the stairs I cornered Gump and asked him if Ryan was coming,
he assured me he was but our poor guide looked like he was about to have a
heart attack from the stress of trying to keep 28 people together in the most
hectic train station that ever happened. Jenny was physically shoving people
out of the way. Gump even grabbed a guy by the hair and tossed him away. It
turned out to be a really long walk to the train and then our car was at the
very end of the train and we had to walk all the way down to the end and we
weren’t even 100% sure we were going in the right direction and I was freaking
out thinking that Ryan had gotten himself lost!
I got on the train and went to
our car, Ann and Ric joined me and as I was telling them how freaked out I was,
suddenly Ryan walks in! He tells me that when people started moving he stopped
to tie his shoe and ended up at the back of the group and I wanted to punch him
in the face. You don’t tie your shoe until you’ve caught up with your crazy
girlfriend inside the insanely crowded and stressful train station! Seriously,
men sometimes. Gump was running back and forth on the train, sweating like a
dog making sure everyone was accounted for and OK. The poor man.
That was one of those moments where I thought, I don’t know
what that man gets paid but it is not enough. I had that thought a couple times
on that trip. I cannot tell you how amazing of a guide Gump was. He was always
looking out for us. Always attending to us. Always being a friend to us. He was
our doctor, our father, our protector, our friend, he was everything and all of
the people who had been on long trips before all agreed that he was the best
guide they had ever had. Gump was amazing and if you ever travel to China with
Wendy Wu, you must must must ask for him.
We were all accounted for. All 28 of us managed to get
through the crowd and onto the right car on the right train. There was a huge
sigh of relief as the train left the station. If you didn’t believe before that
China was home to a billion people, that night had been our proof. Gump assured
us later that he had never seen it that busy before and no one could quite
figure out why.
I was more social that evening since I wasn’t feeling sick. Gilly had a spiritual gathering in her train car, just for the girls. She
looked at our auras, she said mine was a bright green. There were stories told
of miracles and children who could sense the other world. It was fascinating.
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