Wuhan - Day 24

Hard sleeper vs. hard seat is an easy choice, as we arrived happy and well-slept in Wuhan today, compared with arriving tired and sore in Nanjing...

First we were a bit stressed that we wouldn't get any sleep on this train either, since the other passangers were just as interested in talking with us, as they were on the Beijing-Nanjing train, the only difference being that now no one could speak English. Not even read English. So our conversations weren't that exciting (well, we don't know if they were) and trying to learn Chinese in the middle of the night, without knowing what words you are learning, is not as much fun as you'd think. So when the lights finally were turned off, we were rather thankful. Ever since the Trans Sib, I just don't sleep as well anywhere else than on a train. (Just waking up a couple of times, stressing out we'd missed our station)

Luckily we didn't miss our station, and actually managed to take a bus(!) to our hostel, Pathfinder International Youth Hostel. Which I might add is the most colourful and "hippie-like" hostel we've been in so far.

By the way... how many of you have ever heard of Wuhan? None of us had, and still Wuhan is the equivalent of Finland when it comes to the amount of inhabitants.


...so, what is there to do here then? Or actually, what should we do after seeing what there is to do here?
Do we want to go on a 4-day cruise upstream the Yangtze river (which is what we came here for, since we didn't get to go on our boat trip to the island of Putuoshan, outside Shanghai, because of the strong wind) to the huge city(they're all so huge...) of Chongqing? And from there to Chengdu?

Or should we just skip the boat trip on the Yangtze, although our "new swedes" recommended it, and head south (YES!) towards Guilin? And a boat ride on the Li river perhaps, since we seem to have an obsession about that. And from there on to the Yunnan province....?

Oh well, we'll see, we still have one day more here, so plenty of time (cough, cough) to decide where we want to head next.

When hearing our response: 'We don't know', on the question: 'Where are you going next?', all Western travelers respond: 'That's the best way to travel!' while all Chinese shake their heads in bewildernment and consider us as lost, little girls, who have absolutely no clue of what we're doing, and desperately need their help.
I think the truth is a little bit of both, this really is a great way to travel, as you get to make up your mind as you go (although slightly stressed by the fact that China is, well, HUGE, and there is so much to see and do, while our visas will run out eventually...) but at the same time.. you are sort of lost. All the time.
But that's not necessary a bad thing.

//H