Shenzen to Yangshuo in the Horizontal Position

The adventure started after we got our visas and needed to cross the HK border into China. We got some noodles at a resturant where by limited chopstick skills splashed hot sauce into my eye and I thought I might be seeing the rest of china with only 1/2 my sight. Running late for our non-refundable sleeper to Yangshuo,after a bit of confusion and a few nice tips from the locals we arrived at the end of the subway line where we needed to walk ourselves into China. The description of Shenzhen "you can give knives & broken bottles amiss, forgo the books and the erudition and head straight for Shenzhen" --so we were a bit nervous. Crossing thru we did some whooping declaring we were "in" (China) or "out" (Hong Kong). In/out we didn't know for the better or worse. Entering Shenzhen, immediately we knew we were not in HK, and we were greeted by a tout or tourist parasite. We were really late for me being always perpetually early and even late for Emily who is perpetually tardy, we welcomed the offer from him to deliver us to the bus stop for only 10Y (1.50US). He walked us around a corner and we were there and it looked a heck of lot better than the Fargo bus stop. We thought we were going to be the only white kids on the bus, but at the last moment 3 polish guys showed up. I'm not sure what I expected but the sleepers basically would adequately accomadate a tall dwarf and even though you couldn't really move, I got a better night sleep than at the hostel the night before. We tried to bord a couple other buses, but the nice people kindly motioned us off the bus until those departed and our bus was ready. Clearly we were clueless. Bording the bus, we took off our shoes, put them in plastic bags, and I was pleasantly surprized to find out that our feet went under our neighbors head, so now they were comfortable for someone 5'5". Emily shimmied to the top bunk. There were 3 rows of sleepers with very narrow aisles that even the asians seemed to have difficulty squeezing down and in the back there was a tiny door that looked suspiciously like a bathroom (I never found out). Once the bus started up, TVs on upper and lower bunks came on and that is how I went to Yangshuo in the horizontal position. Early morning I woke to see beautiful karst pinnacles out our window, exiting the bus we were greeted by the unofficial Yangshou Tourism Committee. He ushered us off to his hotel and after and ardurous climb up 6 flights of stairs (100 steps!!) at 6:30AM we had ourselves room. However no sleep for us!