Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Carriage 5 was longer than I had first thought and thankfully I was joined by Patrick and John-o as I reached my bed. The room was a 'hard' sleeper with 6 beds in it. The room was about 2x2 meters so the beds where effectively bunk beads, we heaved our bags to the top bunk and everyone joined me on the bottom bunk. It was cramped and about 200 degrees. Opposite us was a Chinese couple. I'm sure they were lovely people but the language barrier made us the general joke of the room, being the train noobies that we are. The ride was rather un-eventful we made friends with a girl opposite us called Monika, or her English name was Monika her Chineese name is unpronounceable and therefore typing it will kill my computer. Apart from that there isn't much to tell. I swiftly fell asleep coiled around my bag in a coating of pure paranoia. When I woke up it was about 7pm, I had a raging hunger to be saited. Now getting food on an overnight train is no easy task. Every 40 minutes or so a woman ran (and I say ran) down the carriage with a food trolley. The first 2 times I missed her the second I practically threw myself in her path. Surprisingly effective. I gave over some money and found a Chinese pot noodle. One of the wonders of the Chinese train is that of the boiling water provided free of charge unfortunately, no cold water just boiled water. Perfect for the pot noodle thing. So I filled the huge tub and emptied the three sachets that came with it. And to my surprise found a small plastic fork in the tub. I was gobsmacked, speechless. A fork a goddamn fork I might actually be able to eat these noodles. Now the couple opposite had the right idea their noodles where soon being filled with pre-wrapped sausages and the like to make the meal infinitely more interesting. It seemed that they had brought with them enough food to feed the 5000 or enough cucumbers to feed the 5000 as the woman seemed to consume an endless amount.
At 10pm and 10pm dead all the lights went out. Everyone disappeared to their beds the carriage was lit only by the orange lights on the inside of tunnels which passed a spooky glow across the carriage. It was surprisingly quite seeing as it was packed with about 100 people. This time I left my bag wrapped around my front and fell asleep again.
I woke to barren hills and a star wars style landscape. With huge dusty hills rising up and very little green to be seen around and in this setting. Lanzhou crept into view.
- comments