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'That' train journey - 16th - 17th October. Qingdao - Xi'an -
'Hard sleeper' it cant be that... imagine sleeping in a zoo, and the animal side not the candy floss and paved paths side! we walked onto this train expecting something pretty bad and thats pretty much what greeted us haha na, it wasnt that bad, the beds were manageable althoug only 2 foot wide, stacked three bunks high and crammed 66 per carriage. The people would have been fine, if they hadn't constantly munched on stinking food like chicken feet, whole livers, noodles and whole fish from vacuum packed packets, stared non stop and talked long into the night.
The train would have been fine, had we not been on the top bunks which are so close to the ceiling you cant sit u, have the ceiling lights and carriage speakers in your face that come on about 7 in the morning and start playing harrible chinese music stupidly loud to wake you up! Theres hardly any room to store luggage, smokers, smoke, and the toilets are metal squatters (although im pretty used to squatters now and am actually becoming a fan! haha)
other than that it was a great 23 hours and 40 minutes spent on a train (not that i was counting!) no, it was an experience thati wouldnt change for the world to be honest and would happily do it again especially now we know what to expect, it was just a bit of a culture shock the first time! Although id hope that next time the shets wern't so stained and pillow covers a bit newer, this isnt justme being petty, my pillow had huge rip right through the centre , so in true chinese fashion they had got a tea towl, layed it over the rip and tied it on with 1 piece of string! gotta love it! needless to say i used my backpack...
we had a good laugh the whole time though, ate our instant chinee noodles like the rest of them and actually i tink we all secretly enjoyed it. after all its what we're here for and another story to tell. It was just bizarre to spend the best oart of a whole day on a train, by the end of the journey it felt like our own weird little apartment on wheels, with cina passing us by out of the window and full of strange chinese people. I actually slept really well but am not gonna lie, it was a relief to get off!
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