I'm writing this with 96 minutes remaining on my journey. In total the trip will have lasted 36 hours. I thought I would write as I went along but things have been surprisingly busy, considering I haven't really left my seat. So busy in fact I still have 48% battery on my iPad and my iPod has hardly been touched.

The day started by waiting 30 minutes in -25C for a late taxi driver, no worries. He then drove disconcertingly fast in thick smog along to Urumqi, while the driver played with his inboard computer. We got there with time to spare and decided to buy naan in order to keep energy levels up, me and Alex decided on seven (well we said eight but the man gave us seven, swindled out of 2¥). We then proceeded to watch the hilarious pushing of 4ft ladies with cute fluffy reindeer hats against 150 year old men with half-a-house on their back. We queued like only Brits can queue, tutting and sighing profusely without directly complaining. Finally we got through all the barriers (surprising a few guards with our alien passports) and went all the way down the train, past the luxurious sleepers, to the hard seats. And it was there, it the second last carriage, that I found my home for the next day and a half.

Now traveling by seat is a completely different experience to travelling in a sleeper. I would say it was like the difference between a car and a bike. The seats, if you can call them that, are right angles. Very similar to the L-shape from Tetris. No cushions in sight. Unfortunately I didn't get the window seat (although several times I stole it from the man next to me and then faked some sleep, sneaky). Now time has come to introduce you to some of the characters of the journey...

Next to me was a slim man of around fifty. I would have said younger but he informed me his son is older then me (after the inevitable OOOHHH SHÍ BĀ SUI ((my age in Chinese))). He is actually going straight on to Harbin, his home, and has invited me to meet up with him there. At first I was keen but now I think I'm going to let that idea die.

Next up is the adorable couple opposite us. The man, working as an petroleum engineer in Kyrgyzstan, spoke a surprising amount of English. So he helped me avoid the trick Baijiu water and other devious plots from those around us. His girlfriend could also speak English and was going to graduate from Business Management in Xingjiang University of Economics and Finance. Crazy small world! I told her I was studying management as well, perhaps too excitedly because she pulled a 'dam-this-weiguoren-is-crazy face'. Anyway, i talked to them a lot about what we saw out the window, such as Chinese graves and why the Chinese insist on building skyscrapers in the desert. They had another friend sitting in another carriage who joined us occasionally, he worked for Lenovo and got me to check a job application he was writing for another company. My favourite phrase was: 'I like on foot once a week' which turned out to be hiking. I asked him about it, he didn't seem to know anything about hiking.
The Personal Statement flashbacks.

Now, the moment I've been waiting for. The group of people around Alex. I'm not entirely sure any of them knew each other, but that didn't seem to matter. A man who would make me his great friend (note the phrasing) cracked out a full 2 litre bottle of Baijiu before we had left Urumqi. Brilliant. We were offered some and politely refused, but no one else did. After a couple of hours of heavy drinking and shouting Chinese at the foreigners the majority fell into a Baijiu-induced comma. At one point in the night a man rolled down a makeshift blanket and fell asleep in the middle of the aisle. Literally the middle of the aisle. Maybe it was the 18 hours on the train and the lack of sleep but I found that to be the funniest thing to ever happen. I couldn't stop laughing, the ridiculousness of it. He stayed for an hour or so then the man sitting next to me had a go. In total five guys gave the sleeping in the middle of the aisle a go. I had to get a picture, just unbelievable. Now, the man who was the first to bring out Baijiu (they all had some and just took turns to share) took a liking to me. He was appalled at my volunteers wage and invited me to work with him in the mines. No joke, he was an explosions expert. For the first 10 minutes I thought he was in the PLA (he just kept making exploding noises) but we got there in the end. Sometime in the second day (I tried not to track time, otherwise you'd go crazy) he came over and fell asleep on me. Which was nice. After an hour of that he taught me how to shuffle cards...result?

Speaking of sleep I got about 2 hours. Which isn't a lot, although I think I've invented a new mental state. It's called the Half-Brain(TM). Basically I spent a lot of time on the verge of sleep, not dreaming and fully conscience but also unmoving and dead to everything. During this state I listened to every podcast under the sun as well as all my folk and reggae music. It seemed appropriate.

Unlike the trip to Xi'an this 36 hours consisted of two full days and one night. Giving plenty of time for window watching. The first days was things I've seen before: the expansive wind farms outside of Turpan, the vast and unrelenting Gobi desert and the fading Tian Shan mountains. But the second day was much more lively as we crossed through Gansu into Shanxi, Hebei and eventually Beijing (right now!). The sun rise over rice paddies in Shanxi was spectacular (although due to the cold they have been emptied) but by far the best site was following the yellow river. It's map time. If you get out a map of China you'll see at its northern point the Yellow River runs almost parallel to the equator. The railway line basically follows that for hours. Ducking in and out of tunnels and then out onto huge bridges was the norm, and it was truly spectacular. The river itself was frozen over, with sheep farmers and such just walking right across it. I'll look up the name (my friend across the table told me but that was 10 train hours ago) but in a certain area everyone lives in houses built into the sides of the valley. Basically like the cave dwellings from my Turpan these houses stretched from the the top of the valley right down to overlooking the river, with complex single paths winding up and down. In typical Chinese fashion they had built skyscrapers next the river in some parts, making it look more like Hong Kong than the mainland. I'd love to visit that part of the world on foot one day, in fact I know I'm going to.

And that about covers it. We are down to one naan now (from the original seven). Most of the original Urumqi bunch have got off at various stops. For the couple it was the women's first time meeting the parents, she said she was only a little nervous but her eyes were screaming otherwise. My cards buddy is currently sleeping off more Baijiu, let's hope he gets off in time at Beijing. As for me I'm looking forward to cracking open a beer with the other 3 volunteers already in the hostel and then getting a good double-digit sleep.

Just 47 minutes to go now (I got distracted by a baby several times while trying to write this). Anyway, here's to the 10 train journey to Harbin from Beijing without a sleeper.

And without a seat.

Save me please.