The Great Train Ride - Night 1

I'm breaking my journey up a bit, because there's tons to write about ... Lucy I apologise that much of this is in my letter to you (a work in progress, I'm afraid), and also that I go on about toilets quite a lot. Actually I apologise to everyone for that, but it makes an integral part of a long train journey in China.

My insomnia only got worse on Saturday night; I went out for a meal with my roommates (yay, instant friends!), and we got back around 2345, and drank a couple of beers between us with the money we'd had leftover from paying at the restaurant ... so it was around 0100 when we got to bed. And 0230 (again) when I woke up, and found myself unable to sleep. I read a book, I tried getting some rest, but no dice, I was well and truly awake. This did not bode well with my plan to stay up all day until I got on the train and then kip for about 10 hours solid. Still, I thought this was the only way to cure my raging lack of sleep, so I stuck with it. By lunchtime I was knackered, and going out for a restaurant lunch with Marcia and Ieva was great but the sheer volume of food combined with Shanghai's humidity was seeing me to sleep something rotten. I persevered and entered a nasty state whereby my brain was desperate for a break but my body was forcing it to stay awake. This wasn't physical exhaustion, but mental tiredness and it was not pleasant.

Knowing that there was very little chance of there being a Western toilet on the train I thought the best thing to do would be to go before leaving the hostel ... prudent, some may say. Eventually, at around 1800 I decided it was time to make a break for the train station. I said goodbye to my roommates and headed off to the subway. The main station was 13 stops from the subway nearest the hostel, but at least I didn't have to change lines. By now I was in unfamiliar territory where tiredness was concerned ... as I walked from the underground toward the main station entrance I found myself wanting to cry, and without any reason why. Sure, I felt "alone" but nothing major in that, I'm used to travelling solo, this was, I decided, just my body wanting to lay down and snooze for half a day, to put itself in order. I must have fought back the overwhelming urge to just break down and let it all out 5 times in the next 2 hours - everything just seemed too much to handle. Sitting in the waiting room for 90 minutes (I got there early) with all these Chinese around me was an absolute killer, no way was I going to make a show there though! "Stupid foreigner, why is he crying, I don't know, let's stare some more" ... Not gonna happen.

And then, like a second wind, my train was called and I was on some kind of autopilot, tiredness forgotten, just the prospect of getting on the train and finding my bed. I boarded at coach 13 and then found my sleeping bunk was at the other end, typical eh? I had to squeeze with all my luggage past 10 other berths of six beds each to get to my slot, but I was finally there. My bed was, in keeping with this day of trials, the top bunk ... I'll digress for a moment to explain Chinese trains:

* Soft Sleeper - most expensive, 4 beds to a berth, the berth has a door (ooh privacy)

* Hard Sleeper - not actually that much less comfy that Soft Sleeper but six beds to a berth, the top one usually being quite tight, and no doors on the berths - they are like rooms off a corridor (the walkway) but without a moment to oneself

* Soft Seat - padded seats

* Hard Seat - no idea, don't ever want to find out, apparently only suitable for the shortest of journeys and even then I think Soft Seat is a good idea if you can afford it!

Well, the Soft Sleeper option for this train had apparently sold out (I went for a walk on the train, I think there was only one carriage for it, which explains it being full), by the time my friend came to book the journey, and Hard Sleeper was fine with me, so that's what I got. The top bunk was not as claustrophobic as I had previously imagined - there was space enough to prop oneself up and it was possible to sit hunched over. Luggage went either under the bottom bunk or on top of the ledges opposite the top bunk - one advantage of being up there, I could nip in and out of my bag at my leisure without disturbing anyone. Also it was closest to the A/C unit, which was nice, until on the second afternoon when it started recycling the smoking air ... ewww.

After a brief chit chat with some of my fellow passengers - limited English if any, but all very welcoming - I excused myself to use the toilet ... umm ... yes, if that's what you call a stainless steel hole in the ground. honestly if you're going to do that, why not just have an open hole to the track? Fortunately at this point all I needed to do was wee out all the water I had downed in keeping me awake and hydrated while I negotiated the Shanghai humidity, and bigger matters (ahem) could wait. I decided to get my head down; I explained I had been travelling way too much and my newfound travel-buddies understood. I felt a bit odd keeping all my clothes on for sleeping in, especially given that I was still quite hot and sweaty from having lugged all my stuff around, but then again everyone else was, so why break the mould? It was some disappointment that my sleep was quite broken throughout the night, but I managed the best part of 7 hours' sleep and awoke feeling not too shabby for Day 1.