The Great Train Ride - Day 2

Let's talk for a bit about the Chinese and how they travel. I've left this til the last day because to be honest it's not SO BAD that it will stop you taking a journey with them, but after 35+ hours certain things begin to grate, especially if you aren't used to them beforehand.

* Coughing and sneezing - it's fine to do this without covering your nose or mouth, regardless of status or education. If you do cover your nose or mouth it's okay not to wash your hands afterwards. This applies to anyone, regardless of whether they are ill or not. And it was nice to know that there were two passengers with colds right next to me in my berth.

* The contents of your lungs are made to be loudly and frequently brought up and spat out into a sink (if you are lucky, or if there are rules about spitting on the floor, such as on this train!) Gender is not an issue here, though it is mainly men that do it.

* Smoking is like a national sport, if it had been an Olympic event, the Chinese would almost certainly have had another Gold (if not the Silver and Bronze too).

Once you have got past all that, there remains only the mystery of the toilets to fathom out. How do they work? What is the bucket of water for? Why supply a toilet roll holder but no paper? How do I stop myself peeing on my trousers when in a squat position but simultaneously avoid getting my trousers on the (not so clean) floor?

They work by flushing water towards the hole at one end (at the base of a slope) and opening up a hole into which all waste may flow (and, I assume, be dumped onto the track below). Like I said before, you might as well just put a seat over the open track, it would be a lot simpler, and save the problem of when the hole gets blocked up. The bucket of water remains a mystery to me, though I did see people leave the room without washing their hands and I'm guessing maybe they washed them in this water, though why, when there is a washroom opposite, is anyone's guess. The permanently empty toilet-roll-holder ... I can only assume people either don't poo or they don't wipe ... or maybe they bring their own paper, I know I did! The answer to the last question is to wear shorts.

Anyhow, I woke up on Tuesday morning with an urge. I think everyone reading can guess exactly what that was and how it conflicted with my strong feelings about Chinese commodes. I held it down, but of course I was hungry so I went on the bread a bit, and had some more liquid because I felt a bit dehydrated. I made the mistake at this point of going out past the toilet cubicles (thinking hmm I might try it) and wandering into a dense layer of smoke. Here I got chatting to some Chinese, and it turned out one of them was starting at XNU next week as well! I didn't get his contact details because I was sidetracked by a tall, skinny, Uyghur man with whom I had chatted previously, only this time he wasn't about the chat so much as offering me a cigarette. I tried to decline but it turned out to be less of an offer and more of a polite insistence. A firm, polite, insistence. So, I had a cigarette. Woop.

A little interjection here - prior to this event I had not even noticed there was a small hole in the floor of the washroom (just 2 sinks and a mirror). At one station stop however, it became clear what this was for - following refilling the water tanks, some bright spark had come up with a genius method for cleaning the floors, namely to pass rapid-flowing water across them (they were some kind of lino) and this hole was the exit hole. This was fascinating to watch and I'm glad I hadn't thought about washing my hands or wetting my face at that moment! Small mercies, eh.

Thinking of small mercies, my stomach subsided a bit, and I went back in the carriage. A little later on, the same man came by, stood in the ante-room doorway and offered me another cigarette. I thought I was safe because you aren't allowed to smoke in the carriage itself, but no, he was practically putting it in my mouth and lighting it for me ... goddamn. So I had another cigarette. Cough. At some point later in the day, I forget when now, he gave me a third one. By this point I had given up protesting and was just taking minimal drags - he always finished before me anyway so once he left I could just stub out the remainder. But my, what insistence! I did like after the last one though, how he told me he smokes 60 a day (my estimate had been 30) and then inhaled deeply, exhaled a fancy plume of smoke, and patted his chest with a satisfied sigh. How he has not got emphysema or lung cancer by now is anyone's guess.

The smoking done with, I tried to concentrate on how I only had 3 hours on the train, could I hold my guts in until I reached Urumqi and the prospect of a Western toilet? ... No, I could not. Even having seen some of the previous offerings that remained too much of a challenge for the primitve steel pans to do away with (and, by the way Lucy, that offered proof that girls do poo), my guts were rumbling and I needed to go. However the worst was yet to come - I locked myself in the cubicle (the "nice" one, ie: it smelt less than the one opposite it), got my shorts out the way, made sure I had paper, and noticed for the first time the small handle about shin height which was obviously for the novice squatter to steady themselves. Aha! Mint, I thought, this won't be so hard after all ... 

... how wrong could I be? Within seconds of squatting it became obvious that my lack of thigh strength was going to prove my downfall - with all the tension routed through my thighs, my stomach cramped up and I couldn't go. The irony of it all. Here I was, braving my steel nemesis, and I had stage-fright. Worse still, when I stood up, the tension in my stomach remained and hurt worse than before. So of course I tried again. And the same happened. Thoroughly disheartened, I left the cubicle and got some water in me, thinking maybe that if I pushed some liquid through it might ease everything up. A while later and I felt more the ticket. Shame this was just as we pulled into a station and the toilets were locked. Really, someone did not want me using this toilet.

Well, eventually we pulled out of the station and I holed up in the cubicle once more. Hurray! Victory! It may not have been much but it was something and man did I feel better; the only problem was my legs were cramping up fast and the cubicle, warm at best, felt like it was roasting while I battled to tidy up as the train hurtled along. To say I've had better days is an understatement. When I left the cubicle I could hear my ears start to ring, and it was all I could do following washing my hands to get a good litre of ice tea down me in an attempt not to pass out this close to our destination. But I had won!

Needless to say I felt immensely relieved after this, and my advice to anyone travelling on the trains is this - go to the toilet. Like the Nike ads say, "Just do it". It's not that bad, and it's far worse if you've been holding on!

I'm sitting in Urumqi now, relatively comfortable, but that's a story for the next post!

The Great Train Ride - Day 1 and Night 2

This might be a bit sketchy, I wasn't really making too many notes as I went along ...

I remember waking up a bit during the night, but managing to go back to sleep alright, despite my initial semi-stress over the claustrophobic conditions of the top bunk, they abated and I was able to get my head down for some much needed naptime. Thank you Marcia for the earplugs they were a godsend, there was this grill on the AC unit above me that just wouldnt stop rattling!

Anyway, dawn came and brought with it more flashes of Chinese countryside. We were making pretty good progress but still officially behind time by about an hour; despite this, I was pleasantly surprised to see us arriving into Xi'an at 1200. In my head Xi'an was some kind of northern Chinese landmark, and would put us well on our way to Urumqi. That was until I got my National Geographic map of China out (thanks Marilyn!) and realised that yes, Xi'an is northern, but no, it is not very western, in fact it's kind of central as far as China goes ... but at least I knew where we were so I could follow our journey as we stopped at various places!

About this point you are probably wondering what on earth I did during this train ride ... When I wasn't writing a letter to Lucy, sleeping, playing with the games on my iPod, or trying not to think about the toilets, I was chatting with my fellow passengers. Of the whole train I think I was the only white person ... and though it transpired on Day 2 that some people spoke a modicum of English, they were certainly quite reluctant to use it, and I was pretty much left chatting Chinese. Yes, this was a great way to try and tune my ear to the language, and pick up some vocabulary or be corrected on my grammar, but it was an awful lot of brain-work in a very short space of time and I quickly found my head spinning somewhat. Anyhow, there wasn't a shortage of things to discuss, and if there was a lull in conversation it could quickly be filled by one of the aforementioned activities or by the passing of one of the many (almost continuous) trolleys brought round by the train crew (who I nicknamed the Smurfs because of their blue uniform) serving anything from ready meals to trinkets.

Sticking with the Smurfs for a bit, it was also in their remit to look after the carriages, as far as I could tell they were assigned their own carriage, maybe one between three (to allow for shifts, etc) and they had to do stuff like sweep the carpet, check tickets (and exchange them with customers for the relevant boarding card, a plastic ticket you kept instead of your own ticket until you left the train at which point it was re-exchanged), and last but not least, clean the toilets at every (or most) station stops. This also included locking them on the approach to a station, so people wouldnt flush onto the station tracks while the train was by the platform. God I do not envy those women - 5 days at a time on the train (Shanghai - Urumqi and then back again, followed by a week off), and the state the toilets could get into, well ... it just wasn't nice. I'm no real fan of second hand smoke but when it's covering the smell of whoever has just been in before you I know which I'd rather. Still, I didn't want to very much, and to this end I was avoiding eating the local food, knowing it would send me running straight to the stainless steel pit of horror. I stuck rigorously to bread and topped off with sweets every now and then, drinking juice or ice tea to keep on top of my fluids.

By nightfall we had passed Lanzhou and were heading into semi-desert. I'd been for a walk down the train, seen the Soft Sleeper berths, the dining car, and ascertained there were NO western toilets on the T52 / 53 from Shanghai to Urumqi. This only reinforced my resolve not to go. I think by this point I had broken my golden rule about sleep, and succumbed to a very nice slumber in the afternoon, headphones on, AC above me ... this didn't help my sleep much during Night 2, but hey, I seem to be getting used to this whole tiredness thing!

Throughout the night I could read the ever-scrolling message board opposite me, which had (in among the Chinese) such gems in English as: "NOW TIME 2043" and "TRACK NOW BE LATE", as well as regular updates on the train speed and external temperature. From this I gathered that we were no closer to making up our lost time, and would remain a full 90 minutes late until sometime in Day 2.

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.

上海 (Shanghai)

Well, I made it. After 2 flights, a stopover in Dubai, and a ride on the Shanghai underground system, I arrived at my hostel.

The flights were mostly uneventful, and I have to say Emirates are an extremely pleasant way to travel. Little touches made a lot of difference, for example the occasional (and not overpowering) injections of perfume into the cabin air supply to stop everyone smelling like long-journey, and the small pinpricks of bright white light that shine through the ceiling panels after the internal lights have been dimmed for passengers to sleep, that make up a night sky for anyone left awake ... unnecessary but a very nice touch. The food was good, and there was plenty of it, and the novelty of having a TV to hand was not lost on me :) That, and the 2 cameras mounted on the plane, offering a forward and downward view in realtime, delivered to your seat - I found myself just wanting to call "CUUUUUUT!" <-- skydivery reference.

There were a heap of other British students travelling to China, but they were all headed on some 3 week trip to Hangzhou, funded by the government (bar flights), for which I do recall receiving an email but of course the trip was of limited use / interest to me. Still, at least there was some extra company on the planes. By and large though, the trips were dull and I couldn't wait to get off the aircraft, although it has to be said, stepping off planes into an environment that is 30ish Celsius and humid (even at night, when we entered Dubai, it was like swimming outside in the air) is less than pleasant. Still, we were rapidly inside and air conditioned again (mmm, recycled air).

Shanghai wasnt much better - indeed, when I got off the Maglev (there's a high speed magnetic levitation train that runs from the airport to one of the city's metro stops, and only costs about £4.50, about 1/3 the price of a taxi ride) the first thing I did was find a stall selling water and pick up 2 bottles. Even having downed one of them, I found myself feeling a little funny on the metro ride across the city. Chinese metro lines are well serviced but very popular and at certain junctions (where lines connect, etc) the idea of personal space is lost completely. Stepping out into the area in which my hostel is located was a bit of a downer - it can hardly be said to be the most affluent of places. The hostel itself however is very good - air con, showers, toilet (both Western and Chinese, more on that later), food, a bar, computers, internet (wireless and free to use on their machines), etc etc. I'm in a mixed dorm of 4 people, I have a locker for my valuables, and it's costing about £5 per night, not bad at all! The only thing I would say is that having a shower is almost pointless, unless you can get out of the cubicle quickly, because the atmosphere is so hot and wet (even with the fan on in there) that even following a cold shower you find yourself sweating within seconds.

This being the case, I left showering low on my list of things to do. I paid for the accommodation, settled in a bit, and got some food and a beer inside me (the beer to try and send me to sleep a bit quicker), before having a shower (I had to buy soap from reception, not having brought any with me, d'oh!) and trying to sleep. I got about 4 hours kip before waking at about 0300. At 0400 I started to read, careful not to wake the other people in my dorm, but I think they are all heavy sleepers anyway. At about 0540 I had had enough and ventured outside, the smell of the local area no longer even getting to me (yeah, it's a tad ripe, so what), and got stared at by local people cycling by ... I tried unsuccessfully to order food in a small cafe type place, and then in the distance saw a corner shop, so I went for a gander and ended up buying some shampoo (I havent opened it yet, but I think from the pic on the outside it might smell like coconut) and a small flannel for travel washing on the train over the next couple of days. Then I popped next door to a larger restaurant eatery cafe type place and got a big bowl of beef noodles. Not the best dish ever but I had been hungry for hours by this point so I didnt much care. Later on I think I will try the dumplings / steamed breads / fried breads / etc ... it all looked quite decent and I'm not too worried about having caught anything nasty!

Even this early on in the morning the air is heavy and the sky is invisible, the veil of pollution and cloud being ominously low. I've come back to the hostel to use the internet, update this blog a bit, and maybe get my head down for an hour. I'm meeting a friend of a friend at 10 to get my train ticket to Urumqi, and from what I've been reading about hard-sleeper carriages, I'm not concerned at all that I will have an alright (if not a bit boring) ride. Other things to do over today and tomorrow are to find a torch (for things like reading when you think your nightlight will just disturb other people) and stock up on some food for the train - yes, they will have a dining car, but if there are things you really like (and there are) it's wise to buy them prior to boarding.

For the minute, that is pretty much all. If anyone would care to text me, I am still using my UK SIM card, the number is 00 44 (0) 7864 967 424 and I think I receive messages for free :)