Well well well....another glorious day! So today class we will be discussing the night tremor we just got off of also known as a Chinese train ride. First off, we booked a "hard sleeper" and boy do they mean what they say. Getting up there was hard as we were the last two in our six bunker so we got the middle two bunks (story of our lives). The two little Asian girls are climbing over and above us and the older men below us were clearly pros for they got the suite with the table and window view.
Since it was early and we had nothing else to do we went to the restaurant and luckily we met a really nice Chinese couple that were visiting from Australia. They knew we looked confused as we stared at the Chinese symbols so they helped us order our food. It wasn't a bad meal for being on a train. And under $10! People bring everything under the sun on these trains. We saw people peeling bags of shrimp, eating quail eggs to cryovacd chicken parts.
And so it began...not only is there music playing or should I say BLARING in the hallways, but people yelling across from one another. It was practically impossible to get any shut eye until around midnight when they turned off all the lights. I'd say I got about roughly four or five hours of sleep. Mel slept like a baby, though. Then we woke up to what I swear sounded like a horse race. I just don't understand why everyone has to shout when they're standing right next to one another. We finally experienced our first squatting in the bathrooms. And I had to climb the walls after I flushed to make sure it didn't spray back at me. (too much information, I know) And thankfully we remembered to pack our own toilet paper and hand wipes.
A 23 hour long train ride turned out to be only 19 when the girl in our "room" yelled for us to get off as we were just laying there listening to music thinking we had four more miserable hours to go. If she hadn't told us, who knows where'd we be right now. We have met some helpful people along the way just when we needed them most.
So what have we learned today? If you book a "hard sleeper" that means you're hardly going to sleep.
