She Took A Midnight Train Going Anywhere…

Oct 30th

Although it was much easier to get on the train in Shanghai than Beijing, everything else was much worse. Our cabin was literally 5 feet by 7 feet. It was approximately 12 feet high, which gave us each about 3 feet of space in between bunks. The bags were stored beneath the bottom bunk and at our feet. Climbing up and down was quite a challenge. There was no door  or even curtain to close our cabin off from the hallway.

I was worried that my stuff might get stolen all night long, but I managed to fall asleep hugging my passport and it was still with me in the morning. The beds were narrow, no more than 2 feet wide. The light were automatic in our section of the train. They went off at 10pm and came back on at 7am. This was fun, especially because the overhead light was approx 5 inches from my face, a great wake up call. All of these factors combined made for a very unpleasant ride, but what made matters worse was that we were the first room right next to the smoking area. The whole train ride there was constant filtering of cigarette and cigar smoke seeping into our room, getting into our bags and clothes and filling our lungs. It was horrible. Of course we were stuck in a room with snorers and coughers. It was a fun night. We managed to fall in and out of sleep all morning (though we had planned on sleeping straight through and being so rested and rejuvenated the next morning-- this clearly didn’t happen).

We were finally rudely woken up by some of the train employees by banging on our bunks. She gave our tickets back to us and motioned for us to get down from the top bunk. As we climbed down we questioned what we should bring, our passports? Our wallets? What were we doing? Were we going somewhere? Was it safe to leave my valuables? During this time the train came to a stop. Maybe we were going through customs we thought. It was still about 2 hours before we were due to arrive in Hong Kong. It took us about 20 minutes of standing outside of our cabin in the cramped hall before we figured out that the train staff was changing the sheets on all of the beds. Jess climbed back up to our beds and grabbed out valuables and we decided that we would venture and try to find some breakfast. We had to walk through 5 train cars before we found the dinning car. We grabbed a seat by the window and pondered the menu. We decided to split the western breakfast (2 eggs, toast, and coffee) I don’t like eggs and Jess doesn’t like toast so it worked out perfectly. We attempted to order, but the waitress motioned something that made us believe that they don’t cook while the train is stopped. We sat and wait and waited, still thinking someone was going to come look at our passports. Finally the train started moving again. We attempted to order breakfast, but the waitress said no, that they had stopped serving breakfast. We ordered two coffees and a bowl of white rice. The rice was so bland and boring. I asked for some soy sauce and got another no. Did I mention how much I love China? We finished our coffee (I left most of my rice untouched) and went back to our cabin with the hopes of new sheets. No such luck. We gave up waiting in the hall way like we were supposed to and both climbed back into bed. I think just to spite us, they let us get comfortable and just about drift back to sleep when the train staff came banging again and made us hop down. It took about 15 minutes to change the sheets on all of the 6 beds. After we climbed back to the top and waited for another hour or so before we arrived in Hong Kong. We gladly got off the train and said a prayer that we never have to do that again. In the future I’ll splurge and spend the extra $40 to have a bigger room with more privacy and security. I was glad to be done with China and moving on to Hong Kong!

More to come soon.
Love,
Katie