Monday, June 15th - Xi'an to Dunhuang

Today will be interesting but probably short blog wise.  We had breakfast at the hotel and then packed up to head for our train.  Some of us had time to check e-mails in the lobby before departing or to go across to the park to watch the tai-chi and other sessions that were quite busy and amazing with different activities.

We arrived at the train station about 9:30, bought our last minute supplies, and boarded at 10.  The sleeping car bunks are the same as before with 32 rows of 3 bunks per car and washrooms at the end.  We are a bit more spread out this time but there are four in my compartment.  We got settled in and then sat around for awhile while our tour director told us what was happening in the next few days and briefed us on the history of the area.  That took until about 12 and around 12;30 we went to the dining car for lunch.

The waitress in the dining car just rolled her eyes and grinned when we walked in and motioned for us to sit down.  She knew we were not locals and she obviously didn't know any language other than Chinese so it was going to be a fun time for her.  That's what I took from the expression.  The other workers just smiled at her and sent her on her way.  She was great fun with short cropped auburn hair - almost spiky at times.  We likened her to the waitress on Cheers because she obviously enjoyed what she was doing and she was good at it.  We had a lot of laughs trying to figure out what we wanted to eat but eventually our tour guide showed up and we ordered rice and some meat and veggie dishes and they were excellent and went well with our beer.

For the rest of the afternoon we talked, read, had/gave foot and leg massages, and had happy hour trying rice wine and various other drinks and lots of good treats.  Dinner was back in the dining car and basically a repeat of lunch.  The dining car was almost empty both times we were there but there were a few more people in the evening.  The locals just eat noodles while sitting on their bunks or in the aisle instead of ordering in the dining car.   I guess it's too expensive for them but for us it seemed incredibly cheap.  And the dining car was the only place you could actually get a comfortable seat so as long as you ate or drank something you could stay as long as you want.  Well, that's not exactly true.  The last few of our group eventually did get kicked out because they were closing the dining car - I think around 9 p.m.

At one point after dinner some of us tried yoga in between the bunks and in the aisle.  I'm sure that was pretty funny for the rest of the passengers.  Then later on we were entertained by a 3 year old who was singing songs for us and doing some of the actions.  She was adorable but eventually she tired out and crawled into her mother's lap.

We were the only whites on train.  For some reason, I can't imagine why, they refer to us as long noses.  Aside from a few funny looks though, which we probably deserved, they were very gracious and seemed to accept us with ease.  I certainly felt very comfortable on the train and had no concerns at all even after the lights went out.

Okay, I guess I have to make one proviso re the comfortable and no concerns part.  The bathrooms on these trains are awful.  The toilets are separate from the sinks.  The sink areas have two sinks each and there was always water everywhere and they were often dirty.  The toilets were just drop or squat toilets and they too were often dirty so you really didn't want to use them.  There was one handicapped toilet on the train and that was a sit toilet but it was always way to dirty to even think about sitting.  There was generally one toilet per car so with 100 people using the same toilet on a train that was swaying back and forth and jerking forward and backward, there really was no way to keep it clear.  I saw the cleaning people go by once so I quickly jumped up and went down to the facilities and sure enough they weren't too bad at all.  I should also mention that the squat toilets were pretty "open".  Depending on the angle you were looking you could see the ground and rail tiles going by underneath.  That thought didn't really bother me much out in the middle of nowhere but I'm not sure how well it works  when going through a city.  Toilet paper, of which there is never any, does not get thrown in the toilet but in a waste basket most times so that was not going straight through - at least not that we knew about.  Okay, enough of that.  The fact remains that aside from the toilet situation, the overnight or long-distance trains in China were fine.  

The time flew by and soon it was lights out at 10 p.m. and everyone was in bed.  The next morning we awoke to a different world but that's for another blog.