March 26, 2008

CHINA

Closing Down on the 2,660 Kilometer Distance Between Kunming and Shanghai

This morning was OK. I woke up at around 8:00 am, brushed my teeth with scalding water (ensuring it is safe to drink), changed into a new set of clothes, and settled in to finish the remainder of my book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murikami. Then, at around 11:00am, I ate my second pack of spicy Sichuan-styled ramen noodles, and washed it down with a random bottle of beer sold along the side of a random station.

Between 1:00 and 2:00 in the afternoon there was some excitement as we first passed a convoy of roughly 60 military tanks being transported by rail (heading toward Yunnan Province), and then 30 minutes later the train came to a skidding halt. No one could figure out why we stopped so abruptly, but many drinks were spilled and bodies went tumbling as it happened. It felt like we hit something, but that may have just been all the train cars banging into one another - it is impossible to say for sure. After a 20 minute stop along the tracks, we got going again, and there would be no further breaks from the monotony of a 36 hour train ride.

By the time I finished my third bowl of ramen noodles all I could taste in my mouth was MSG, and after finishing my book I was left with little else to do except wait for Neil to finish his. Yes, these were bad times, but what else is to be expected on such a grueling train ride?

I walked up and down the train a couple of times, chatting with different Chinese en route. I met one interesting man who carried around a flask and claimed to be from Harbin, which is China's northern-most city on the north-eastern border with Russia. He spoke crap Chinese and crap English, but he kept talking for nearly 20 minutes while I both tried to look interested and tried to escape.

For dinner, Neil and I ate at the dining car, which charges 20+ rmb/dish, but we were both out of ramen noodles by this point. In the end, the food was so awful we pushed it to one side and ate our bowls of white rice before returning to our bunks, defeated.

"Only ten more hours to go now, just sleep," I thought to myself.

And it worked.