A lot of time on a train…

A lot of time on a train…

Chengdu, China, Asia

I got up this morning and was very happy to see that my internet connection was good enough to watch the Patriots game from last night on the slingbox. I was even happier to see the Patriots beat the Jets 30-21 for a very important division game. I said bye to Greg as he headed off to go hiking in the rice terraces for a couple of days, and we might meet up again in Chengdu. I got my stuff all packed up and bought some snacks for the long train journey ahead of me.

I met a guy downstairs who is catching the same train as me to Chengdu so we grabbed a bus to the train station together. It’s so much easier travelling with someone anywhere in the world, but China it is so important. There is just so little spelled out in English that it usually takes two of you to work out what’s happening. Fabio, from Italy, and I found the correct waiting room for our train, and got on without a hitch. He was a bit more fortunate than I was as he is staying in a soft sleeper. I’m in a hard sleeper again, but this time I was able to get a bottom berth, and I like it much better already.

It’s a little annoying that people decide to just sit on your bed because they don’t want to sit on their middle or top bunk, but every time I lied down, no one came and sat on my feet, so that was good. I’m pretty sure that Fabio and I were the only two westerners on the whole train, so I walked down to his carriage a couple of times to chat and hang out in the A/C. I also met the guy sitting across from me in the bottom bunk and he spoke a little English. His name was Tai and his English was at least good enough to have some small conversations so that was nice. Between that and my iphone I had enough to keep me entertained for a little while anyway. It’s 10pm now and the lights are out on the train and most of the people are asleep. I’m going to follow suit so I don’t piss anyone off enough that they try to steal some of my stuff when I’m sleeping!

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