Day 304 - How many people can you fit in one carriage?

---

Today started apprehensively as we were preparing ourselves for 14 hours standing on a crowded train. Once we had pushed our way with the rest of China on to the train we stood in the middle of the aisle, as more and more people got on and set themselves for the journey in the same carriage. It would have made the Mayor of London proud the number of people you can fit in one carriage.

2 hours in and we had already experienced babies feeding and crying, Chinese people on their phone “HELLO, YES I AM ON THE TRAIN” - Trigger Happy TV comes to mind - people having a wander just to be nosey, and others carrying their cases and big bags knocking into your shins or using their elbows to get by, kids running around playing hide and seek, oh and not to forget the lady with the food cart - who was getting through the tiniest of gaps so that she could sell her Chinese equivalent of pot noodles and beer at 8am. Absolutely mad.

Ed worked his magic and was able to get an upgrade. He is not sure how he did it as no English was spoken but money did the talking this time. After doing our own pushing and shoving with our backpacks - Oh the evils we got for the inconvenience caused, it is another rule for foreigners it seems - we find ourselves in a carriage with very few people, wondering why they don’t sell these tickets before the train leaves. We find our two bunks and settle in for the 11 hours left.

We didn’t get to see too much of the countryside as the train meanders its way up and down the valleys through very long tunnels, but what we saw looked amazing. The other 4 bunks in our compartment had changing inhabitants but they all were able to speak on their phone as though they were trying to reach them by their voice as well, and all ate unidentifiable food. It was great, if a little surreal having someone talking on his phone at what we would consider shouting volume just inches away from us.

Arriving in Yi Chang at 11pm we had the task of trying to find somewhere to stay in a city that was full - this week is China’s ‘Golden Week’ of Bank Holidays remember. But never fear the taxi driver knew just a place and we drove up to a hotel that was not lit or advertised and actually come to think of it had no name. But it had a bed and we were glad to get into it, even if it was bidding for ‘World’s Worst Hotel 2007’ (eg toilet is a hole in the floor actually in the shower).

---