A 20 hour train from Hong Kong to Shanghai

When I bought my train ticket from Hong Kong to Shanghai, I was told that the only available type left was the "hard sleeper". The ticket cost about $65 Canadian, which seemed like a pretty good deal compared to the cost of a flight (about $200). The train would leave at 3pm and arrive at 11am the following day.

The waiting room in the train station was so crammed with people, I had to sit on the floor. I mentally prepared myself for the worst- sleeping on a wooden slab with no pillow or blanket, in a room with 30 other people. When we were finally released from the waiting room, the train looked much nicer than I'd imagined.

The hard sleeper area of the train is separated into compartments with 6 beds set up into two sets of bunk beds. Each bed has a decent comforter and pillow. Of course, I was stuck with the top bunk which was about 10 feet up in the air with about 2 feet between the bed and the ceiling.

The nice thing about being on the top is that no one sits on your bed. The bottom bunks end up being kind of a communal area where everyone sits. The bad part about being on the top is that you can't sit up yourself- in fact, you can hardly move at all once you're up there. On top of that, the air conditioner is on the ceiling right above your head. It's nice to have the fresh air but it's so cold up there.

As soon as the train took off, the party began. Everyone was socializing and it seemed like every person had brought about a month's worth of food. A man walked up and down the aisle beside the compartments selling something that smelled like dirty socks and looked like watery rice. (I didn't try it but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.) It was a little bit like being on a camping trip. Around 10pm they turned the lights out and the snorefest began. I've never heard so much snoring in my entire life. Unfortunately I forgot my sleeping pills in my big backpack, which I checked in, so I didn't get much sleep.

It was definitely an experience. I was so happy when we finally arrived in Shanghai. I'm here for a couple of days and then I'm off to Beijing. Now I just need to figure out how to get there- I'm thinking the bus might be a better option this time...

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