Shanghai-Urumqi Train pt. 2

                The train ride is pretty solid, and as the afternoon wears on the scenery gets reasonably spectacular as such things go. You will be treated to a landscape that features mountains that go from tree-covered to arid throughout the course of several hours, with various shut-down industries to add to the mile-a-minute thrills of sitting on a train for 38 hours. Of course, bringing your own food (and beer) is always recommended, though snack cart ladies patrol the train constantly pushing their own more expensive (but still relatively cheap) food items. The good news about this is that it is not instant noodles, which I have been surviving off of. The bad news is that I am not sure of its quality, despite the in-compartment TVs displaying a mini-documentary of the meals being prepared in a lab-looking environment that I am pretty sure is not where they are actually prepared.

A vista you too can see if you like 38 hour train rides

                The staff are nice, but after one spoke English to me I got a little ambitious and when I tried asking our arrival time, I found they not only didn’t speak English but thought I had some sort of problem and summoned the train cop. He was very courteous and we quickly established the train was an hour late, before following up with a friendly enough conversation/interrogation concerning my level of Chinese knowledge (despite Bill’s efforts, I can reliably say 5 words), financial means, and purpose for being out there. Lest ye get suspicious, I never felt threatened, or that I was being harassed—if anything I think the cop had no idea why he had been summoned. I grinned like an idiot the whole time. At any rate, the staff is far friendlier than those I’ve seen in Russian trains.

A steel mill of the abandoned variety

 Anyway, the train is hurtling into the night. The kid from my compartment has been bouncing off the walls (literally) and generally being the craziest individual in this train car. I turned around a second ago and he was peeing into a bottle his grandfather held for him. He’s out of control. I think I’ve got to sign off, in any case.

Lanzhou Sttion