Well, we are officially on the way to Lhasa! So far the train is a little crazy- nobody speaks English at all so it's really hard to communicate anything. Mostly we just get yelled at in Chinese until we figure out what they're trying to tell us. So in each compartment there's six bunks. Katie's in one with five guys, Cecilia and I are in another with 3 guys, and a mother and child. The kid's cute, but they got on the train after I was asleep and woke me up. Then she wouldn't stop talking so I couldn't go back to sleep. I'm just going to have to deal with it- there's nothing else I can do, and I can't even speak to them about it. At the very least, it's a new life experience for me to be on this train.
29 May 2010 11:13am still on the train
I am once again absolutely amazed by the beauty of the Chinese countryside. We just passed through a valley of lakes- the views were breathtaking. We weren’t the only ones struck by it- everyone in our car was looking out the window, taking pictures. I felt like I’m on an island- think the views of LOST, and you’ll understand what I mean.
I’ve been so tired and just plain out of it that I forgot to write about yesterday. We had initially thought our train left early, but as it didn’t leave until 9:30pm, we suddenly had the whole day free. Since we had to be checked out of the hostel by noon, we packed and then stored our bags with the front desk. I also found out that they had stamps, so I finally got to send all my post cards out. For 5 yuan each, I hope they get to the U.S.
We left the hostel around noon to meet Katie’s friend Michelle, a fellow New School student, for lunch. She took us to a restaurant to get a hot pot, which is basically a pot of broth that all of the food gets put in. The pot is divided into regular broth and Sichuan broth, which is usually very hot. Seeing as how most of the food Michelle ordered for us I didn’t like, I didn’t eat much. I’m sure it was very good though. I felt really guilty about getting myself McDonald’s later, but I was so burnt out and hungry. I think I reached the extent of trying new foods (hopefully just for China, not the whole summer). I still look at the McDonald’s thing as a cultural experience- how each culture still has its own impact on globalization. I ordered chicken nuggets, but instead of barbeque sauce they had sweet and sour (I think, it was still in the usual green) and garlic chili sauce. I opted for the garlic chili sauce- if I was going to eat western food, I could at least try their versions of it. The sauce wasn’t too bad, just a little too vinegar-y for my taste.
Seeing as how we had a few more hours before we had to be back at the hostel to grab our bags and go to the train station, Michelle suggested we go to the Lama Temple. It’s a functioning Buddhist temple with the largest statue of Buddha in Beijing (possibly the world, but I’d have to check), carved from a single piece of sandalwood. The compound was quite large, with multiple buildings all featuring statues where people prayed.
Eventually, we reached the last building- a few minutes before they started to close. When people say the Buddha statue is gigantic, they mean it. It’s 18 meters tall, which translates roughly to 54 feet tall- somewhere around 4 or 5 stories. All I could do was stare up at it in disbelief. I did manage to take a picture, and then promptly got yelled at by a monk. That’s an experience.
We left the temple as it was closing, and stopped for groceries on the way back to the hostel so we would have snacks on the train. I bought steak-flavored potato chips. We’ll have to see how those go. We took 2 taxis from the hostel to the train station, and of course got dropped off in different locations. Luckily Dee found Keesler and I, and we all ended up making it on the train.
29 May 2010 5:12pm on the train…
This train ride has been pretty good so far. We made friends with one of the only other foreigners on the train. Of course, his English is almost non-existent – he’s Korean. As he says, his head is stone so he can’t remember much English. Katie and Cecilia also made friends with Katie’s roommates, the mobsters. I finally got to see her roommate Turtleface Joe – he seems nice, he offered me a seat. But man, are they drinking like crazy! They’ve been doing it all day and at the last stop, they got off to get more beer. Party in Katie’s room tonight! I think my favorite thing, however, is that one of the mobsters has a toiletry bag with hearts on it! So awesome.
Back to look out the window some more!
P.S. Baby girl is growing on me- she’s so adorable!
29 May 2010 9:46pm train…
More fun times with our Korean friend! One conversation awhile back we were discussing ages, and he called Cecilia ‘David Copperfield’ for guessing his age correctly (although I’m pretty sure he was lying about his age). Later, we went over names. He had already told us his name is Mr. Kim (I think his first name is Kuwon or something like that) and kept making jokes that Kim Jong-Il is his brother. He also got us laughing by giving us his list of bad people (I think that’s what he meant)- 1) George W. Bush 2) Kim Jong-Il. However, we did not agree with 3) Barack Hussein Obama (yes, he made sure to say the whole name).
We also had a lovely conversation with our Korean friend about travel (particularly about his travels), which consisted of him speaking in Korean and saying the names of countries in English, like “Egypt!” “Canada!” and us responding, “Oh, Egypt!” He mentioned a lot of Middle Eastern countries, so I asked him in English if he spoke Arabic. He said yes, so I responded in Arabic, “I speak Arabic!” I got a blank stare. Apparently, he doesn’t.
Later (so, not too long ago from now), we exchanged our names with him. He had quite a hard time getting Katie’s name down. She eventually just said K.T., which he seemed to get. Cecilia he was fine with, but he had a really hard time with me. I think he refused to believe that my name is Kim. He said, “No, no, you are Virginia!” I finally said ‘Kimberlee’, and that ‘Kim’ was just short. He seemed to like that a lot better.
We have all new roommates now, I believe. Momma and baby are gone. Sad face. Now I’ve got a snoring guy. Double sad face. Oh well, if it gets too bad I can always put headphones in. Tomorrow is our last day on the train; we should be getting to Lhasa tomorrow evening. I can’t wait!
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