Midnight Express

That post title may raise some eyebrows, but that is all it should elevate.  We boarded our final overnight transport the night before last.  On this trip we had four overnight trains and one bus that drove us through the night for a total of 78 hours of travel that included some sleep time.  Most of out travel distances were were covered in such a way.  It made sense to move between locations during a time when we were not going to be doing anything else, and it was a lot cheaper to boot.  I will have to get the official stats but we are estimating between at least 2500 and probably 4000 miles traveled.   I have done a few long mountain bike races and those really help put into perspective the shorter rides, the same holds true for our first overnight train of 25 hours.

The kids have taken to sleeping on trains quite nicely.  We put them in the top bunks and they have a great time up there reading, joking and even getting some movie and game time in.

With your bunk comes a comforter and a pillow so you can get cozy and find some sleep.  We thought that was a very nice touch because we did not pack any pillows or bags.  Our assessment of 'very nice' required an adjustment when we realized that our neatly folded and freshly laundered comforters were only neatly folded.  This discovery was made during the daylight inspection of said sheets revealing recent discoloration marks.  Eeewwww.

Train travel always offers a neat perspective on the landscape and China did not disappoint.  We crossed a wide variety of terrain coming up from the lush of South China over the mountains into dry North China and into the nations mid-section.  Much of this countryside could be anywhere in the world.  What gives it away, I suppose, are the buildings in the countryside.  When compared to the States you might think there had been a war here recently.  One of the starkest contrasts is the exploding high rises all over China.  High rise construction in a city seems to make sense, but these seem to pop up out of fields and tiny little burgs.  I had read about all this construction and there are many completely vacant high rises and even whole towns.  They call these the 'Ghost Cities of China'.  Do you think the citizens of the dusty streets in this small town need half a dozen high rise buildings?

When Patti was traveling Europe as a college student she was asleep on an overnight train and someone made off with a few of her things including her passport, money, credit cards.  You can imagine the hassle that created.  Since then she has been very careful with her personal belongings in all situations especially when her eyes are shut, which is almost always when onboard anything moving. We had our first strange incident, at least as far as know, on the last train.  At about 3:00 AM someone had come into our area and sat on Pattis bed, we were both in the bottom beds of a stack of three.  Patti figured he had the wrong bed so she returned her eyes to the closed position.  Then he sat on her again.

This time Patti was paying attention and kept one eye undetectably open and trained upon the intruder.  After a few lomg seconds he got up he sat on one of the seats opposite the beds and pulled out a smart phone and lit up the screen.  Then he stood up and started looking at the middle bunks, then down in the area between our beds where we might store our daypacks.  Before exhaling her next breathe, Kung Fu Patti sprung up with the lightening reflexes and cat-like skills that she acquired from the master at the Shaolin Orphanage.  She turned the invading enemy to flight as she chased him down the train car howling in her best Bruce Lee imitation.

Our most precious belongings, the girls, were always safely tucked up in the top bunks.  A mid-sized person can barely get up into one of those beds, let alone trying to forcibly remove someone however small they might be.  Our daypacks were underneath and strapped to our legs with a blanket over the top, out of sight and not going anywhere.  Losing any of our other luggage would be a bummer, but we could live without it if things went badly.

On this last train, I also had what might be a more dreaded situation then even that which this lurker posed.  I had the tummy gurgles and a more then passing urge to use the potty, if you catch my drift.  After eight hours of steeling my constitution I rose from my bunk and set out on my quest.  Sparing you the details of balancing over the squat toilet on a moving train and bodily functions, all was well in the end.  No pun intended.  I really wanted to put a picture of the train toilet here.  Can you believe with all the potty shots over the last three weeks I did not get one from the train?  That might have been a secret hope of mine, too not have the need to create a post for such a time as this.

Keep on Trackin'.