Since it was going to be a long train ride, I was hoping to sleep as long as possible. Not on this train. By 7AM everyone seemed to be making noise, making it impossible to sleep. At about 8AM I decided to get up. I was still wearing the same clothes I had been wearing all day yesterday. Of course there were no showers on board the train. The bathroom (squatter toilet) left much to be desired. There were sinks available.
In the area where we were at, there was a Chinese family � 2 couples and a 1 year old child. At first I thought if it were appropriate, I might like to have the child in my lap. However I noticed that there was a huge slit in the child�s pants right around the crotch and butt area. Every time the child lifted up his leg, he mooned everyone on the train. I later found out that this is pretty normal. Most Chinese folks do not use diapers on their children. Instead the babies have huge slits in their pants, which let the child do their thing whenever they want to.
My traveling buddy, Paul, always an extrovert, had struck up a conversation with the family traveling with us. In front of the window of the train, there was a couple of fold down chairs and a very small table. Eventually I got up and sat in one of those chairs.
From the window on the train, you could see the Chinese countryside. Just like out of National Geographic, you could see miles of rice fields. Rice was growing on every farmable piece of land.
In the rice fields there were people out picking rice. I imagined these people probably would not leave their own town ever in their lifetime. They had probably never come in contact with a westerner. They probably didn�t know that it was May Day holiday since they were still laboring in the field.
Just looking at these people I soon was reminded about how blessed I am. I have had great opportunities in my life to better myself � to go to college, to get a good job, and to visit China. Now on the other side of this train window, I could see what life could have been for me if I had been born on in a rural Chinese village.
The train ride took forever. I was under the impression that the ride was going to be 18 hours, probably arriving at mid-afternoon in Xian. Paul later told me that it was going to be 24 hours. The reason why it took so long is because we stopped at almost every po-dunk town on the way there. Each time we stopped, people would get off the train and others would get on. We would stay at these train stations for at least 15 minutes.
At around 11AM I decided to eat my Subway Sandwich I had gotten last night in Shanghai. Surprisingly it was still cool. I had not gotten mayonnaise on it, which made it more pate able.
Throughout the train ride vendors or stewardesses would come through selling noodles and various distractions like VCDs. Stewardesses would also mop the floors. At one point in the train ride a large amount of water came rolling down the way. Only my shoes were down on the floor, so it was not a big deal to me if they got slightly wet on the bottom.
People would always ask Paul where I was from. I picked up on the Chinese word for America, so I usually knew when it was being asked. When I got out a Time Magazine to read, an elderly gentleman seemed very interested in it and was reading it over my shoulders.
As we got closer to Xian, Paul pointed out that we were seeing wheat growing in the fields since the soil was so rocky. I also noticed the soil had a yellowish tinge to it.
Finally after about 24 hours we arrived in Xian at 10PM. We were met by Paul�s friend (I still don�t know his name). At the train station I noticed a huge open area and a large electronic Fiji Film sign. In order to get to the hotel, we tried one taxi, but the taxi driver was going to charge us more since I was a foreigner. The 2nd taxi we tried was fair about it, and took us to our hotel.
As we entered the hotel, I noticed a Santa Claus sign, which said �Merry Christmas� backwards. There were also a few Christmas trees around it. As we were going up the stairs to our room, I noticed a bar with KTV on the door. �KTV� stands for Karaoke, which is popular in many Asian countries. We got room 417. Each time we needed to get into the room, we had to ask the lady at the main desk on our floor to unlock the door.
Thankfully there was a western style toilet in the room. However the bathroom door had no doorknob.
Paul suggested we go to KFC down the street to get some food. Coincidentally, I believe this may have been the only western style outlet in town. I didn�t see any other KFC�s McDonald�s while I was there. We got there at 11:45PM and found that they were closed (at 11:30PM). On our way back I noticed someone peeing on the wall in a public street.
We settled down to get some rest. We were going to be leaving at about 6AM the next day.