12 hour train journey?
Today myself and Kenton, my American roommate from San Fancisco trekked back up to the restored part of the Great Wall of China to take a few photos in the sun before heading back to pack and shower.
We checked out of our guest house and boarded the bus back to Beijing. By the time we reached Beijing the temperature was 37 degrees and we were all wilting in the sun, we sheltered in the air conditioned supermarket and grabbed some food for our twelve hour train journey to Xi'an.
Faces were staring at us like we were aliens as we waited to board the train to Xi'an. This would have been unnerving but by now we are all pretty much used to it and found it amusing more than anything. After we boarded the train for Xi'an were finally sorted out who was sleeping where. There were 6 bunks, three on the left and three on the right, top, middle and bottom. I opted for the top bunk with my roommate, Kenton on the other top bunk, underneath was an quiet Aussie called Lesley and one of two Essex girls, Rachel underneath that was a French girl called Marie and the other Essex girl, Georgina. We had a few beers and chatted for a while before all the lights went out at about 10 o'clock. My bunk had minimal head room out of all the bunks but I managed to sleep pretty well after a bit of Tom Foolery with torches by the girls below.
I was having fun on the tour so far, although sometimes I feel like I need to break out and do my own thing. The tour has been very social and everyone seems to get along well, I'm really looking forward to the rest of the tour, especially trekking out into the rice paddy fields and staying in a rural Chinese village.
