The long way home
(The following I'm posting on the 18th along with a string of other stuff, but this is from my written journal - as I had no internet access for the road home - but for the delay, I apologize, I guess I've just gotten a little lazy...)I am starting the 20 hour trek to Nanjing (because I couldn't get a direct train to Shanghai). I've been here for 4 hours already (it kind of flew by). It was beautiful to watch the sun set behind the mountains. There's a little boy in my bunk who is so cute, but I'm pretty sure his teeth are rotting. He speaks no English and I no Chinese, but we seem to get along well. He's fun (in smaller doses - we make faces at eachother and he rambles on at me in Chinese thinking that I understand, and sometimes I do, but it's not his words). This train is a little different. No TV's, quieter music and partial walls that extend along the foot of the beds. There are also bed lights, key if I get up in the middle of the night (which I always do - especially when the train stops and they lock the bathrooms, which totally sucks when you have to go!). We've jolted a couple of times, makes me thing we hit something, but people seem less than concerned about it, so who knows? The train is great. I've been approached by a few people who speak a little English and I met Trista and Adam who are by chance on a connecting car (Adam was getting hot water when I was just going to brush my teeth. Wierd!). They gave me chocolate, so I was happy. I realize that I haven't written much since the warriors. I did very little on Friday, went for lunch in the Muslim area with Steve and Clive (two Auzzies who were travelling seperately but both leaving on the same day to different destinations). I've been having a beer with them in the evenings for the past few nights, so it was kind of fun to have a bit of a send-off. We traded e-mails and hopefully I'll hear from them (Clive was epsecially interested in my trip to Huashan - it's coming up, don't worry I'll fill you in). He's a little older and just had surgury on his ankle, so he couldn't do the whole trip). We had lunch at a restaurant where I ordered skewers of beef in Chinese! (shu wu niurou) and we picked a couple of veggies at random, which was fantastic. We wandered and tried to help Clive, a hopeless bargainer (he starts at the price he wants to pay, not low enough to work up to a good price), to find a chess set for his son and a Northface jacket (well, it says made in China on it, but the fleece is much poorer quality than my MEC fleece, so I feel a little spoiled). That night was another wander down the muslim quarter with Silvia for fruit on a stick (like mini-Candy apples) and back to the hostel for a dumpling party - we maked (and ate) tons of dumplings. Even those who didn't make any got their fill. It was great! I got to bed early after saying goodbye to Kay and Silvia (Kay for Luoyand and Silvia for Chendun) to leave early to hike the mountain, called Huashan (shan means mountain). I
I climbed the mountain and when i got to the first peak (after abut 5 hours) I was exhausted, and also it got really cloudy so the scenery kinda sucked when I reached the top. I figure i could stay the night and see the sunrise, if it wasn't crappy out - but there was no guarantee that it was not going to be crappy. Also, I had to catch an afternoon train, so i didnt want to push it. So, I hiked straight up for 1500 metres, and man, It worked a number on my legs!! Oh well, at least i got to spend the worst hours on a train. I met this really nice girl from isreal at the top and we went down on the cable cars and back to Xi'an together, which was nice, because it was kind of sketchy for a while, especially when the bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, telling us we were in the city, when we were really outside of it. It was nice to be with someone then, but it was also nice to be alone for most of it. I actually had 2 buddies on the trip. The first guy was on the bus and spoke some English, and when he got off , he invited me to go with him & his friends, we stoppe for lunch first and bought some supplies, and then started up. I let them go ahead after about an hour (I wanted to take my time, I didn't have a schedule), and met up with another guy for about half an hour (about 2 hours after leaving the first group), then i met the israili girl at the top. it was a friend-meeting kind of day. It was incredible and not I'm exhausted, so I hope to sleep lots on the train. Next week won't be nearly as exciting, I'm sure.
posted by Jenn @ 2:10 a.m.
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