We took our sweet time finishing our last dinner in Sichuan. But soon it was time to go. We tried to hail a cab outside the commercial complex but no luck. We then realized that it was already rush hour. Rush hour and Chinese city do not make a good combination for someone who needs a cab. It was terrible, we kept switching sides to see where we can get a cab faster but there were too many people out to get one too. There were no taxi queues here so it was everyone for himself.
My friend and I split and each of us took a side to see who can get a cab first. Just when we thought a cab was for us, it would be taken by someone else. Apparently, the citizens don’t seem to care who called first. As I said it is everyone for himself. We soon learned that playing nice here will not get us anywhere, literally, since we need to catch a 7pm train out of Sichuan. We needed to play their game if we were to get a cab. And sure enough we grabbed a cab from someone else and we were finally on our way.
Fortunately, there was no traffic jam going back to Sim’s Cozy Guest Hostel and we made it back there quickly. I didn’t want to let the taxi go so I got off and let my friend stay in the taxi. Maybe they could tell each other stories, who knows. When I got to the lobby the travel desk told me what I already know, “You are very late”. She gave us our bags and I rushed out of the hostel and asked the driver to bring us to the train station.
It isn’t really that far, and again there was no traffic jam there. I thought we were very fortunate that we have this cab if not we would have surely missed the train. The train station was a huge facility since Chengdu is a major stop in the Chinese railway system. There is a huge sqaure in front of the station building where there were probably thousands of people waiting to get a ride. It was the worst case scenario since we haven’t been to the Chengdu train station ourselves. There were a lot of people adding to the uneasiness of the situation. Most of these people were waiting for a ride much later in the day or night. The train station can only fit so many people no matter how large it was.
We finally located the entrance of the train station and they let us in, I guess because our train was already about to leave. Fortunately, my “excellent Chinese skills” came into fore and we were able to navigate the train station fairly easily. There was a wide overhead walkway to cross the tracks and there were signs for the trains. The train ticket has a trip number all we had to do is just follow the numbers. There was a stairway to get down to the train level, by that time the train was already starting to move. Talk about cutting it close.
The staff let us in the train and we noticed there there a lot of people on the train and it seems that all the seats were taken. So we thought about just hanging out in some corner and just make ourselves comfortable. Fortunately, our tickets had seat numbers so I could kick anyone sitting on my seat. And there really was someone there, but they quickly made way for us knowing that those were our seats.
We got the hard seats. It actually has some sort of thin cushion so it is not extremely hard. I managed to get seated along the aisle. My friend, unfortunately, had to sit between two people. The train gathered speed and we were finally on our way out of Sichuan.
This is my first time to ride this kind of train in China and it really wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. I had pictures of trains in India where people would sit on top of the train just to get a ride home. This train wasn’t like that at all. However, I would soon notice some of the peculiarities of riding Chinese trains. Most notably is how people would brazenly ignore the no smoking sign. It was supposed to be an air conditioned coach but people kept smoking inside. Just like they do on buses. I really dislike this habit.
There was one point that a female Chinese passenger got so ticked off by the smoke that she opened the window to let some fresh air in. It was fresh alright but it was also cold, but I guess she’d rather face the cold wind than suck in all that foul smelling smoke. Then a train staff dropped by and started closing the window, saying that she should not open the windows. She then complained about the continuous smoking in the train and why they are not doing anything about it. I don’t think the train staff did anything about it since she just shut the window and continued scolding the female passenger. Defeated, she just kept quiet.
The train wasn’t that full since we can still move around the car. There was a toilet between the car and I didn’t really like it. It was smelly and wet, who knows where the wastes go. Outside? It was also a squat type toilet, so anyone who needed to go there would have a terrible time inside with all the shaking and moving of the train.
Interestingly the train also has “in flight service”. The staff would drag out their boxes and start selling stuff, like no-run stockings for ladies. The staff would talk in the middle of the train and then start to distribute it to the passengers to sample. Later she would also sell a night lamp for reading. And finally there was the human powered flash light. It is basically a flywheel based flashlight where you pump the handle a few times and the kinetic energy of the flywheel generates electricity and stores it in the batteries. It was really quite neat.
As the hours dragged on, the seat became more and more uncomfortable. There was no give in the seat and my back started to ache. I would have to endure this for the next couple of hours until we get to Tongren wherever it is. If you have an empty seat next to you, then you are in luck since you can lie down on your back. I didn’t have any such luck. Once in a while, there will be stops and we would go to buy food. If we can’t sleep might as well eat. They don’t close the lights on the train so it makes it even more difficult to sleep. I already have difficulty sleeping in moving vehicles to begin with. I guess, even with the way we travel around in China, we still need to get used to this.
Finally, after several hours, there was light outside, which meant that we was already near, I’m keeping my eyes peeled since I don’t really know when to get off, fortunately, the station was well marked and we prompty got off. After crossing to provinces in China, Sichuan and Chengdu, we were on to our third province – Guizhou.
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