My Virgin Train Journey in China

My first train journey in China was disastrous.

Just wanna leave Panzhihua 攀枝花

To go from Yongsheng 永胜 to Chengdu 成都, I had to go past an industrial city called Panzhihua. I hadn't been to Panzhihua before, so I thought it might to good to explore around the city. Long story short - there was nothing to see and the place I stayed was just crap and dodgy... all I wanted to do was to leave the creepy hostel.

So I rushed to the train station, wishing to buy a train ticket asap.

I guess it's the rule of buying train tickets in China - Quick and No Questions

The fat lady sitting behind the window said quickly, 'Where to go'?
'Chengdu...' I didn't dare to say an extra word.
'K156, hard seat, tomorrow3:15pm', she said mechanically.
'How long?' I had to ask.
'13 hours, take it or not?' she became impatient.
'Yes, please,' thought it shouldn't be worse than a long flight.

On the Train...

It was a very hot and humid day. Oh No!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a train with no air-conditioning! I didn't even think of asking, I just assumed that every train should have air-con.

When I first got on the train, I had already smelled the sweat of the topless middle-aged men...'Gosh! How can I put up with this?' I thought.

I got two rucksacks with me, a big one (45lit) and a small one (20lit). The big one was just too heavy for me to put it up on the shelf. When I was trying hard, a sweaty topless man quickly lifted up my bag to the shelf without saying a word. It was kind of unexpected but very nice. It would have been better if he was younger, handsomer and less sweaty...haha...

There are all sorts of nasty things you can see on a non-air-conditioned hard-seat compartment such as eating, spitting, playing cards, smoking, etc. Eating should not considered to be nasty but imagine people would throw rubbish on the floor or out of the window!

Don't wear slippers!

I thought it would have been more comfortable to wear slippers on the train, but I was wrong.

When I was reading, I sudden felt something, something sticky on my left foot. WTH? It was phlegm spat by the woman sitting on the other side of the aisle.

'Could you please stop spitting?' I tried to keep my temper.

'Sorry,' she said.

And then, she spitted out of the window. Wow! What a long distance? And I assumed that it was a courtesy act.

The other problem of wearing slippers on the train is that your feet would get swollen after a few hours. My legs were numb and guess so did everybody else. A lot of people started to walk along the aisle, and some even lay on the floor to sleep. So, I didn't even have a chance to stretch my legs. The only thing I could do was to massage them. The woman sat opposite me was so nice that she let put my legs on her seats and of course I offered her to put my legs on mine as well.

13 hours in hell but how worse can it be?

It was a 13-hour train journey, going from at 3:30pm to 5:30am.  My legs had gone swollen after a few hours but there was no room for me to walk around.  I dared not to drink much water because I didn't want to go to the disgusting toilet.  This perhaps made my 'piggish dropsy legs' worse.  My skin was just so sticky because of the sweat.  My sticky skin together with the dust coming in from the window was just filthy.   And of course, I couldn't get any sleep at all.   The whole journey was just crazy, I was tired, thirsty, hungry and dirty. 

The time had gone really really slowly.  Thank God!  I finally arrived Chengdu at 5:30am. I could finally take my rucksacks with me to get into the city...'I don't need luxury, basic conform is good enough', I thought.  But when I stepped out of the train station, it was raining cats and dogs.  There wasn't anywhere that I could shelter from.  I had gone completely wet (and mad)...I couldn't imagine to have a shower in the rain even before arriving the hostel.  How worse can it be? 

K-Train, T-Train and D-Train

The train was slow though it was a K-train. It's supposed to be fast K stands for Kuai 快 （fast), but it wasn't.  And later on in my journey, I realised that I was wrong.

K stands Kuai 快 （fast) - stops at more stations - slower

T stands for Te 特 (special) - stops at fewer stations - faster

D stands for 动 (express) - nearly direct train - fastest - but usually short journey

I know the difference now but getting a train ticket is just a nuisance in China. If you have money, ask an travel agent to help you.

青海湖的蛋炒饭（二） Qinghai Lake: Egg Fried Rice (II)

故事还没完......

The story hasn't yet finished...

「真 的很大盘啊！」Emily努力地吃。

'It's such a big portion,' Emily was munching.

「对 啊，你的好像没有吃过似的。」其实我也一半都没吃完。

'It is, isn't it? It's like you never touched it before.' In fact, mine isn't any better.

「早知道叫一份就好 了。」Emily 后悔地说。

‘We should have ordered one, if we knew,' Emily regretted.

******

Emily 想到了鬼主意。

A wicked idea came to Emily's head.

「不 如我们明天再吃好了！」Emily 让真地说。

‘Why don't we keep it for tomorrow?' Emily said seriously.

「不行！饭冷了怎么吃？」我把声音提高地说。

'No, it'll be cold.' I raised my voice.

「叫他们明天帮我们热一下就好了。」

‘just ask them reheat it for us '

「什么？可以吗？」心想怎么可以这么那么难为情。

‘What? Seriously?' thought how I could do such an embarrassing thing.

And she did, she really asked the hostel keeper...

她来真的，她真的向老板 提出要求！

May be because the hostel keeper thought that we were really really poor, he said' yes' without hesitation.

可能 老板觉得我们真的很穷很穷，所以二话不说就答应我们了。

So then we fetch our plates to the kitchen. Emily even instructed the chef, 'please put our plates separately, because we (me and Emily) are not close friends, just met on the way. Also, remember to reheat the fried rice separately tomorrow morning, ok?'

然后我们就把盘子端到厨房。Emily 吩咐厨师 「要把我们的炒饭分开饭啊！因为我们（我跟Emily)不是很熟，我们刚在路上认识。还有，记得明天早上要把炒饭分开热啊！」

Help...I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooo embarrassed...

救命啊！真的 超 超 超 尴尬啊！

Even though we had such an unreasonable request to the hostel keeper, he was still very nice to us. The morning after, when we just opened our bleary eyes, the rice had already been reheated and put on the table.

虽 然我们的要求很不合理，但是老板真的对我们很好。第二天早上，但我们还睡眼惺惺的时候，热腾腾的炒饭已经在桌上了。

I was so moved!

好感动啊！

P.S. Don't get me wrong! I didn't dislike her. She was just very frank.

注：不要误会，我没有不喜欢Emily，她只是非常率直。

进入泸沽湖 Getting to Lugu Lake

To go to Lugu Lake, most travelers take an eight-hour bus journey from Lijiang.
大部分去泸沽湖的旅客，都是从丽江坐八个小时大巴的。

But because I visited a friend in Yongsheng beforehand, I took a three-hour bus journey to Ninglang and then shared a mini-cab (mini-van) with other locals (The Mosuo).
但我因为在永胜看朋友，就从哪里坐三个小时的公车去宁蒗，然后就跟着在泸沽湖住的摩梭人坐面去。

In the minicab, the driver suggested a deal with me, saying if he could help me 'escape from buying the ticket', I did not need to pay for the cab but just the ticket fee for him. I didn't feel quite comfortable with that because I have never done this before and didn't think the ticket cost me a lot of money...but I said 'ok' finally...just wanna see how it went!

在面的上，师傅就向我提议，如果他能帮我逃票，我就把票的钱给他，不用付车费。我本来不 想答应的，因为我就是很胆小，从来没有想过逃票，而且也不会省很多钱......不过，算了吧，就试试看！

I knew that, it's not that easy.
我就知道，没有那么容易。

「下车，买票！」管理员凶巴巴的跟我说。
‘Get off, go buy the ticket' said the janitor with a long face.

「不是啦，她是摩梭人，回家去啊，不用买票！」师傅很自信的说。
'No, no, you get it wrong, she is Mosuo, she is just going home' the driver argued.

「@#￥%%…… %￥￥%……&*&」我旁边的婆婆突然把手绕在我的肩上，大概是用摩梭话跟管理员说我是她的亲人之类的。
"djkfapifnaeoifnpaeif eiapfn eapoifeio," the granny sitting next to me suddenly put her hand around the shoulder and said nicely to the janitor in her native language. I think she probably said I'm her relatives or something.

管理员当然不信啊！我那么白，又穿颜色鲜艳的冲锋衣，分明就是旅客。最后，我还是下车买票！
How could the janitor believe that! I'm too obvious to be just a tourist, as my skin was too fair to be Musuo and I wore an eye-catching windbreaker. I finally bought a ticket.

Day 2 at Lugu Lake 泸沽湖的第二天

第二天 Day 2

It's the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen .

这是我看过最美的风景。

I'm not a professional photographer but I was just lucky to visit Lugu Lake in such a fine day. It didn't matter if I had a professional camera or photographic skills, because whatever I captured was just stunning and charming!

我并不是专业的摄影师，不过我很幸运，去泸沽湖的时候天气美极了。所以，我是不是专业的摄影师或者有没有精湛的摄影技 巧并不重要，因为无论我拍了什么，都是非常摄人的美景。

Most tourists feels intrigued by the matriarchal society and 'walking marriages' of Musuo, but I wasn't particularly interested in it at all.  What we could see was just touristic, which might not reflect much the lives of Musuo nowadays.  Then, what's the point?
纵然游客都对泸沽湖一带的摩梭族的母系社会和走婚很感兴趣，不过我倒没什么感觉。我们看到的，就是给游客看的，不能反映当地的真实生活。那，还有意义吗？

青海湖的蛋炒饭（一） Qinghai Lake: Egg Fried Rice (I)

青海湖没有很多旅馆，我跟同伴Emily 到了一五一就随便租了一家干净又便宜的旅舍。到的时候已经五点了，觉得不可以错过蓝天跟油菜花和谐宜人的美景！

There weren't many hostels near Qinghai Lake. So, my company Emily and I just settled in a clean and cheap hostel once we arrived 151. Although it was five in the afternoon already, we thought that missing the beautiful scenery of the rapeseed field would be a shame.

其实出门的时候已经觉的很饿，也不知为什么突然很想吃炒饭，刚好出门的时候遇见旅馆老板，就问「炒饭多少钱？」
I was already very hungry at that time and really fancied fried rice for dinner. When we were about to go out, it so happened that we bumped into the hostel keeper, so I might as well asked, 'how much is the fried rice?'

老板说「蛋炒饭五块钱。」

The hostel keeper said, 'egg fried rice, five yuan'.

「哇！那么贵。」我心想。

'Wow, it's so expensive!'I thought.

看完油菜花之后......

After visiting the rapeseed field...

我跟Emily就决定在旅馆吃饭。除了炒饭，我们还想点两个小菜。于是就叫老板拿菜单给我们。

Emily and I decided to have dinner in the hostel. Apart from fried rice, we wanted to order other dishes, so we asked the hostel keeper for the menu.

「哇！好贵啊！炒清菜二十块，炒肉片四十块。幸好我们刚才问了蛋炒饭多少钱！」Emily露出一副惊讶的样子。

'Everything is just so expensive...20 yuan for fried vegetables, 40 yuan for pork. Luckily, we asked how much the fried rice is!' Emily showed a very surprised face.

「对啊！分明就是赚我们游客的钱！比大城市还要贵。就吃炒饭好了！」我也很诧异。

' Apparently, they just wanna rip the tourists off. It's more expensive than in the city. We should just order the fried rice.' I was surprised too.

老板听到我们只点炒饭，就用尽他的花言巧语向我们进攻，游说我们多点一些。不过我们也不甘示弱，摆出一副可怜相「太贵啦。你看我们租床位的时候跟你这么砍价，就知道我们没钱了！」

The hostel keeper was not very pleased to hear that we just wanted the fried rice, so he used his silver tongue to persuade us to order more. Not to be outdone, we pretended to be poor and said, 'it's too expensive...you know how we bargained for the beds, we really don't have much money.'

然后，老板就驶出他的秘密武器，不知从那儿来的，竟然拿出 另外一张菜单，还露出一副很诚恳的神态说：「唉！我们都是朋友嘛！算你们便宜一点！」

Then, his secret weapon came on the stage. He suddenly fetched us another menu with a genuine look and said, 'oh come on, we are all friends, cheaper for you, don't worry.'

救命啊！打什么友谊牌? 他快要把我惹毛了！
Help! So now a friendly move? He is gonna drive me mad!

不知道为什么，虽然我跟Emily刚在路上认识，可是我们就莫名其妙地有默契，异口同声地，冷漠的说：「不用啦！就蛋炒饭两份。」

Emily and I just met on the way, but we somehow had a kind of unspoken consensus and responded with one accord, 'No, thank you. Just two egg fried rice.'

「怎么可能！」我生气的说「还有另外一个菜单！分明就是骗人啊！」

'That's ridiculous!' I complained, 'another menu? Apparently he wanted to rip us off.'

「对啊！我们是远方来的朋友嘛！」Emily语带相关的说。

'Exactly! We are friends from far away.' Emily said sarcastically.

蛋炒饭来了， 当然是没有什么惊喜。可是我们边吃边聊，还聊去过的特色的餐厅，吃过的日本料理，澳洲生蚝......

Here we go! Our egg fried rice. Of course, there wasn't any surprise at all. We however enjoyed our dinner through talking about the special restaurants we've been to, the Japanese food, Australian oysters and all that...

对啊！我们并不是没钱，只是不甘心给人家骗而已。
Yes. We had money, but just didn't want get ripped off.

A Toilet Joke

I couldn't help burst out laughing...


I met an ABC in Nanjing and we traveled together to Ming Tomb 明孝陵[Mingxiaoling]. We had a nice time with good chats and laughters. We wanted to go to the loo in the park and then I realised that it was a unisex one. I felt a bit awkward to get into the loo with a man...and then I said with a little bit of embarassment.
'Oh...unisex', implying that I didn't want to get in with him.

'What?' said the ABC with a puzzled face.
'unisex,' I said again.
'What? What did you just say?' he looked really surprised.

'unisex', I pointed to the sign of the loo.
'oh...oh...' said with a relieved voice.



******************toilet time*******************

a while later...after we separately finished our business ...I asked why he took aback when I said there's a unisex loo. And you know what he said


'I thought you said "YOU NEED SEX"'


'Why the h*ll would you think I care about it?' I couldn't help myself but burst out laughing...

That's him!