Day 11: Notes from the Road

Xian – Shanghai

So I’m on the train from Xian to Shanghai, and my buddy and I found ourselves sharing a tiny room in a so-called “soft sleeper” – a misnomer, to be sure – with three generations of Chinese women. Mom, her mom, and the youngest. They seem nice enough, but it’s still pretty awkward. The ride is roughly 14 hours, and I doubt I’ll sleep more now than on the previous stretch. Not to mention the fact that it’s scorching hot, with the mercury steadily climbing upwards. All in all, this is the longest haul on the trip, and the one I dread the most. By the end of the last ride, we all had serious cabin fever. This is the sort of environment that always leads to massacres in b-movies. The ladies seem as weirded out as us, so it’ll certainly be an interesting 14 hours. See you on the flipside.

(Blogged from my cellphone on the train.)