For our travels, we plan to cover around 2000 miles over ground. This of course still leaves out large portion of the country; the entire west half, including Tibet, the block of land North of Beijing- former Manchuria, and all of the industrialized eastern coast. Given that you could spend 2-4 weeks exploring any one region we plan to visit, our itinerary is already plenty ambitious. The route is shown on the map on this page.
The long durations spent on trains haven't been anywhere near as unwelcome an aspect of the trip as we'd expected. For one, as is always the case with trains, looking at the windows has provided a richer sense for the size of the country and the living conditions of the people. Within the villages and towns each stop has its share of vendor rolling carts of soup, bags of fruit, and assorted local sweets.
The three level bunk sleeping carts are reasonably comfortable, despite the smelly hole in the ground toilets, and serve well as shared 10-20 hour living quarters (or 27 hour when you include the 9 hour delay on our most recent trip) . The time is filled with card/board games, occasional movies (on the trip leaders laptop), a roster or two and plenty of reading-C & I have together finished three books on the country.
We are by far the minority aboard, outside our tour group we've seen only one or two other foreign travelers. On one trip the tourist locals were in festive form for their week long national holiday, and initiated a small hall party with shared rice wine & large beers.
All in all, the time on trains is serving more then simply transporting us from one destination to another.
A view during a reading break from the aisle seat windows.
Bowl of noodles, works as breakfast, lunch or dinner on a train. There are multiple, you don't always know what you'll get, flavor options
Movie time
An attempt to communicate with a map & a small language guide
Results in sharing rice wine shots.
3 comments:
the pictures and narratives you are providing are giving a chance to experience this rich travel experience along with the two of you. keep well and thanks for bringing us these updates!
Just catching up with you guys. The US portion of the trip looked absolutely amazing! I expect the abroad travels will be even better. Glad you are safe and having a great time!
Are rice shots the same as jello shots, Dion? Christy, the grilled calamari looks tasty...yum.
Love,
MOM
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