Outside the train station.
Oh our trip coincided with their Ching Ming Festival, which is more or less the practice of visiting deceased relatives' graves. So people ALL over China are moving here and there, balik kampung and all, and the amount of people at the train station was just... annoying sial.
They've got trains to virtually anywhere in China. You can go to Moscow and Tibet even, but not from this station though. That's another place in another posting, dude.
Found! A hobo right in the middle of the train station.
What to make of such experience kan? I betcha if I were to travel by flight, I would never experience things like these. There were just hundreds upon hundreds of them moving around, trying to catch their train, with their humongous plastics bags hauled up on their heads, and their big big bags mcm nak balik India.
We arrived early. Like an hour and a half early. Gile semangat these people as if la we're going to be late for the check-in at immigration ek. We saw all these vendors selling collapsible small chairs that can be folded for easy storage, and we remarked saying how convenient that is, but buat pe doh jual kat train station in big quantities like this. To us this kinda seat is only good for fishing and here all of us were puzzled as only foreigners/ tourists can be. Needless to say because of the unusual amount of people around, there were no available seats left to sit on. This ulat saw our big group and tried to cut a deal. Those seats that were normally being contructed in airports and train station, the one we normally head to if we saw it being vacant, yeah they're renting it. The seats. Sekali duduk RMB10. Like wtf wei, those seats are provided by the management of the train station, selamba ko nak charge for renting it??? Lancau!! We chose to stand up, disgusted but at the same time amused by their tenacity. They will do anything for money, short of claiming the government's plastic seats as theirs to rent out that is. Ish preposterous ok. Now we thought back of those small, collapsible chairs that are selling like hot cakes at the train station and all of us went "Ohhhhhhhh." Hahahahaha. Seko-seko blur.
Berdiri pon berdiri la walaupon selama sejam lebih.
And then when the train came and we actually wanted to get through to the so-called security, that's when you really experience China.
In China there is no such thing as lining-up. Or queuing. Or giving way.
In China, you get trampled upon, stampeded with, pushed at, squeezed at. Whichever you choose.
You see a line, but you also see people cutting cue nonchalantly. You see they have no regard even if you're old, or a girl handling 2 big bags while juggling with your ticket stubs, or if you're holding a kid in your arms. They will push and bulldoze their way through the queue and play dumb about it.
We were just really lining up like civilised people that we are, but then the crowd from behind were pushing us, squeezing into any opened up crevices among the throngs of people, just to get through (with their bags no less) and pushing through, like as if the train is gonna leave them behind. And then suddenly there was a mad dash of people trying to get through the ticket counter, from a good discernible line of queue, now it was just a mess of people getting to the bottleneck of a counter. Madness wehh. Tak bertamadun at its worst.
I have experienced this often enough to mengomel and mencarut during this stampede, but it was sucha rush that I forgot all my Mandarin swear words and can only come up with "Kimak babi anak harammm tepi la cibaiiiiii!! Apa tengok2?? Ingat wangi ke?" Yeah something like that la. Pathetic. Like as if they understood me. Gahh.
Right after the ticket counter we were greeted with such wide spaces, space big enough for 3 lanes of roads to be constructed and then we saw the train coaches waiting for us. Like wtf... nape korang buat tiket counter sempit2 cenggitu, when you could design the place in sucha way that there won't have to be people pushing around and increasing unwanted blood pressure liddat... hish marahnya akuuuu hahahah. Seres at this time I was so pissed with the whole unnecessary pushing around and the whole 3rd world mentality. Train tu lambat lagi nak berlepas, what's the effing rush la these ppl. Seres I was boiling and cursing inside wehhhhh grrrrr...
Yeah needless to state here, I was getting pretty moody by now. Rasa menyesal pon ada. Rasa nak patah balik pon ada.
And then we went inside the coach and.. and .. and ...
Well it wasn't so bad la.
Really it wasn't.
Or maybe we were expecting it to be like the one back in Malaysia. Silap di situ.
There are 3 levels of bunk beds. The lowest is the most expensive by a few RMBs and the top bunk is the cheapest, by a few RMBs also. Senang cakap = takde maknenyer! (But got pillow and selimut which I secretly liked haha)
You don't see me.
Now you do! Slightly happy. Slightly.
This coach is really not bad at all. If you wanna disregard the perpetual musty, garlic-y smell of their people, it's not half bad lah. The smell will go away trust me (or is it because we've gotten used to it after 15 mins of sharing the same coach).
The bunk bed looked clean, the pillow and blanket are cosy, there are space to put ur many luggages in, and except for the staring we get from them, the altogether experience is not too shabby, to say the least.
But I did have some thoughts while we were in the train, trying to get used to the crampness, the smell (gosh), the staring (seriously la why so jakun oneeeee), the people constantly moving up and about to get to the other coaches. Happy and grateful thoughts while I was trying to psyche myself up like,
"Thank God I'm not in India"
"Well at least we're far away from the toilet"
Yeah I can only muster up 2 thoughts hu hu.
I'm so glad this 13-hour ride is done at night, where we can sleep the journey away and only to wake up arriving in Shanghai. If I was told to do this again during the day, aku mati keras or I get real claustrophobic and would develop the urge to jump off the train. Fo' sheezy weh.
I'm still half impressed.
Aerial view hahahha. Amboih you guys are so happy eh. Aku kat top bunk dah pening2 lalat ni.
My mom was sucha trooper. Lepak jer joining in with the guys. Aku pukul 930pm dah pengsan on the top bunk, trying to fight the dizziness and the depression :(
*pengsan mode*
Oh but I did wake up around 1230am, and went over to my mom's bunk bed and disturbing her. Eeee like so masa kecik2 dulu, bangun malam2 carik mak hahahahha.
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