38 hours

you might be thinking.. "what's it like on a train for 38 hours?" good question. let me tell you. i probably had a "better experience" than most because my friend heike and i bought swanky soft sleeper beds (4 to a room with a door you can close and more) as opposed to a hard sleeper with 6 in an open room and not so spacious... or even a sitting/standing ticket where you just sit and stand for the whole time! so yea. it was a "better experience"

we made it onto our train and met a guy on the bunk next to mine who spoke English but he said his English was "not very good"... all lies. he had great English and studied abroad in Scotland for 2 years! he ate sausages and his alcohol wine stuff the WHOLE trip- it was amazing and he watched "Friends" on his little mp8 thing a lot too.

heike and i pretty much spent our ENTIRE 38 hours: reading.. sleeping.. dancin... eating snacks/ramen/fruit... visiting the squatty potty... playing cards with our new friend...reading some more... playing cards some more... eating a little more... sleeping some more... and playing cards even more. haha

i wasn't sure if the train was going to ever end since we took a direct train from Harbin to Nanchang... but it was the slowest train ever- stopping at every city, town, and station in China... but we made it and i'm so thankful we FINALLY did :)

heike and i looking fresh and ready for our train ride.. haha

our new friend in our train and his harbin sausage

i was hoping that my ramen would look like that...

but looks are very deceiving!

my bottom bunk part of the soft sleeper beds... fancy huh?

somewhere in china :)

this train guard dude was interesting... after my bunk friend left he came in and made himself right at home snoring away! what a lovely thing to wake up to! haha only in china!

and a short video to go with the train guard picture ;)


it's TOO BAD that we didn't get train tickets going back up to Harbin, none of the beds were available and i don't think i could survive sitting/standing for 38 hours... so our expensive default is a nice 4 hour flight :)