Chengdu and onwards by train

We did make the train and there were no problems. I had successfully procured the right tickets. The whole process of catching a train here is really quite fascinating. Each train that is going to depart from a station is given it's own space in a waiting room where everyone gathers, kind of like an airport. This space is assigned about 2-3 hours before boarding time. When the train comes into the station, everyone gets up together and goes to the train. For the first train we took, a guard led us through a warren of tunnels. The whole body of us had to stop at one point at the intersection of two tunnels until a few people ran past frantically, presumably to catch a train about to depart. After they had passed, we carried on in procession through the tunnels until we came to our platform. For the train yesterday, our train came in to a platform alongside the waiting room and we were let out like thoroughbreds from a gate to race out onto the platform to find our cars. It really felt like we were indeed racing, even though I am sure the train would never have left with people still streaming toward it across the platform.

We are in Chengdu and it is unbeleivably polluted. It makes New Delhi seem as the Swiss alps... This morning we went to the Panda Research Station. We had been told it wasn't a zoo but I am hard pressed to tell the difference, except they only have two species of animals in cages instead of a wide variety. The kids loved it. When we were about to leave the hotel for the car to take us there, I thought maybe someone had burned toast in the restaurant they have in the lobby, but I quickly realized it was just smog outside. You can literally see it in the air throughout the whole city. It is sort of scary. We are going to see the biggest buddha in the world (this one carved in a rock face). I am not sure how many biggest buddhas there are in the world, but this is the second one to make the claim in as many weeks. Actually we are also going to make a side trip to the largest RECLINING buddha as well....

We are going to Xi'an on Friday so I can spend all of my birthday on a train, just like mother's day. Actually the trains here are as nice as any I have been on, and I have always loved train travel. They run on time and are really clean (at least when they set out -- the asian toilets are scary after 25 hours - why IS the floor wet, I HOPE it is water, you think desperately). People come by collecting garbage and sweeping the floors regularly and the berths are really not bad places to spend time - although they are not exactly comfy - they make better seats than beds.

We have so far had what are called hard sleepers. They come in sets of 6 with a small table near the window. They are open to a narrow corridor which runs down the side of the train car and each set of 6 berths has a 15cm wide table with two fold out chairs beside it in the corridor. We have promised the kids that for our last journey we will get soft sleepers. They are sets of 4 berths with (presumably) cushier mattresses in closed compartments. We will have a compartment to ourselves instead of having to share with one or two others in the hard sleepers. Actually we have only had one other person both times and have pretty much had the run of the section by sheer volume of both numbers and noise.