Train of Thot

... didn't realized that travel by train in China would be such an Experience... tho' frens who have been to India would tell me that this is nothing...

SHG-HZ:
We were mentally prepared that the standard/quality may not be good... but given my backpacking days' experience, how bad can it be, rite? Anyway, Ben told us that he has reminded the secretary to book the "1st class" cabin seats for us. Our hearts SANK when we made our way to our seats. It's definitely NOT 1st class. *Pengz*
Dreaded the return trip back to Shanghai. :(
The cabin looked filthy, and cramped. Several people were stepping on the seats trying to squeeze their carrier bags into the overhead-storage area.
The old couple beside me were eating their homemade 'snacks' (which don't look v. appetizing to me). It was quite messy.
Fren was sitting across the aisle, with a decently dressed young man sitting opposite... until halfway thru' the ride, he decided to spit onto the floor! *Yucks*
I was thankful i got the old couple beside me. :Pp
The snacks that they were pushing on a cart cabin from cabin looked pretty disgusting, and unhygenic without proper cover over the container. And the locals actually bought those foods! *Ewww*

HZ-SHG:
The journey back from HZ-SHG was not so bad.
We didn't manage to get confirmed seats, so had to stand all the way to shanghai. It's a weird system, thot this would be a potential problem if you have an overloaded train, juz like an overloaded plane or cruise ship, no? Apparently, this overcrowded situation only happens when the army block certain trains for their soldiers, so the normal folks hafta squeeze in the other available slots.

Anyway, we were standing near the captain's station. Throughout the entire journey, this drunkard was making a scene and fighting with someone over a seat. It got to a point when the female captain got exasperated. Some of the nice passengers in our side of the cabin tried to ease the tense situation for the 2hr train ride. They got the captain and her co-worker to share with us some of their interesting encounters of ridiculous passengers. It was a pretty entertaining train ride. :Pp

Then, there was this young chap who got conned and bought a fake train tix, and got insufficient monies to pay the train captain the full fare. And the kind-hearted lady offered to waive his fare, but he promised that he'll pay once he reached destination and borrow monies from his fren. When asked what if the kid was cheating her, she said this was a genuine case as she has seen her fair share of fare-cheating tricks to differentiate.

HKG-GZ:
Kept warning my fren to be mentally prepared that the journey might be quite unpleasant.
Totally Different Experience. The service was 1st class, and the cabin was well kept and seats were spacious and very comfy.
As we headed towards GZ, it's a mish-mesh of countryside farms, and then huge hi-tech looking plants. And in the middle of the farms, you see double-storey villas, probably built from monies sent back home from family members who have made it good in the big chinese cities or overseas.

GZ-HKG:
Maybe the ticket booking system went haywire. The 2 of us got 4 seats to ourselves, while all the other seats were all occupied. OR maybe someone missed the train. We were worried that someone would asked to change seats and join us. Especially worried when we saw these 2 sumo-size dudes assigned to the same row seats where it was occupied by another 2 caucasians. Fren pretended to be asleep and i spread the haversack and magazines on the empty seat beside me. So mean, ya? :P
Served us right... Probably that's why of all pple, we were the only 2 persons singled out @ the immigration to have our bags thoroughly scanned. Thank goodness we didn't buy that many fake bags. :P