Joy and Damien
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Chongqing,
Chongqing,
China
Monday, July 21, 2008
Xi'an was the last time anything went smoothly. We couldn't catch a direct train from Chengdu to Kunming without waiting three days. Instead, we booked a train to Chongqing where we could catch a Kunming bound train.
As soon as we sat down in the waiting room at Chengdu Station, a college sophomore ran over and asked if she could chat with us. She's an English major but doesn't get many chances to talk with native English speakers. She talked about her dream of becoming an English teacher in China, or maybe even a Chinese teacher in the US. Her parents (who didn't take their eyes off the three of us the whole time) are very "traditional" however, and they are worried that teaching wouldn't make enough money. She wants to be able to pay her parents back for all the sacrifices they made for her education, but also talked about wanting freedom for herself and her desire for work that has greater meaning. The girl told us her English name was Joy, and I don't think it could have been more fitting to her personality. She said her teacher gave her that name because when she had no gift to give him like the other students she instead went to his office and sang him a song.
We talked with Joy and watched our train get later and later - 15 minutes late, 30 minutes, 45 mins, indefinitely... just like Amtrak on a bad day. Eventually, the loudspeaker announced that the train may or may not come and people could refund their tickets. Joy said we had better get to the bus station if we wanted to make our connecting train from Chongqing to Kunming.
Jen and I rushed off, deciding not to bother getting the refund ($15 US). We had a train to catch in 6 hours in a city at least 4 hours away. We did a mad rush out of the station trying to find the bus. "Helpful" workers always told us, "over that way" when we asked directions. Eventually, Jen gave in to a tout who rushed us 7 blocks away through the heat and humidity to a Chongqing-bound bus for an extortionate price. When we got to the bus, there were no seats but somehow they cleared a spot for us. I was not happy, but it felt better once the bus got moving. The Sichuan countryside was beautiful.
We got into Chongqing with 90 minutes to spare when the bus pulled into a gas station. I saw on the map that the train station wasn't far, so we bailed out and caught a cab to the station. We got our train, and there ended the easy part of this trip.
We had booked hard sleeper tickets, which was always how I'd travelled in China. This car though was a HARD sleeper. There was no AC, it was an older car, and everyone spoke in dialect or barely understandable Mandarin. A cop came by to warn us about thieves on the train. Then, then we met Damien.
Damien is not the child's real name, but I swear the 666 was tattooed on his forehead. I tried to take a photo, but only a black spot would show where Damien would have been. The child whined and clung to his mother all evening, occasionally hitting her or his Dad. Around 1AM the whole car woke up to Damien screaming. "Mama, mamaaaaa.... I want..." For three hours - from 1AM to 4AM - the little antichrist whined and screamed. He would not sleep. He wanted candy. He wanted a different bunk. He wanted games. He wanted Mama. She'd occasionally give him a weak, "Oh please be a little quieter" when people gave dirty looks. Meanwhile, the train moved in fits and stops crawling through the countryside stopping at every remote village. I had a beer and some sleeping medicine and eventually passed out. Jen was up till 4am listening to the screams. We woke up to Damien too. This was no simple Little Emperor; this was the dark prince.
We arrived in Kunming worn out, but we arrived and promptly checked in to a nice hotel.
