Alone on a train aimless in wonder.
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2006
1
60
94
Trip End
Jul 15, 2007
Hangzhou,
China
Sunday, October 15, 2006
When it comes to me buying a train ticket it is always a gamble with me in China. I really cannot do much more then point to the place I want to go and hope for the best. I have ended up with anything from a luxury bed on the train with a flat screen TV in the room, to sharing 2 hard seats among 3 people in a crowded train for 7 hrs (with one of the persons being a little boy who spent most of the day vomiting in a bucket.) The later is the times that start to make me question the logic behind the madness. When I just sit in wonder of how a small town kid from Louisiana ever ended up here in this situation? Here I am "sitting alone on a train in China?" No one ever expects much out of a small town kid. The fact that I did not "knock up" my high school girlfriend and dedicate the rest of my life to a career in welding is a true testament to success and overachieving low expectations. Then on the other hand I have the same thought. Here I am "alone on a train in CHINA!" I can go days without really speaking a word of English. I have almost learned to live seclusion of my mind. I decided the other day that my Ipod acts as an umbilical cord to the only thing I have that is familiar. I sit for hours on end trying to pass the time reading and listing to music. The occasional person will try and have a conversation with me or ask to take a picture of me but it usually turns out to be so painful I try to avoid it. The conversation never really seems to get past "where am I from" and "how do I like China?" When I need something people are friendly and are willing to help, we just usually do not have the language skills in common to make it work.
Nowhere else in the world have I ever experienced the feeling of walking down a completely crowded street during rush hour and yet feel completely alone. I spent the last few days sitting on the train trying to figure out a way of explaining this to everyone in a way that it could be understood. The more I thought about it the more I could not get passed the thought that China is another world and is almost unexplainable. Then I came up with the only way that I might explain it would be by comparing it to if a non-English speaking/reading person made an attempt to travel America. They would not be able to read signs, ask directions, talk to people, order food off a menu, etc. The only difference is that Western cities have more things to offer foreigners that do not require that much communication (parks, bars, restaurants, street cafes...)
I arrived to a Youth Hostel about a week ago in South Central China completely worn out from almost 4 straight days of travel. After I mistakenly had brain/blood soup thinking it was tofu and tomatoes I went on a 4-day self-induced "Saddam Hussein" style hunger strike. I spent 4 straight days only eating snickers and Pepsi. I awoke to a pretty young German girl sitting on the bed next to mine waiting for me to wake so she could ask me if I wanted to have lunch with her. I tried to be casual about her offer and not let it show how excited I was to have someone who spoke English that wanted to hang out. The fact that she was a pretty girl was just an added bonus! Usually the only pretty girls that want to hang out with me are drunk? Come to find out she was in a similar situation and was having the same sort of experiences. So we decided right away that we were going to be "best of friends!" So we spent a week together riding bikes and exploring the countryside. Basically "playing house" and living in a fictitious bubble finding comfort in having someone around. My time with her turned out to be a bit of sunshine in a "gray spell" I was having. So maybe I was not the "thought police" that abducted me after all it might have been a "pretty German girl?" We went our separate ways a little over 2 days ago and I was back to the hard reality of what is traveling in China. I spent almost 30 hours of straight train living to get to where I am today. So here I am today just 2 hours South of Shanghai. I am planning on making a big push up the coast so I can cross into Mongolia in the next 2 weeks.
Life seems to be getting better! Chinese girls are getting prettier the further North that I go. I just checked into a Youth Hostel, which seems to have a lot of other travelers around. The city I am in is very European and seems to have a lot more to offer then the last few places I have been. I just had lunch at "Papa John's" and then I had an Oreo yogurt at the "Diary Queen." It is a nice feeling to have a belly full of familiar food!
"This is the patent age of new inventions
For killing bodies, and for saving souls,
All propagated with the best intentions."
~Byron
Till next time.........to the end of it all and then back again! ~Johnny Nomad
