First Class just got Smelly Class!

13 May

First Class just got Smelly Class!

Mody took us to the station where he gave us as a parting present a book about Dalian which has some great pics in it. He really is a very kind man but will not be able to read this as, for the time being, he cannot access the blog site.

However we have agreed that his daughter and Ellie our granddaughter will try out being email friends so contact will be kept up I hope.

I remember several failed attempts at writing to various pen friends when I was at school but hopefully being email friends will be easier

Onto the train. We were travelling "soft sleeper" class and had the bottom two bunks of a four bunk compartment. Being used to this all by now we settled in and packed away our suitcases and unpacked the few bits we needed for the trip. Kindles, diaries, playing cards etc.

Imagine the horror of the two Chinese men who were allocated the top two bunks. The first Su spoke a little English and although he would have preferred not to share settled into his space quite amicably and buried himself in his tablet. The second however was a different matter .

He was older and from the way the conversation with the guard was going he was as mad as hell. He shouted and waved his arms about and Su and the guard just shrugged their shoulders. The train is full so he would have to stay put. Not sure if he thought we were terribly happy about all this but it is as it is so we will just get on with it.

UNTIL HE TOOK HIS SHOES OFF!!!!

Which he did before climbing up onto his bunk and promptly going to sleep and snoring loudly.

Well if that was not enough to demolish the Great Wall I don't know what was. But I had a plan

Spray deodorant in his shoes which he had left on the floor helped as did liberal spraying round the compartment.

I resisted to urge to put a peg on his nose to stop him snoring and put it on mine instead!

The trip was uneventful really. We picnicked on our Tesco supplies and watch the scenery. Travelling such long distances in one journey takes you through different weather systems and also very diverse scenery.

We saw the huge ploughed fields with individuals ploughing with wooden ploughs and donkeys or ponies and sowing by hand. Grandpa described this too.

We saw the little graves in the middle of fields which we had seen before and we saw hundreds, and I mean hundreds of unoccupied high rise apartment blocks. Some in the towns and some a distance away but this was an extraordinary sight and for what reason?

Played cards. We are just about even on the score to date so all is peace and harmony.

Actually apart from one "discussion" about what time it was all has been peace and harmony since we left home. If you imagine that trains in Russia run on Moscow time and that we went through 7 times zones from Moscow to China so you are trying to prepare to arrive at local time on a "time machine" which runs in it's own world which bears no relationship to your body clock or the local time and if you imagine we were also trying to work out what time it was at home, for which there was no point really, it is not any wonder that we "discussed" it quite vociferously -------- and we were both wrong!