The Sky Train

There's something romantic about the thought of getting on a long distance train and after two days arriving at the roof of the world. So it wasn't the Orient express, nor the trans Siberian railway, but it was the Chengdu to Lhasa 44 hour snail pacer. But the ladies who take your ticket were still smart and wearing little white gloves, so we can pretend.
So having read about the journey we arrived with snacks galore and plenty of wet wipes and toilet roll and found our cabin.

We had treated ourselves to the soft sleeper (which would have failed even the most basic of trading standards test). There are four bunks per cabin and we had been keeping our fingers crossed for westerners, or friendly Chinese people, either way it would be great if they didn't snore, smell or make that hacking phlegm sound to clear their throats, so prolific in China, but so offensive to western ears. We had 44 hours in a very tight space, fingers were firmly crossed.

Within a few minutes we met our Chinese cabin mates, one a student whose English was pretty impressive and was keen to chat and a man, who spoke no English but seemed friendly.
The first night passed quickly as we only got on at 21.00 so after pleasentries were exchanged we spent time getting settled and then to bed.
The next morning was spent chatting about English culture, Chinese life and the common ground of pro cycling (yep, even the Chinese are crazy for team sky). The older Chinese chap left and we had to change trains (unscheduled, no idea why and we only knew about it as the young chap translated). The new train had two cabins of westerners down the far end, one of which has come to stay in our cabin due to lack of space, all making us feel far less conspicuous!
Around lunch time we stopped at a station and Sam was dispatched onto the platform to pick up some lunch from the hawkers having been unimpressed by the look of the lunch on the train [sidebar: a chap comes around the carriages pushing a trolley of lunch/dinner, but he actually sprints from one end to the other, so in order to catch him you have to be stood at the door of the cabin waiting (no obvious time pattern) and literally jump in the aisle in front of him, in the mode of a mugger or such like].
Sam returned with what she thought was a mystery meat sandwhich and some other fluffy bread products to make a picnic with the fruit we'd already brought and other snacks. It certainly was a mystery meat as half way through, Alistair having been eating the meat and Sam the plain bread around the sides, we noticed it was in fact a tofu sandwich, so the roles were reversed for the remainder :)
Some point that afternoon (the scenery still remarkably uninspiring at this point), we got invaded. First a young Chinese teenager asked if she could come and sit in our cabin, then her friend arrived, then a couple of Chinese chaps, then some babies and small children who seemed to belong to no one and everyone.

Clearly it wasn't because of our good chat, perhaps it was another one of those occasions where being in the close proximity of a westerner is somehow fun. Either way they brought sunflower seeds and yaks yoghurt gifts and we ate and smiled merrily away, a small amount of translation taking place, but just enjoying the social occasion of it.
The next night passed uneventfully, which is good as we passed 5000m overnight and oxygen apparently gets pumped in at that point, but neither of us noticed and we slept through to 07.30.
The views today have been much more spectacular, waking up to see snow on the ground (which then curiously vanished), to be replaced by wide plains, lakes and small mountains in the distance. You can tell we are high as we are a little breathless and woozy, but nothing like the headaches at Shangri-la.

We also thought it would be a good idea to read Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express whilst on the train. Not sure it was a good idea, but here we are sat, drinking our lemon tea (fab dried lemons bought from Carrefour in Chengdu) trying to work out who dunnit!