here comes another story straight from my personal journal...enjoy!!!
Sa 17 Dec 05 20:15:48
so the wife and i are, and have been on the train from guilin, china to xi'an china for the past 24 hours. neither of us know exactly when the train is supposed to arrive in xi'an or how much farther xi'an is or even where the hell we are at any given moment. so we were seated on the small window seats eating our halal noodles (an experience in itself) off the even smaller table when the first english message in 24 hours came blaring through the loudspeakers with a vociferous "Welcome to Xi'an!!!". as the message continued into its advertisement for the "railway hotel of xi'an", the train attendant servicing our car began rolling up the aisle carpet and mopping the floor. naturally, joronda and i began readying our travel gear for arrival. backpacks were removed from their overhead storage compartments and quickly secured...jackets, gloves, scarves, face mask, and winter hats with the ear flaps were all on and ready to protect us from the impending xi'an cold. we smiled at each other, pleased at our diligence and preparedness.
emerging from our berth like toasty "a christmas story" bundles of warmth we noticed that no one else had moved. a group of ladies continued to snack on sunflower seeds and slurp down bowls of noodles from their window seat. four shoeless men reclining in an adjoining berth slapped down various cards in an uninterrupted game...and our berthmate, after watching us pack furiously, calmly threw away his consumed bowl of noodles, wriggled his toes in his stolen hotel slippers, took off his glasses and slipped back into bed for some less than frantic shut-eye.
"What the HELL is going on?!?" i thought as i looked at 12 pairs of chinese eyes staring at me. didn't you guys hear the same 'welcome to xi'an' announcement that i so clearly heard 5 minutes ago? do you see all the city lights around us? can't you tell that the train is slowing down and we're about to pull into the xi'an station in less than 2 minutes?
"No!!! No we're not...you stupid ass american tourists!" this isn't xi'an, and as a matter of fact we are no where near xi'an. we still have 2 more hours to go before lights out and then, maybe in their dreams, will people even begin thinking about xi'an. so pocket your gloves, hang up your winter jacket, and take off that DAMN ninja mask...DUMMY!!!
i don't speak mandarin, but i'm sure that's what they said.
peep the picture for your amusement...
a sheepish salaam,
mateo
p.s. we ended up arriving in xi'an at 2200 hours...who knew?
2 comments:
OMG. Nice face mask. It's a warm, grey-skied 52 degrees in Chehalis. I'm thinking about you guys in China while I slip into food comas from the amazing quantity of holiday snacks I've been eating. I've told at LEAST 3 people about Joronda's headwrap/hat/2 scarf combo.
Lots of Love, and Good Luck Traveling!!!!!
WOW! These are some truly amazing stories guys! Although I was supposed to be working, I couldn't seem to pry myself away from this site! I was definitely one of the ones that thought you two were nuts when I first heard about this trip....frankly, I still think you two are nuts, but the experience does seem sort of cool. I feel enlightened and can't help but think how small my world is now. Keep truckin' guys. I miss you and wish you all the best! Love Gina
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