Much the same today. That’s inevitable, + maybe even part of the attraction. The desert span past the window, the same, the same, the same, mountains on the skyline, scrub desert till then, sometimes hazy with dust clouds, other times blue + sharp. Pretty dramatic stuff, only monotony wearing the edge from the drama. Inside the bus, the atmosphere was sleepy, with entertainment being self-provided. A group of youths at the back would have periods of cheering every time we overtook something, the loudest cheers being when it was another bus. But at other times, silence reigned. They were sleeping, I imagine. A whistler would let fly from time to time with a warble, but fortunately he would soon grew as tired of his tune as the rest of us + desist. But even he was considerably better than the man who sat directly across the aisle from us, who every so often, + in his sleep almost, would wail, in the tuneless, atonal, particularly Islamic manner, his latest composition. One would think one could switch off from such a thing, but it was tough. People ate, of course, almost constantly when they weren’t sleeping. And children would wail, especially the spoilt little girl near us. For ourselves, we ate too, + slept, but we also read, me restricting myself to a chapter of Orwell at a time, + played crib.
There were the usual regular stops, men trekking off across the desert to the right of the road, women to the left, babies right outside the bus. One mother had to stand guard over a particularly large pile which her baby daughter deposited right beneath the step of the bus, to ensure nobody stepped in it. Chinese children are remarkably well toilet-trained, performing immediately + without fuss at every stop. Until about 3, their trousers are split up the back to enable them to do so with greater ease, even in cities, where gutters + tree trunks are regularly used.
Each bus has 2 drivers, taking it in shifts along the way. They have their own spacious cab at the front, separated from the rest of us by a partition. Since our 2 were one fat, one thin, we naturally christened them Stan + Ollie. We slightly preferred Ollie, since he had the knack of changing gear a little more smoothly. Our food breaks during the day were pleasant, egg + tomato in the morning, yogurt + honey for the afternoon – our own honey, that is.
When we finally stopped for the night, it was another settlement almost exactly the same as last night’s, only rather busier. The hotel was cleaner this time around, but we had the disadvantage of being assigned, once again, to single sex rooms, this time with locals as room-mates. Our distaste can only indirectly be assigned to racial prejudice on our part, however – it is just that their curiosity about us is so strong that privacy disappears entirely. Within a few minutes of our arrival, I had a young man sitting on my bed. Unfortunately, he spoke a little English, so I had to endure inane questions haltingly flung at me. I’m afraid I soon christened him Mr Creep.
Val had run into Dan, thereby allaying our fears for them. As we had seen no sign of them till now, we had more or less assumed they weren’t coming yet, but we discovered there were 3 more buses we weren’t even aware of. They had stuck their heels in at the bus stn back in Urumqi, until eventually they’d been assigned to the same bus. However, they were off at 5 o’clock in the morning tomorrow, so promptly disappeared to bed.
We escaped from Mr Creep by going off to eat – noodles it was, the West’s staple – + ln our return sat in the open, listening to the radio, for once giving excellent reception. Mr Creep discovered us after a time, however, + the barrage recommenced. His vocabulary was small, so many of the questions were the same as before. I was reasonably polite at first, but he kept on + on, + I was trying to listen to the programme, so ended up barking staccato replies. Eventually, he took the hint, + left.
Val’s experience with her room-mates was almost as bizarre. There were 4 of them sharing the 3 other beds, + their first act, when all were safely inside, was to barricade the door with the table, a lengthy + noisy business. (Tho’ who knows? Perhaps they were wise.) After this, it took Val some time to get to sleep, but she was just drifting off when she was tapped on the shoulder + offered a biscuit – an unwelcome friendly overture.
Encounters with locals to add some interest to the day, or at any rate the evening.
