Up good + early to catch the bus back to Liuyan, to resume our journey east after a disappointing interlude. Liuyan is a right dead + alive hole, + we found ourselves with a couple of hours to kill before our train arrived, so I had a haircut – a pretty smart job she made of it too, an old-fashioned short back and sides – we demolished some soup + dumplings, + played Frisbee out on the station forecourt.
The train was not really all that crowded, but we decided to try to change our ticket for a hard sleeper. So I was disappointed when I enquired at the Chief Conductor’s desk, + was told there weren’t any. The trouble is, one hears “no” so many times when one knows the answer is “yes” that one disbelieves “no” all the time, even when it might be genuine. And sure enough the conductor looked us out about an hour later to say he had 2 hard berths, tho’ in different carriages. We’d found seats by now, but still seized the opportunity – the seats are fine during the day, pretty hellish at night. It was good of the conductor to seek us out – he obviously hadn’t been lying to mess us about.
The sleeping cars were, obviously, very full, + hence messy + a little squalid, but it was a relief to know a good night’s sleep was on its way. There was a travelling sports team from Urumqi with us, + one particularly cute track-suited miss with pig-tails made my day by sitting down with us + saying she wanted to practise her English. We tried, + failed, to discover what sport they were taking part in, but all she could tell us was “wireless” – very odd.
A pretty functional day, back to Liuyan, back on the train.
