niniane

10/25 – Tashkorgan to Kashgar

Anyway, before I went to sleep yesterday, I tried out milk beer which was...interesting. The first sip was revolting (as I got mostly the yeast mat, ugh!) But after that it was...okay. It was slightly alcoholic, buttery, yougurty, very sweet stuff. I may have to try a recipe and see if I can market it as it's a lot better than kambucha and can extol many of the same properties. Huh.

Got on the taxi bright and early and made it to the train station with time to spare. We went through security five times to get in. (I mean, I guess it's not really all that surprising that somewhere where you have to go through security twice to get into a grocery store also requires five security checks for a train, but it did feel a bit silly, especially after tickets had been checked against passports for the third time, luggage x-rayed for a third time, being patted down a third time, etc.)

Got to the train station rather early and got in line for the train to Dunhuang (which was delayed...yargh, but luckily only by about a half hour). We ran into a British couple that had been traveling for about a month and a half now (and will be traveling for a year in total) who we chatted with for a bit.

10/8 – Lanzhou

We arrived in Lanzhou almost perfectly on time (Chinese trains are awesome) and found a cab driver somehow. (I was amazed at how literally every cab had someone booked. How does this happen?) As we drove over to the hotel, he was quite fascinated in where we were from, what we were doing (in Mandarin, of course), etc. I think this was in large part as Lanzhou isn't exactly a tourist mecca, so it was exceedingly peculiar for a bunch of white people to be there. (Especially, I think, a white woman who speaks any Chinese at all – although to be fair, I can more easily find white people who speak Chinese than white people who don't speak Chinese off in the hinterlands. The farther out you go in China, the more likely it is that foreign tourists speak at least *some* Mandarin as it becomes increasingly necessary.)

Anyway, the whole plan was to spend one jet lagged day in Beijing then return later. So today was off to Xi'An! Anyway, we got to Beijing West to pick up our tickets to Xi'An. Unfortunately the lady at the ticket counter couldn't find our tickets and spoke no English. I freaked out a bit, as previously all I'd needed to do to claim my tickets was to present our passports and pick up tickets...so it seemed weird that she was having so much trouble. She told me to follow her, so I did to a fluent English speaking desk worker...who had no problem whatsoever in locating our tickets without even taking to us. So...?

Anyway, with that minor crisis solved, we got loaded onto the bullet train. (Always a destination in and of itself!)