I set the alarm for 5am as I didn't know when we might hit the Tibetan plateau and climb up over 15000 feet...not today. The landscape is barren, semi desert with obscure mountains on the horizon. I toked a pack of Marlboro in my sleep it seems, I just want to hack up a big nicotine loogie....hmmmm.
Breakfast is, what they give you, which appears to be a julienne of nameless pickled vegetables, dough ball, loogie soup and a slice of spam and if you really push them, coffee flavoured tepid water, and no tea? The phrase "for all the tea in China" wasn't invented on this train.
We did bring our own supplies ( M&M's, skittles, soft drinks, Pringles) you know, Western stuff, but the savvy frequent travellers have their pot noodles, pot teas and vacuum packed God knows what.
Have seen very little civilisation since we left, the odd cluster of concrete igloo type buildings, an occasional flash of road ( the silk route- Beijing to Rome) and endless telegraph pylons.
Our berths are equipped with oxygen outlets and masks, for when the air gets too thin because of altitude or too thick with cigarette smoke, not sure which comes first, hopefully the smoking stops before the oxygen is turned on.
We passed through Lanzhou, Chinas most polluted city, just after Noon and followed the Yellow River ( it's brown) Westward. The landscape remains much the same but as we climb now to 2800m, you can feel the air getting thinner and all your sealed containers start to expand.
I had to do something today I hoped I would never have to, certainly not on a train. In order to better understand this you need a basketball and a plank, place the plank on top of the ball and balance on it, now drop your pants, but not too low so that they touch the plank, left hand maybe needed to hold them up, now squat down as far away from your feet as you can without falling over, right hand maybe needed for balance, what you can't do now, as a guy, is pee, as that would be a personal golden shower, which is the one thing you really want to do after you poop, the other thing you can't do without a third hand now is wipe.
What on earth is wrong with a porcelain throne Asia, you invented the damn material?!
Suffice to say after three flushes and having held it for as long as I could what was evacuated on to the track will derail the next train.
One day down, sun setting, Jackie Chan on the box, tomorrow we crest the 5000m mark and then descend into Lhasa late afternoon.
Bok Choi.
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