The next morning, we caught an early morning buffet before running off to the train station. There were older people playing badminton with children along the way.Each town we have visited has its own feel to it. Lanzhou felt laid back and more comfortable than some of the other cities we visited on this trip.
We boarded the train with no idea what was in store. Early on, we noticed that there seemed to be lots of children in this train car. In fact there were probably 6 children to every adult on it.Securing train tickets last minute is difficult and necessary in many of the places we are travelling. These tickets ended up being in the same car, but in seperate bunks. I traded my seat with a lady so she could be with her daughter, and ended up with an older couple below me and children all around. I was in the middle bunk on the left out of 3 bunks on either side bringing the total to 6 instead of the usual 4 that were on previous trains.
I stared out the window, sitting in the narrow train aisle for a while, watching the mountains push off into the distance and turn to flat planes. After a while, I climbed up to my middle bunk. Just as my head touched the pillow a stream of children came racing into the compartment. Some had tried to speak to me earlier, but I smiled and explained that I didn't understand Chinese. Now all these kids were back, led by their solution; a little bespectacled girl with braces. She said hello as ten or twenty faces giggled. She asked if she could get a picture with me. I smiled and agreed. I climbed down and sat on the lower bunk with an older lady already sitting there and the little girl's aunt squeezed in with children in the aisle. The little girl grabbed my arm and posed with a huge smile much to the glee of the army of children. A few cameras were passed around for photos including mine. She said my smell was nice, but I think she meant smile...long train rides don't do much good for smells.
I laughed so hard while the kids were taking photos. I pointed to "I don't understand" in the Chinese phrasebook to the girl's aunt. The kids were all excited (I think in general), and the little heartbreaked said "I love you." Hahahaha! Limited english is so cute.I figured there could be no more cuteness to top that, so I went to back to bed and managed to stay there for a good 8 hours or so.
I was wrong. I awoke and the kids had mobbed my friends. There was an intense game of cards at one aisle table with Andy and Mike, a happy kid we named Sgt. Bellpepper and many other smiling faces with random missing teeth. There was music playing through the train speakers and Omar was teaching kids math and learning Chinese. The aisle was packed with nervous kid energy. It was too much cuteness for so small a space. My English speaking pal it turns out loved everyone else too, and though I was a little devastated, I managed to pull myself together and sit at on of the aisle tables. The party train slipped past flat, dry land with mountains in the distance. Every so often, a vendor squeezed down the packed aisle hawking drinks, books and food, as tiny tots squirmed past through spaces that did not exist. The staff on the train was actually smiling (except the dining car, they were not in service as usual).I stared out the window a bit, then pulled out my phrase book and spoke to a high school boy named Li Zhou.
He was very quiet, but helped me with some pronounciation. Through him and Mike I learned that the kids were returning from a field trip to Beijing back to Urumqi, where they lived. Li zhou liked Chinese rock music, had a twin brother and sister, and gave us the name of an ice cream parlor in Urumqi. The kids were very sweet and bursting with energy, excitement and kindness.I heard Andy and Omar start some music down the aisle and joined them. We soon had kids giggling and clapping around us. Two tiny, shy, cat like girls kept running up and then running away. They were trouble. Andy pulled out a Chinese wind instrument and we sang with that for a while. At one point, a boy with broken glasses jumped in and shared his talents on Andy's Chinese instrument. He was very good and had a few little girls chasing after him after his performance. It was so much fun singing and playing with these kids.
The train stopped at a number of stations along the way, where we bought instant noodles, tofu and one time ice cream which we shared with Li Zhou. After the music, the little cats became bold and approached me with evil little smiles. They struck terror in my heart with swiping claws and evil giggles. To hide my fear, I started drawing one of them. That made them curious. Four tiny eyes watched me. Finally, I added a super cool handlebar mustache (always a crowd pleaser) and some chin hair, but the little cats didn't approve. This is always a challenge when travelling. It is easy to offend one from another culture, unintentionally, through no fault of your own, with only the best of intentions through what seems to oneself to be a good gesture of friendship.
They made little frowns and threatened me with some harshly shouted Chinese. Petrified, I handed them the pen and notebook, begging for mercy (sure, I towered over them even sitting down, but these things were ferocious!).
They scurried down the hall, then returned after a bit having added some flying hair and funny teeth to the drawing. I guess once the rage subsided, they decided to draw some pretty birds, fish and a sun on the following page, before the madness took hold again and they came charging back at me, told me what was what and handed me their evil creations.
Andy came to my rescue by becoming the human chomping machine, with long arms as chompers. He sent them running back down the hall, only to return, then flee many times after.Just to note, Sgt. Bellpepper, (the gentlemen in the green wahaha shirt) is a fascinating card player. He is a thing of wonder to behold when he plays cards, climbs bunks or squirms away from little girls who try to make him sing. Eventually the savage little beasts turned to slumber and so did we.
