We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we accepted the ridiculously cheap 8 hour hard seat from Pingyao to Xi'ian. Every train I'd taken in my limited experience turned out to be a comfortable way to travel. Though the choice to opt for a sleeper wasn't available at any price but advertised for 5x the hard seats we bought, I still felt immediately, as though we made a bad choice. Our tickets actually originated from Tiayuan, the stop before Pingyao, but they were the only tickets for grabs. Our seats were half occupied by a guy expecting us to be no shows and it took a few uneasy minutes to settle the situation and get our seating frustrations figured out. Meanwhile, the eyes were on us, nobody could believe us westerners would be silly enough to take this train car or just that we really screwed up our order. But we were riding the rails now, next stop Xi'ian!! Well, not next stop, or the next one, or...... It was a rough ride on some literally hard benches!! No headrests, the seats in front were facing us so no privacy, and our bags were just stuffed by our legs because the upper shelf was packed with rice bags. It was a trip!! We bounced along stoping and starting, cruising speed of 40km/h on the straight aways. And did I mention it was through the night!! No sleep was happening for these two.
Aside from the standard uncomfort and the relentless banging and spine jarring shaking, every hour or so there would be a live infomercial walking down the isle selling games of all kinds, leather belts and clothing and even tooth brushes with a live demonstration included. It was a bizzare sight to see but since I couldn't sleep anyway it was a bit amusing.
I thought this trolley ride from the depths of despair was a punishment for some negative karma act i'd forgotten in all the excitement, and then we stopped!! Xi'ian had arrived!! And the rain was thunderous!! We exited the station peering around for our hostel bus forgetting the instructions they gave us for meeting up with them. The effort was a loss, and we were tired of waiting in the puddles. Our only option was to drop a few coins on a bus into town. The hostel wasn't far and i could feel my eyelids dropping by the second. Check in was a blur and we hit the sack immediately to forget the last 8 hours of insomniatic torture.
Once returned to human and able to rise, we went wandering for the essentials, Bank, Beer and Food. We stumbled across a good looking picture menu that had just what we needed, point-at-able food! Whatever it was, Delicious and spicy are how i'd describe it, other than seriously overdue. We ate drank and slept the rest of the day away chatting with fellow travelers picking up pointers for our journey and sharing some ideas for theirs. Foosball, laughs and cheers all around.... it's Time2giver
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All Walled In - The Ancient City of Pingyao
https://steemit.com/photography/@time2giver/all-walled-in-the-ancient-city-of-pingyao
!!Two Cabs, a Bus, a Train and a Rickshaw!! The road to Pingyao.
https://steemit.com/travel/@time2giver/two-cabs-a-bus-a-train-and-a-rickshaw-the-road-to-pingyao