One Year Away

Penny

At our hostel in Beijing, we organized our trip to Ulan Bator (UB).  We first tried to get onto the international direct train from Beijing to UB but that train was full.  Instead of waiting 4 days for the next train, we decided to take the substantially longer more tedious overnight bus and then train option.  The organizer did try to persuade us to take the Tuesday train (24 hours) but we did not listen and reserved the 48 hour journey.

It all started off just fine.  We were picked up at the hostel at 2:30pm as promised and driven to the bus station.  Our driver spoke enough English and made sure that we knew exactly what bus to get on and what our seats were.  We arrived at the station 2 hours ahead of the 5:30pm scheduled departure time so we waited in the station. 

When the time arrived to depart, we hopped onto the bus and realized that the overnight bus was a true sleeper bus (i.e. there are no seats only 3 rows of small and narrow bunk beds).  The beds were tiny and not made for anyone over 5’5”.  Also, there was no place to store any carry-ons.  All had to be stored in the luggage compartments (which reeked of fish) or would have to be put somewhere on your tiny bed.  The only storage compartment that was available on board was for your shoes which you had to take off as you entered the bus.  Unfortunately, that meant that the bus also reeked of smelly feet!

Finally, we get settled in and the bus departed the station.  At that moment, the TV screens on the bus start playing a movie in Chinese… 

Leaving Beijing was long as there was tons of traffic.  But when we got outside the city, there were only buses and very large old trucks with very unsecured loads on the road. Driving in China is always an adventure and I think should be considered an extreme sport!

The bus ride did offer us one exceptional experience… As we drove in the darkness about 2 hours north of Beijing, we noticed the Great Wall.  It was beautifully lit up including many of the watch towers.  Cannot wait to go walk the Wall once we are back in China.

At about 9pm, the bus pulled into a rest-stop!  We were one of 7 buses there and I quickly realized that we had the ‘higher’ class sleeper bus with A/C and where smoking was only allowed at the front with the drivers (thank God!).  We got off the bus and headed for the ‘restaurant’ that was there.  What a total dump!  We purchased a 7Up and a bag of really bad chips and sat down to have a quick bite.  It was difficult to eat as many of the restaurant patrons were hocking up phlegm and spitting it on the restaurant floor!

Realizing that there would be few stops on the road, I decided to use the bathroom!  I saw this white brick building with 2 Chinese symbols on either side and with men heading in from the left and women from the right.  As I walked behind the front wall I came in direct sight of 5 women squatting over a trough one beside another.  No doors, no separators!  That is when I turned around and walked back to the restaurant.  I guess that I was ready for the squatting but the total lack of personal privacy and space was too much for me.  As we waited for the bus to start loading passengers again, I realized that I would not be able to last the entire trip without a bathroom break…  I grabbed the toilet paper and all the courage I could muster and headed back to the bathroom pits.  I saw that no one else was there, so I held my breath, did not look down and did what needed to be done (and as quickly as possible)!

Back at the bus, Joe handed me the Purell and gave me a congratulatory kiss.  He
was so proud of me!

Back on the smelly bus, Joe and I read some more and tried to get some sleep.  We finally arrived at the border town of Erenhot at 4:40am (ahead of schedule by 50 minutes).  As we disembarked in the total darkness, everyone was trying to give us a ride and telling us that the boarder was closed today (Sunday, Oct 1).  We knew that we would be picked up by some guy called Zhang so we waited alone.  It was scary for about 2 minutes until Zhang showed up!  We hopped into his van and he started driving.  His English was not great but enough for us to understand.  As we drove, he let us know that it was true that the boarder was closed (for China’s Birthday according to him) and that we would have to spend the night in a hotel in Erenhot.  With no other choice we checked into what looked like a hotel of some sort.  The total cost of our stay was about C$6.  I guess that without a fully functional toilet and no hot water, C$6 is the most you could charge.  The picture to the right is the view to the hotel coutyard; it’s some kind of dump/recycling operation.