I devised the title for this piece at the start of the year and only got around to writing it much later on. Looking back, the belief that thirty-two hours on a train is almost unimaginably long is somewhat amusing. Considering also that the initial journey from Beijing to Ürümqi was undertaken in the most comfortable bracket of ticket class (second only to the luxurious ‘soft’ sleepers), I really had no idea what was to come.

Back to this journey. There were 11 of us making the jump to Xinjiang – enough to almost fill two bays of the sleeper carriage. Bays were made up of six beds stacked three high, lying head-to-foot across the width of the train with an aisle along one window. Volunteers entirely occupied one bay to ourselves, in which we congregated during the day. My humungous suitcase doubled as a table in the middle of the bay – rather useful for games of cards.

Being new to the concept of Sino-cross-country train travel, none of us had particularly prepared any food for the journey, but thankfully it was available three times a day for the slightly expensive rate of 20-30¥ per meal. The cheaper option was 6¥ beef cup noodle, which could be cooked using the free boiling water taps at the end of each carriage. Nauseating, but it generally did the job. I also remember seeing Uighur naan bread for the first time, which Calum and Liesbeth bought from a station vendor in Hami. Since the trains generally stopped for upwards of 10 minutes at each station, station sellers could be fairly lucrative. This naan was nothing like the fresh stuff and twice as expensive, but my god it improved the cup noodles.

Some people chose to seclude themselves as soon as the train left Beijing, but most of us banded together to watch films and amuse ourselves with card games. Morley introduced us to a particularly fun game called Werewolf, and when it got dark we tried to turn our bay into a makeshift cinema with… limited success. Other passengers kept peering around the curtain (which was a strung-up Project Trust hoodie), and those in the top bunks couldn’t hear the film. Trying to synchronise two bluetooth speakers was also a waste of time (don’t bother).

Sleep was surprisingly possible (and enjoyable), but that may have had something to do with the accidental all-nighter at the hostel the previous day. There was a strangely relaxing sensation to being on a train, and despite technically crossing two time zones, stepping off the train into the hazy (read: polluted) Ürümqi evening air was thankfully devoid of jetlag or popping ears, unlike most long-distance flights.

We were definitely thrown in at the deep end with this train. I’m just thankful Mike didn’t decide to throw us in slightly deeper by getting us seat (or even standing) tickets. Even by the end of the year, our first journey remained one of my most memorable.

—TJC

Featured image: Two extremely normal Essex boys enjoying the sleeper berth.