EASTBOUND: Bogie Woogie - final destination Beijing

Upgraded to a soft sleeper!!! Big and sift beds for the final part of the journey...and scored Chocolate Pies, sweet, but favourite breakfast on the Trans-Siberian. Could this day be any better?! Maybe.... the train carriage is Chinese, as are its (this time male) attendants....meaning, a lot of dirty sounds and spitting, despite the "no spitting" sign. Also, the guys try to keep bathroom 1 out of 2 for themselves ( "is broken...") This worked out well though, after buying from their secret beer stash, got private access to their bathroom, which was much cleaner than the other one after the whining French, who are sharing our carriage once again, had used it (for half an hour each...)

The Chinese dining car was not a success either, though good practice for bargaining. Admitted, the dishes were better than the ones in the Russian carriage but 90 dollars seemed a bit overpriced. After tough negotiations, the price came down to 12. Never managed to get approval for playing cards though....bummer.

This time two days and one night on the train and....a border crossing. Everyone is still a bit traumatized from the last one and it gets very quiet when we approach the border late in the afternoon. You sort of want to get drunk, but knowing the toilets will be closed for 7 hours, this does not seem a good idea. It may have been the lower outside temperature, but the whole immigration and customs process seems much smoother and faster than last time. The French do not seem to think so, they must "faire un pipi" and are shouting at the train attendants, trying to make them open the bathroom. They shout back in Chinese, but when one of the French guys gets violent, they hesitantly open one of the bathrooms...the other one is still "broken"...

Made it to China!!

Then it is time for the long expected "bogie woogie"....the boogies of each carriage must be replaced by smaller once due to the difference size of the tracks. It is fun to watch: the train gets lifted, tiny Chinese railworkers with bamboo hats unscrew the bogies, move them away and new ones appearing from out of nowhere are put on. After 2 hours, a little after midnight, we are heading for Beijing! Expected arrival time 2 pm Beijing time (finally may forget about Moscow time, pfew)!

First gonna faire une pipi now....