Welcome to the highest railway lines in the world - the train journey to Lhasa, Tibet. The Swiss said it couldn't be done but, unveiled in October last year, the tracks cross a pass of over 5,000m, travel over permafrost and include over 120km of bridges. The carriages also have pressurised cabins and oxygen masks. We saw one of our fellow passengers being hooked up to an oxygen line - weird. The views out the window are of some of the remotest land in the world.. (obligatory Chinese truck in the picture though!)
There are several different ways to ride this train. Being the budget travellers we are (and having been given little choice by the fact that scalpers buy up all of the sleeper tickets for the black market) we travelled hard seat from Chengdu for a nonstop 3360km over 45 bum-numbing hours. The views out the window are the same, however it is probably fair to say that the sleeper ticket holders have a better chance of getting some sleep.
We tried to learn from others travelling in our carriage who seemed to have no trouble:
But in the end I tried some innovation in my efforts to pretend 'hard seat' was a sleeper car. To his disgust Shaun was unable to fit under the seat. 
We are now in Lhasa wheezing our way up single flights of stairs ..
M
2 comments:
I love it, I love it, I love it....those amazing pictures !!!! My heart goes out to both of you, trying to sleep and no matter how hard you try you can NEVER get comfortable. Sometimes it pays to be small. No wonder, looking at the scenery etc others say that it is a trip like no other in the world. JMB
I would have liked to see Kirby at least TRY to sleep under the seat. He could have fitted with a bit of a push. Barry.
Post a Comment