Me and the 'rents left Yinchuan last Saturday evening on the train. (It's the cheapest and definitely the most interesting way to travel.) It was a 16-hour ride to Xi'An leaving in the evening on Saturday and arriving Sunday morning. It was an experience! This was mom's first time using the squatty-potty (nothing to sit on) and their first time on a real Chinese bed.
We shared a cabin with three other Chinese people. It's a cabin of six bunk beds and one tiny table for everyone to put their food and drinks on. People sit on the bottom bunks as well as the seats in the hall.
At one point I was coming back from the bathroom as couldn't pass because a woman was holding her child over the floor for him to use the bathroom (both kinds). He was using the bathroom right in the middle of the hall in the train! I couldn't believe it! And it's running down the aisle! Totally grossed out. And so were my parents!
The last pic is of the crowd outside the train station in Xi'An. An adventure and it doesn't stop here...
