Strange Bedfellows

As soon as we entered the cabin of our train from Guyiang to Kunming that evening, you could see the dismay on the faces of the youngish Chinese couple who would be sharing it with us.....I also was disappointed as on the last journey we had the cabin to ourselves. Mandy has yet to describe our first journey and I wont spoil things by stating that these train cabins sleep 4, two lower beds and two upper beds. We had booked the lower beds, so this couple had esconced themselves on our seats next to the window, which was fine by us. We knew they would move up to their bunks when it was bed time!!

I said dismay to describe the Chinese couples reaction to see us but maybe it was closer to horror. They kindly helped us stow our bags though, but then went out to the corridor and started having an animated conversation, you know the type married couples have when plans one of them has made are falling apart. They were obviously speaking in Chinese but I think I got the drift.

Her... " You promised me the train would be empty and that we would have a compartment by ourselves and now look what has happened....we have to share it with foriengers!!!"

Him... " It will be fine dear"

Her... " I knew this would happen, I told you we should have flown, but no, you said it would be more romantic on the train....I told you to book the whole compartment, but no , you said it is low season, no-one will be on the train and now look...."

Him... "It will be fine dear"

Her... " And look at them, they look as if they haven't had a proper wash for weeks...and what if they offer me some strange food of theirs, what do I do then....and we will have to sit in the top bunks straight away, I told you to book the lower bunks, but no, you knew better"

Him... " It will........

You know the conversation.

Eventually I made eye contact with them and motioned for them to come back in and sit down on our seats and that seemed to settle them down.

I went and got us a beer each and on return found Mandy holding a blackened object and wearing a cautious expression...the Chinese lady had obviously got in first and offered Mandy some of their wierd food. It turned out to be a roasted yam and was delicious and that broke the ice completely and we were all smiles for awhile.

Until..... I went and got the second beers and we both noticed a look of concern on their faces. They were obviously thinking that things could very well get out of hand here.


Little did they know there was a bottle of red wine screaming to be opened, in a day pack under their seat!!!!

The beckoning of the wine was too much so I went and sat on the dickey seat in the corridor, out of sight of our travelling companions, taking the day pack with me. Opened the red and poured the wine into two green mugs that we had purchased for just such an occasion, handed one into the compartment for Mandy, and we enjoyed the bottle without causing more distress to our Chinese couple.

They went "upstairs" to their bunk early and with little to do we followed suit.

It is a little strange locked in a compartment with complete strangers, lying under a douna fully clothed, trying to get to sleep.

Of course Mandy got the giggles and I just wanted to say "Goodnight Ma , goodnight Pa, goodnight Johnboy"!!!! ( you must remember the Waltons )

Mandy was fiddling with a control knob before we went to sleep thinking it was the heater control. At 5am the next morning we were rudely awakened by a blast of Chinese music.....the knob had been the volume control!!!!!