on the plane..

I'm on the plane right now from Hong Kong to Sydney, the last trip of
a very, very long holiday.. I was counting the other night, and I
realised that in the past 3 months, I've slept in 20 different beds…

1. Home in Sydney
2. Home in HK
3. Dorm room in Beijing
4. Hotel Room at the Westin, Beijing
5. Overnight train from Beijing to Xian
6. Hotel Room in Xian
7. Overnight train from Xian to Beijing
8. Overnight train from Beijing to Taiyuan
9. Hotel Room in Taiyuan
10. Overnight train from Taiyuan to Beijing
11. Overnight flight from Hong Kong to London
12. Hotel Room in Zurich
13. 2nd Hotel Room in Zurich
14. Overnight train from Zurich to Venice
15. Hotel Room in Venice
16. Hotel Room in Florence
17. Hotel Room in Barcelona
18. Hotel Room in Berlin
19. Overnight Flight from London to Hong Kong
20. Overnight Flight from Hong Kong to Sydney (now)

Of all the nights, the worse was easily no. 10, where I wasn't able to
buy a sleeper ticket, and had to settle for the A$10 "Hard Seater"
ticket – essentially China's bottom class seating. It was so bad I
wrote 2 pages in my journal recounting the experience of nearly
suffering a nervous breakdown that I was going to blog but I never got
around to it. There was smoke everywhere, the lights were on all
night, I was squashed with 3 other large mainlanders in very tight
seating, all the while keeping an eye on my luggage, and trying to
pretend I wasn't a wealthy foreigner. I managed to sleep an hour or 2
before the shaking of the train pulling into a station at 4am woke me
up. I got back to my dorm at 6am, slept an hour and went to class.

My trip to Xian was great, although spending New Years countdown on a
hard sleeper bed wasn't very exciting. On no. 7, this drunk
Queenslander who was there with us got left behind in LuoYang while he
was trying to go to the toilet. The train left without him and he was
stuck in freezing temperatures at midnight with no phone, no money, no
jacket, and not even a train ticket or identification. Its lucky he
ever got home alive!

No. 14 was also eventful. I expected European overnight trains to be
far surperior compared to its Chinese counterparts – it was at least
10 times more expensive for a similar distance. Unlike Chinese trains,
we got rooms with real doors. Unfortunately, this only gave us a false
sense of security, since at 4am a thief picked the lock and tried to
steal our wallets. Thankfully my Dad is a very light sleeper and
didn't get any sleep all night, and accidentally scared the thief
away.

Right now (no. 20) is my 3rd night on a plane and I think its worse
than the sleeper trains in China. Cathay's come out with another new
range of Economy Class seating that gives even less leg room, if that
were possible. All 3 times we tried to get Business Class seats but
the economy must be booming since 2 out of 3 times they've been
completely sold out.

ARGHHH

Sometimes things are just so difficult, life is so complicated,
emotions so overwhelming... hopefully things will be improve after i
return, but what if they get worse...

Barcelona..

is more dangerous than I expected.. and they have the weirdest
business hours. shops and museums open from 9 - 1, then close for 2 or
3 hours, and close around 7 or 8. Restaurants serve lunch at 1-4, and
dinner from 8-midnight!!?? Apparently everyone has long afternoon
naps..

But yeah theres a lot of petty thief here so I hope I get to Berlin in
one piece!