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Saturday 2005-10-01 - Golmud, China
Sleeper bus: a new experience
I wake up early because the Chinese woman with her little son on the bed above me are getting up: they leave the train one station before Golmud. It’s still dark outside and the lights aren’t turned on yet but I can’t sleep any more.
At exactly 7:00 we arrive in Golmud where one small bus is waiting to take us (and all our luggage) to our breakfast: there’s no way all 19 of us will fit in there. When our tour companion Marie Josee states we’ll take some taxis for those who don’t fit in, local agent Mrs. How arranges another bus (where did it suddenly come from?); it looks like she’s been trying to save some money — unsuccessfully. The buses take us to a hotel where the breakfast room is opened half an hour early for us (Mrs. How arranged that very well); we find an excellent Chinese breakfast buffet ready for us.
Our hired sleeper bus was already waiting for us when we arrived at our breakfast hotel (no need to go to the bus station). It looks bright and yellow on the outside (we’d been promised a new bus) but inside it’s not all that new. We find three rows of “bed-seats” (I have no idea what else to call them: not seats, not long enough for a bed) and four next to each other in the back, all in two layers above each other, providing a total of 48 places; between the rows there are also mattresses on the floor: normally people sleep here as well. Even though the head rest on one “bed-seat” provides foot room for the one behind it, the length of them is small: people with long legs are going to have trouble sleeping. It’s a good thing we have the whole bus to ourselves (19 of us), so we can park our food, cameras and shoes on the free upper beds.
