D4 - Friday 12-5-06 Xian > Turpan

I slept well in the train last night. At around 5.00am, I saw snow on the ground when I looked outside of the train window. I believed our train had just passed a high mountain range in one of the northen Xinjiang region. During the day, the train passed the Gobi dessert.

We had Kung Sifu instant noodle for breakfast and lunch using boiling water from a tap at the end of train wagon. For dinner , we bought a prepacked set meal (Rmb10) ie rice, pickled vegetable & fried eggs from a train worker pushing a food trolley walking up and down in our wagon.

We spent the rest of day reading our tourist brochures on Xinjiang and sitting near a side table looking at the outside scenery. An old Chinses couple occupying the opposite bed was very chatty and I enjoyed my conversation with them.

" My first experience taking a 3 days 2 nights train ride from Xian to Turpan ! A great experience ! Train station jam packed with passengers rushing & jostling for seats, sleeping on the upper most sleeper bed with head close to the ceiling , breakfast and lunch eating Kung Sifu instant beef noodles, chatting with Chinese friends from next door, looking out of the train windows to admire the country side scenery - not a single dull moment and I enjoyed the ride very much ! "