September 5-6th Xining to Lhasa by train

We were up and out the door trying to find our way to the travel agent's office which we were told was over by some pink building that we were pointed to out the hostel cafe window from the 3rd floor. We ended up getting in a taxi and showing him the address in Chinese and he happily dropped us off in the right area at the wrong building. The security guard from that building then walked us over to the correct building and we got in the elevator and got off on the 5th floor. We looked around and there was no agency of any kind there, looked at our paper and the only Numbers shown were a 5 and an 18, with the rest in CHinese!  We went back down to the guard as the elevator only showed a 15th floor and showed him the paper again.  He escorted us up to the 15th floor where we proceeded to walk through a youth hostel and then up 3 flights where we found our travel agency in a tiny office with three apparent employees.

After picking up our Tibet permits and soft sleeper train tickets, we walked back to our hostel, picking up some food for the train on the way.  After some confusion in checking out, we went to the train station by taxi, but the driver motioned us to carry our bags somewhat further than she could go.  Turned out it was several hundred yards and we arrived out of breath. We had read that we should have a backpack instead of a rollable duffle, but so far this has been the least sensible advice from the internet! Leslie was so tired from carrying her bags that after going through security Xray machines, while I was showing our Tibet passes, Leslie tried to pick something up with the backpack on and lost her balance and plopped down right in front of the security guards!  I heard a noise and turned to see Leslie being helped up by a lady guard.  Reminders of our increased frailty at higher altitudes.

Although there was some confusion, we boarded the train helped by a porter, found our cabin, and met our cabinmates, a Chinese couple. The husband spoke a bit of English, and they were quite pleasant, but of course we would have much preferred having a private cabin. No such thing, the trains are fully packed.

Leslie was intrigued by some of the people with Tibetan tribal costumes and ladies with coral and turquoise jewelry.

We went to the dining car for dinner but the menu was in Chinese and the waiters spoke no English to explain, and there were no pictures of the food!  aggh!   A Chinese Moslem tour guide, from Kashgar, for a group of about 20 Malaysian rescued us and ordered our food for us. He had taken this same group of Malaysian's on a tour of the Silk Road and they asked him to come and be their guide on this trip to Tibet. We got his card so we can contact him when we are ready to do the Silk Road. His group is in their 70s and only one seemed to be having a problem with the altitude.

The train was comfortable and the scenery interesting, we saw many nomadic groups, sheep, yak, horses and some antelopes. No snow on the frozen tundra because it is summer but you could see snow on the mountains. The train was full and we walked and saw the different classes of seats and were very fortunate to have gotten the soft sleeper!

We arrived at Lhasa train station and were ecstatic to see luggage carts...unfortunately we could not take them beyond the train platform and we had to stop and have David go and get the guide to help us with the bags. We found our hotel after some looking around as he was not familiar with it as it is a newer boutique hotel in the old city with only 17 rooms.  We are very happy with it as it is a restored Tibetan house and has lots of character. We are not feeling that well so had dinner here and off to bed early.