2019-09-01 Vanity Fair UK

FINE CHINA

Left, from top: a Tibetan man

waits for yak curry in a local

restaurant on the outskirts of

Lhasa; Chinese tourists rest at

the entrance to the Forbidden

City, Beijing; a young monk

chats on his smartphone at

the Sera Monastery, Lhasa

and place came into focus. Armies of leaf-

less trees fled by, the terrain hardened,

the temperatures increased, mountains

flattened to desert, the features of blonde

and blue-eyed passengers sharpened and

darkened, softly and scarcely noticeable,

until one morning I woke to see the Great

Wall worming its way across the ridges.

From Beijing, a single train snaked south

to the city of Nanning and a second one

nudged us over the border to Hanoi where

we took the overnight Reunification Ex-

press to Saigon—another highlight of the

Night trains indulge a special kind of

VOYEURISM: fathers drying dishes

and mothers unwinding their hair

DOS AND DON’TS

Do... your homework. Mobile

dormitories aren’t for everyone.

Find out about premium services

that cover the same route.

Don’t... assume there will be a

dining car on board. Pack dried

fruit, nuts, biscuits, sachets of hot

chocolate and instant noodles.

Do... carry small denominations of

foreign currency—vendors won’t take

kindly to 500 baht notes.

Don’t... be insular. Foreign tourists

often reserve all the berths in a

compartment for fear of who might

come along—this is the fastest way

to make enemies and ensure your

journey is downright dull.

Don’t... leave it to the last minute.

Even the most unusual rail routes

will be popular at certain times so

book your tickets far in advance.

Do... dress cleverly. Train

temperatures can vary from

stiflingly hot to toe-numbingly cold,

so layer your clothing and keep a

pair of thick socks to hand.

Do... fully charge all devices before

boarding. Most modern trains have

sockets fitted in the compartments

but a lot of old trains don’t—you

don’t want to arrive with no hotel

phone numbers, bookings or maps.

Don’t... be a nuisance. Look around

and gauge the tone—if everyone is

chatting, sharing food and watching

movies then follow suit. Be

respectful if you’re in a quiet

carriage, especially with children.

Do... prepare for overnight journeys.

Even the deepest sleepers can

struggle to snooze on raucous

trains. Pack an eye mask, ear plugs

and a silk sleeping bag liner—and

book an upper sleeper berth if

possible as courtesy dictates that

lower berths must be stowed away

in the mornings.

Don’t... forget to pack

entertainment. It’s easy to while

away the hours gazing from the

window with a cup of tea and a

KitKat, but long-distance journeys

can often be delayed or involve

tedious periods waiting for border

crossings. Use the time to read,

play a few hands of rummy or write

a postcard—remember them?

trip. Night trains indulge a special kind of

voyeurism, and I sat in the darkness as

my companions slept, spying on families

winding down for the night: fathers dry-

ing dishes and mothers unwinding their

hair. Soon the curtains were drawn, the

lamps blown out, and nothing but black-

ness met my gaze. As the city fell away,

I crawled into my berth, mourning the

fleeting gratification of train travel.

As much as I thrived on the action out-

side, the essence of train travel lay with-

in their walls. For me, trains are rolling

libraries of information, the passengers

their books. Reach out to one or anoth-

er and the stories tell themselves. After

departing Winnipeg on the Canadian, I

came across Karen, a lecturer who was

taking the train to her daughter’s wed-

ding in Nice. Helping herself to my crisps

and ordering a bottle of wine, Karen ex-

plained that she had vowed on her 50th

birthday never to fly again. It made her

angry. So here she was, en route to Toron-

to from where she would board the Maple

Leaf to New York, then the Queen Mary 2

to Southampton. From there, she would

catch a South Western train to London

to board the Eurostar to Paris, followed

by a TGV to Nice. “I told ‘em, see you at

the altar!”

Then there was Gerry, a retired teach-

er from Lanzhou, who divulged the

impact of the Cultural Revolution on

his family. As we rattled along ravaged

apple orchards dotted with men in hard

hats, he explained how the government

was currently bulldozing working-class

homes in an attempt to develop vanity

SEPTEMBER 2019 VANITY FAIR EN ROUTE

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