Dear Jon,

I think you make a good point, in a sense. It would seem that $5 is not a lot for a ride. The problem is that the story gets lost in translation. I know it is hard for Americans and other Westerners to imagine, but the cost of living in developing countries like India and China truly are staggeringly low. A loaf of bread is under $1, a bottle of Coke is 50 cents, and a full meal in a restaurant costs less than $5. Now take into account that an official actual taxi would have cost $1.

It is not the actual $5 that I took offense to. I know that I had a choice to take the taxi instead, and have a standard charge when the meter was turned on. But that was the point. I figured that I would help out a poor gentleman by going with him instead. When charged me 5 times what it would have cost to take a safer and cleaner mode of transportation, I was a bit disappointed.

I hope that helps explain what I was trying to say. Thanks for bringing up a good point.

I checked out those websites and I really liked the video that shows the Terracotta Warriors, I felt like I was right there! Over April vacation my family and I went to Disnry’s Epcot in Florida. In Epcot they have World Showcase, where it is like your traveling all over the World. They have a mini Germany, Japan, China, France, and more countrys but each one seened exacly like the real country. While visiting ‘China’ we went in a Chinsese temple/museum and they had some of the Terracotta Warriors there!! It was pretty cool to see something a few thousand years old and I really liked how different each Warrior was different. Too bad they did’nt have fake Terracotta Warriors at the gift shop like they did in the acual China! Anyway what was it like to stay in the ‘Soft Sleeper’ with people that don’t even speak your language? How do you think thay thought of you?

-Katrina

I’ll have to check out the Disney place. It sounds fun. I would be interested in comparing the spots to the “real thing” now that I’ve been here.

As for sleeping in on a train with strangers, I’ve had no problems in India, China, or Europe. Sometimes there are people who speak English, and sometimes there aren’t. Last night, I just traveled by “hard sleeper” (which isn’t much harder than a “soft sleeper”, and softer than the “hard sleeper” in India) and talked to two Chinese people. One was a young man who liked basketball and watches the NBA and the other was a young middle-aged woman who wanted to practice her English. They were both very nice. When we had trouble understanding each other’s pronunciation, the man would take out his cell phone and use a program to translate.

In the long run, traveling by sleeper train is not only a great way to “meet the locals”, but it accomplishes two things at once – sleeping and traveling! I much prefer train travel over anything else, except for maybe a cruise ship.

Thanks for checking in.