Sleeping and squatting

I've had two "firsts" since I've been in China - sleeper trains and squat toilets.

Now I've been on many many overnight train and bus journeys, but all undertaken sitting bolt upright. But the sleeper trains are cheap so we've already taken two 15 hour trips (Beijing to Xian and then Xian to Chengdu). Damn it's fun having your own bed and being able to lie down and actually sleep! Although slightly less amusing when the other two Chinese lads in your compartment throw together a reeking feast of chicken feet and god knows what else. Or when a bug-eyed hobbit-sized freak on the lower bunk stares at your girlfriend for hours on end. And then follows you into the dining car when you decide to get away and play some cards. There he stood right by Sarah's shoulder, staring at her cards for a good 40 minutes while smoking incessantly. The staff tried to shoo him away a number of times, yelling the equivalent of "buy something or piss off, but stop disturbing other customers you bug-eyed nut" but he was implacable. Finally the serving lady physically pushed him out and he got the hint and left... for about ten minutes.

Anyway once he decided to turn in it was much more fun. We sat there with our Chinese stubbies (50 cent 1.5 litre bottles of beer) and played endless games of Gin with our Iraq's Most Wanted cards while a good sized crew of cheerful chinese watched fascinated trying to decipher what game we were playing and happily yelling "Saddam-a!" everytime the ace of spades came up with his mugshot on it.

As for the squat toilets, well I have to say I've shat in the bush on numerous occasions but I've never had the experience of cruising into a cubicle to assume the position over a ceramic hole in the ground. Ther verdict - not as bad as I expected. Until we hit the rest stops on highways in the middle of nowhere where there is literally a couple of holes in the ground with a 2 foot concrete partition between them. Cozy.