Still on transportation.

We flew to Pyongyang. The aircraft was Ilushine or Tuploev, it is of no significance. What mattered was that it rattled uncomfortably and scared my wife into taking a diazepam. We were met by our minders, who surprisingly were called Kim and Lee, took us around in a Toyota minivan. They did not let us out of there sight for the next five days, not until they saw us onboard the train to Beijing. The train was excellent and the restaurant good until we came to China. There it turned excellent. I am most impressed by chinese trains, they are spotlessly clean, the restos ranging from good to excellent and the controllers helpful and polite. The train from Beijing to Urumqi is an example. It is a 40 hours ride and we only got two tickets to a cabin. When we got on the train the controllers took the matter into their hands and moved two passengers, so that we could all share a cabin. Neat and efficient.
On the train from Pyongyang, we shared a wagon with a Korean delegation. When this wagon was connected to the chinese train at the border, it was sealed of, the connecting doors locked and only opened to allow us access to the restaurant. Whether this was done to protect the N-Korean socialist brothers from being contaminated by their chinese fellow travelers I don‘t know.
We come to Urumqi tomorrow and still don‘t know whether we get tickets to Almaty. It is another 40 hours ride, but if we don‘t get the tickets, we will have to find another means of transportation. We have a train booked from Almaty to Tashkent on the 1st of July.

28th June.
The train to Urumqi was very good, as all the chinese trains we have traveled with have been. Spotlessly clean, the cabin comfortable, the restaurant acceptable. Not the best on this journey, but we got food. When we got there, two hours late, I started trying to get tickets to Almaty. It was not easy, there is a kiosk in a hotel lobby on the right side of the train station which sells the tickets. It was closed when I got there and I was told to come back tomorrow. That was the day of departure. I was there at 09.30, along with my son Grim, who came to prevent violent outbursts of temper in case of adversity. There was a queu, a group of kasakh girls, before us. When I got to the window I showed my letter. „Can I have 4 soft sleeper tickets to Almaty please“. The woman spoke no language but chinese, but indicated with sign language that yes I could. But not pay with a credit card & not in foreign currency. The price was almost 4000 juan, which I didn‘t have. The ATM on the corner didn‘t want MY card and the China Postal Savings bank next door did not change money nor give out money on a credit card. I got directed to a Bank of China branch, got the money, got back AND got the tickets.
It is a soviet train. Good cabins, good bedding, linen and towels. But the the sanitary facilities were better on the Chinese side, toilets cleaner and a separate washing cabin with three wash basins. And the tracks on the Kasakh side leave a lot to be desired. The train rattles and shakes more than it did in China.
It was very nice to come to a country where you can make your self understood. I was never a good Russian speaker, Thorunn was better, but I still manage to communicate. And the people are nice. There is however no restaurant wagon. We stopped for five hours at the chinese-kasakh border, two hours on the chinese side, three at the Kasakh border post.