Top 5 - Transportation Experiences

This is a tough one. There have been so many that I'm not sure I can rank them.

 

1. Overnight train from Xi'an to Beijing - this remains one of my most memorable experiences so far. The unavailability of tickets meant that I had to take a hard seat if I wanted to get back to Beijing. It was 12 hours and overnight. Across from me was a woman breastfeeding her child, 100 people filled the car that was meant for 60. Dudes had to stand all night, while others were all over the corridor between the rows of seats. For the entire time I sat there and discussed in very limited English about various things. I even passed my Canadian money around the car...and it came back. Most importantly, it was on this trip that I developed a taste for cured quail eggs.

2. Bus back from Mussorie - this was a wild ride. The first leg, from Mussorie to Dehradun, featured a long and windy ride down a mountain, women vomiting out the side of the bus, and a cow munching on cardboard. In Dehradun, we considered hitchhiking in a truck at one point because we were told another bus would not come. When one finally did, there was such a clamour to get on it that dudes were almost crushed. We didn't end up with a seat in the end (there were four of us), so I reached a point where I wanted to tie my arms to the hand rail and just fall asleep. At one point, a seat opened up, so it was decided that my friend sit on my lap. It was probably more comfortable for her, as I could hardly walk after the six hour ride was over.

3. Train journey from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar - my first ever real train journey. I was so excited. We shared a compartment with two Mongolian women, but I spent most of my time either staring out the window at the scenery or in the dining car drinking beer. At the border, I froze on the platform while talking and drinking beer with two Russians (the train had to go switch trucks). I awoke the next morning to a vast tundra of white with the bluest sky I have ever seen. If only the hangover wasn't there...

4. Train from Warsaw to Krakow - this wasn't so much a train ride to Krakow as a train ride to the middle of nowhere. My Polish friend accidentally (or so she claims...ironically, she was the same person who sat on my lap in #2) put me on the wrong train. I ended up somewhere past Warsaw East station with engineers yelling at me to get on a train back to the station. So I jumped out of the train, ran across the tracks (dodged a few trains flying by) and then jumped on a train headed to Berlin. Back at the station, I got mixed up over the Polish words for Arrival and Departure. Back and forth I went from the platform to the station. People must've thought I was crazy. Alas, I ended up in Krakow, only two hours later. Luckily Jenny was ready to start drinking.

5. First Class flight from Cairo to Chicago - there was no discomfort whatsoever on this trip. I was treated to champagne, strawberries in champagne, and every other luxurious food item one could imagine. I looked so "like I had lived in Egypt for the last 11 months" and was asked a couple of times if I was actually in first class or not. Let them think otherwise. All I know is that I had to avoid sleeping just so I could take advantage of all the food and onboard entertainment.