The Overnight Express Vietnam - China (and other transportation matters)

Train travel has become a relatively routine way for us to move between towns and although we have become accustomed to the rush that occurs as the train arrives at the station, stopping only for briefly as everyone races to get aboard, it is still very annoying, irritating and really ludicrous.

Generally, it seems that when you purchase some train tickets you are assigned seat numbers and that generally takes some of the stress out of boarding the train.

However, the train from Dali to Lijiang is another story all together.  The ticket office only issue what are known as standing tickets.  Initially we understood that we would be standing for the 2 hour or more journey.  However, we discovered that the seat selection is actually a full-on free-for-all.  which explained the weird behaviours of the locals when we were still waiting shoulder to shoulder a few hundred deep behind a closed glass door with only 8 minutes before departure. 

People continued to arrive and were moving towards the still closed glass doors, there was a strange anticipationg that was palpable in the air.  People were stashing their large luggage including huge bags of rice as close to the front of the door to the platform.

With less than 10 minutes until departure the crowd was swelling and without the luxury of a seat reservation I was starting to wondered where exactly we would be standing on this train given the huge swelling crowd.

When it was actually declared time to board, the attendants unlocked the doors and could barely get them open as the panic-stricken crowd ran towards the platform as if there were no tomorrow.  following the lead of the locals we ploughed our way towards the platform with only minutes remaining until departure we jostled our way on to our allocated carriage No 8 and we managed to find an actual seat which was really the lower of a triple bunk on the over-nighter.