Combine 3 Ukrainians packing 2 bottles of vodka, a Chinese man whose internet, travel booking skills are suspect, an Englishman with a penchant for disrobing and me; and what do you get? One wild ride to the frozen North. So, the decision is made that we must go to Harbin for the Winter Snow and Ice Festival, because it's supposed to be amazing. Reasonably, train tickets are booked a couple weeks in advance for the 32 hour journey north which will depart on Chinese New Year (January 22, 2012). Sounds pretty standard, right? What could possibly go wrong, you say? Remember what I said about the Chinese man? Let's get us some tickets!
China's railway system has a fairly new and convenient way to purchase train tickets on something called the worldwide web or some such Jules Vernian tomfoolery. Not being a Star Trek fan myself, I don't completely understand you crazy kids and all your futuristic gadgets like color televisions and the interweb. My Chinese friend, Jason (not his given name), however; decided that it would be easiest to purchase the train tickets on said railway website. This selfless act required Jason to transcribe passport numbers and names and whathaveyou onto the website, thereby allowing everyone to pick up their tickets from the internet booking window on the day that we are set to leave Shanghai. (Interesting sidenote: I purchased my ticket in person 2 days in advance of the trip, because I was a bit of a late tag-on to the group due to questions in my other travel plans.) At any rate the fated travel day eventually arrives.
It's Chinese New Year!!! There's eating and drinking! There's revelry! There's gay laughter! There's straight laughter! There's confused and slightly curious laughter! There's dinner with Jason's family, and food that hasn't been cooked in a vat in the cafeteria of a middle school! It's a holiday like none other with more firework consumption and usage than the entirety of the fireworks displayed in all of the cities in the entirety of the United States and her respective territories during all of the holidays of the entire year combined!!! (No, I have not backed this up with scientific evidence or proof, but just trust me.)Finally, there's 5 train tickets to Harbin with our names on them (well, ID numbers)!... sort of.
Okay, my ticket has my id number on it, Nick's has his, Alina's has hers, Jason's has his and Sasha's has...well...it has a number on it. The Chinese railway worker verifying the tickets is perplexed by something. It seems that the id on Sasha's ticket is off by ONE digit! Well, that couldn't possibly be Sasha then. That ticket must belong to some other tallish, muscular, Ukrainian teacher/model/former gymnast/current sadist with a surprisingly similar ID number. Apparently, Jason became a little distracted while typing in the numbers. How will we solve this problem?! What is our intrepid band of travelers to do?! Tune in next week...j/k. The obvious solution is...Sasha buys a brand new ticket. Sasha is very happy now. Sasha does not want to play one of the myriad Ukrainian death games with Jason that I've heard so much about. Well, with a few longer-than-comfortable death stares from Sasha the new ticket is purchased, and the trip is proceeding. Things definitely got a bit tense back there, but, Hey! We're all loading on the train with barely a minute to spare. We have nice, semi-comfy, slightly-smallish beds; 2 bottles of vodka and a brand new Ukrainian friend. What are the odds?
Well, let's back up a bit. We all load onto the train with very little time to spare due to the unforeseen delay with Sasha's ticket. Sasha, Alina, Jason and Nick all have tickets in the same group of sleeper beds, but my ticket is several train cars away, as I bought my ticket separate from the group and quite a bit later. We are an industrious group, however; and Sasha looks like he could conquer Mt. Midoriyama in record time, so we convince a nice Chinese man to trade tickets with us so that I can spend the trip with my friends. Sasha and Alina also happen upon a nice, Ukrainian girl on the train so we convince someone else to trade with her, as well. Now, the fun begins...
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