The hard sleeper was anything but. It's no featherbed, but there is some padding, and they give you plenty of sheets which make the platform even more comfortable. The berths were air conditioned and quiet, and aside from the four monotonous hours clearing customs, the experience was teriffic.
Nanning is a nice change of pace, as I'd hoped, but after the weeklong quagmire in Hanoi, I succumbed to my impatience and bought a $215 airfare to Xian. It will, however, replace a 33 hour train with a two-hour flight, for only about $80 more. The trains are all booked up for the National Holiday week, so I would have been stuck here for a while if I wanted to wait for another hard sleeper. Keeping to the high-end trend, I booked a night in a $21 hotel and actually paid for laundry service instead of washing my unmentionables in the bathroom sink. All of my penny pinching, I think, has been contributing to my anxieties, so I'm trying to loosen up the pursestrings a little.
So far, China's supermarkets are a delight. Full of interesting and intriguing products like "ONION COMPRESSED BISCUITS" and tupperwares full of vacuum-sealed rice and entrees that you heat up using a charcoal-chemical handwarmer kind of thing. The people here are a little friendlier and more laid back. I feel like I'm making progress. I even ran into a gang of Romanians who I impressed by thanking them in their native tongue for offering to show me around if I come through their neck of the woods on my journey (and I hope to).
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