Finally leaving China, and heading into the neighboring country Kazakhstan. This will be a 35 hours train ride, with about 8 hours at the borders. The train will also have to swap wheels, as the train track are narrower in the other country.

With the hope of being able to buy hot food during this train trip, I have only purchased a handful of snacks and instant noodles. Along all the trains in China, hot water is pretty much guarantee onboard. Somehow instant noodles and sunflower seeds are the favorite train snacks.

Turns out there isn’t any food for sale while on the train. But there are tons of locals selling something at every stop. The best that I was able to buy are some sour grapes and more instant noodles.

The scenery is always majestic along the way. Lush green mountains and aqua blue water lakes. My roommate enjoying the sunset.

Somehow a simple train ride is worth blogging. As we were at the borders, leaving China side, I have never been searched so thoroughly . Cameras pictures get view and laugh at, while laptops are turned on and played with. On top of that, the travel companion guide of China gets confiscated.

Have heard of Lonely Planet books getting confiscated by the Chinese custom while exiting the country. It’s always been a mystery to most. Fortunately, knowing a little bit if Chinese help unveiled the answer. It is similar to the idea of book burning during revolution or changes in government policy. Burning books is to stop a certain ideology from spreading. The main reason behind confiscating books is that most travel books for China does not include Taiwan. It gives the ideology that Taiwan isn’t part of the great China. Although Taiwan isn’t considered a country by many nations, it is truly a different world…

Sometimes, people are just amazed that I am traveling along. To foreign land, far away from home. It is even more amazing the people I end up meeting. While on the train, I met Ron from Aussie. A well traveled man with no fear of the world even at well passed 80. I wonder if my travel seed will stay that strong when I reach old age?