China Day 3 - Beijing to Harbin by Train

Assalamualaikum. Ni Hao!

Previous post (here).

14 January 2016
Beijing, China

Terjaga around 5am, teruslah ndak sambung tidur. Our train to Harbin will depart at 6am. So dalam sejam tu we take turned pi bersihkan diri. Settled semua, breakfast. Senang bila ada hot water, semua boleh jadi. Nasiblah memang ada bawa makanan dari Malaysia. Sedap-sedap makan, suddenly....

Haaaaaaktuuuuuui!

Tu diaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Terus mati selera serta merta. Ahjumma pun! Agak-agak lah kan mau mengkahak. Comel sudah dia duduk nun di depan aku, pegang cermin ala Cinderella sambil sikat rambut Rapunzel dia tu. Boleh pula acara selingan ha! 

Buang maggi, sambil bagi jelingan tajam sama Ahjumma. Nan hado dia berperasaan bersalah. Sekian jaklah niat mau tunjuk annoyance kau Bie. Diorang memang sejenis ndak kisah pun.

#1 Breakfast on the go. Alhamdulillah sempat juga makan bersuap-suap sebelum semua terpaksa masuk tongsam. Redha.

Kemas-kemas bag, terus kami pi waiting hall. Ok, manusia adalah ramai. Nasib ada vacant seats for us. Duduklah melepak tunggu bersama jemaah lainnya. Semua harus buat hal sendiri. Pastu nampaklah pelbagai gaya manusia yang bakal se-train dengan kami. Siap ada yang bawa guni; wondered pi manalah Ahjussi tu gigih mengangkut tu semua. Masa tu nampaklah kegigihan & kerajinan orang diorang ni bekerja. Hatta sudah tua membongkok, masih lagi mengerah keringat. 

Anyway, remember I mentioned that our departure time to Harbin is at 6am? Ok, masa duduk melepak tu kami relaks lagi sebab baru 530am. Panik aku muncul bila aku tengok jam & lagi 10 minit before departure. Kiri kanan semua al-relaks lagi. Aku & Jea jaklah yang macam cacing kepanasan. Bukan murah oiii train fare boleh sesukati beli baru. Everything went through my mind at that time. What if jangan cakaplah. Beribu lemon.

What if we already missed the train
What if we waited at the wrong waiting hall
What if we're actually the only two yang belum board the train
What if the platform is very far we didn't managed to get in the train on time
What if, what if

Tengok information board, memang matched every details printed on our ticket. Gate depan pun masih ada penghalang merah. Ticket inspector pun still leisurely lepak at his station. Permainan jiwa apakah ini?? And not long after, ada announcement & semua pun automatically bangun serentak. All going to one direction; to the gate. Gila kentang level kondifen sistem di China. We later found out, gate will ONLY open 5-10 minutes prior departure.

Tapi memang patut pun diorang kondifen gila. Although gate buka lambat (according to my standard), ALL passengers managed to embark the train enabling an on time departure. Gila wei. Passengers bukan sikit, and carriage bukan 4-5 biji jak. Salute betul sama semua staffs. Committed, efficient. *clapclapclap*

#2 Hello train!

#3 Ok bersih, puas hati. That was my first impression upon getting on the carriage

#4 My berth was on the right; middle one

We bought our ticket from CTrip. Chose the hard sleeper because the ticket fare for soft sleeper exceeded our budget & seat wasn't a choice. We know we're not going to have a good sleep at the railway station hence we need a sleeper seat. Perlu tidur; at least for a few hours during those 11 hours journey. Else memang jadi harimau lapar lah masing-masing.

Hard Sleeper : ~CNY 300 (RM 176.00)
Destination : Beijing - Harbin
Duration : 10 hours
Bought from Ctrip

Beli train ticket di China memang main gamble. You cannot choose your berth nor seat. Ikut nasib mana diorang letak kau. The upper berth, the middle or the bottom. And chances for you to be separated with your travel partner is also there. Like what happened to Jea & I. Terpisah 2 gerabak. Pasrah jaklah. Bukan juga tidur sekatil ngan strangers kan. Paling haru pun, bakalan dapat 'roommates' yang 'over wangi' level ndak boleh bincang *jeling Jea*. Kesian minah tu, terpaksa tahan seksaan hidung.

#5 Bersyukur kaki ndak-berapa-panjang, boleh lah aku letak bag di hujung katil. Ndak lah menyemak di atas kepala

#6 Selamba katak tinggal makanan gitu, yakin meja+kerusi depan 'bilik' adalah hak eksklusif kau sorang kan Bie

Few minutes after departing, aku turun dari katil & tawaf gerabak. Mau buat laporan dalam ig & blog, kan. Walau lepas 4 tahun baru nampak laporan tu. Pfft. Toilet adalah jenis squatting, I didn't take picture of it sebab malas but they are super clean. Each carriage ada 2 toilets.

#7 Sinks area

#8 Train was pretty fast I failed to take any picture of the scenery outside. All I could remember was; the farther we left Beijing...the whiter the view became (snow ler maksudnye)

#9 One of the many thing I like about China. Unlimited supply of drinking water (cold + hot). This dispenser memang ada at each carriage

#10 The outside temperature after about half an hour leaving Beijing

Upon completion of my 'inspection', I went straight up to my katil. Kena bayar tidur sebelum bertukar ganas. Walaupun hard sleeper tapi aku tidur terrrrsangat lena. Memang ndak sedar apa kejadian 'roommates' yang lain. Ntahlah aku ada berkonsert ka ndak pagi tu. Janji aku berjaya tidur!

#11 After maybe 4-5 hours on the train.

Terjaga dari tidur sebab Jea kejut. Minah tu lapar, and she could stand the smell in her room no more. As to quote her;

"Gila ah sefamily semerbak macam seribu tahun tak mandi wei. Dari tadi aku lepak kat kerusi je. Nak muntah bila naik katil. Sekali ngan mak dia semerbak."

I didn't know how to react to her story. Mau ketawa or mau simpati. Aku sudah selamat ke alam mimpi for 5 hours. Yang dia, terpaksa layan sakit hidung pula. Ingatkan sudah berlayar sama.

#12 Our lunch. Tetaplah ramyeon jadi menu utama

After mencekik, Jea went back to her carriage. Mau try tidur katanye. Maybe adalah tu idea bernas baru keluar dari kepala lepas makan. Aku pun sambung tidur lepas lunch tu. What else to do, right. View di luar pun memang Narnia jak. Nothing much to see & do but sleep. So, tidurlah kan.

We reached Harbin at 5pm. Keluar dari train, I just followed where the crowd went. Rasa macam eh jauh juga arrival terminal ni. Sekali rupanya terus jak keluar station. Berangan lah mau ber-arrival terminal bagai. Masa ni aku sudah risau. Macamana mau cari si Jea ni. Sudahlah ndak tau dia carriage mana. Pastu memang tiada berjanji mana mau jumpa bila sampai. Bijak bestari kan kami.

So I applied the most logic method when you want to be spotted in the crowd. Aku berdiri tempat yang tinggi sikit. Masalah problem bila kau rendang. Memang tiada perubahan lah berdiri mana sekalipun. Tetap maintain rendah juga. Tapi aku tetaplah maintain kondifen. Berdiri sambil bertinting. Alhamdulillah, Allah made it easy. Jea berjaya nampak aku. Forgot what she told me on how she managed to spot me. 

#13 From where I stood. Cuba cerita macamana cara aku dapat spot si Jea. Huwaaaa

Then cepat-cepat kami berlari pi taxi stand. Yang teksi sapu memang banyak di tepi jalan but I read from the internet they tend to charge 10x higher than the registered taxi. Pasal tu diorang akan target tourist jak. Nasiblah kali ni si Err ingat note dia tulis. Else, confirm melabur duit sama driver teksi sapu. I tried asking one of them...showed them the hotel address. Terus kena quote CNY 100 (RM 59.00). Agak-agak lah kan. Our hotel is less than 10 minutes walking from the station. Sabit sejuk & malas cari jalan jak, tu kami gigih queue for taxi walau direction aku sudah save siap-siap dalam phone.

#14 Seramai-ramai makhluk Allah. Semua ni queue for registered taxi. 

Queue ada dalam 15 minutes, pantas tuntas driver taxi di Harbin ni. I showed the hotel address to the driver when it was our turn. Upon agreeing, immediately Jea & I hopped on the taxi. And zasss! In 5 minutes, sampai. Driver turunkan kami di seberang jalan hotel. And we only paid CNY 9 (RM5.30). As per shown on the metre reader. Bersyukur sangat ndak jadi mangsa ketuk. Gila jauh beza CNY 100 & CNY 9!

#15 Thank you for choosing to be honest. Aku bagi CNY 10 without taking the balance

After half day of journey, akhirnya sampai Harbin! 

It has been in my to-go list for years. Alhamdulillah Allah jadikan kenyataan. 

This is all for now. Insha Allah the rest sambung dalam next entry.

Till then, wassalam.

eryantierdabdulkarim