Flinn on the Lhasa Express: “I’d Give it a B-Minus”
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 11.06.06 | 8:06 AM ET
San Francisco Chronicle writer John Flinn took a ride on the Lhasa Express, the new train from China to Tibet, and returned with that verdict and a terrific tale of life—and strange happenings—on the high-altitude rails.
He writes:
Strange things are starting to happen as the Lhasa Express chuffs across the rooftop of the world. Outside the double-glazed, UV-blocking windows, I can see black-robed Tibetan nomads tending their enormous, shaggy yaks—a scene little changed from Marco Polo’s day.
But that seems perfectly normal compared to what’s happening inside the train. As the altimeter approaches 17,000 feet, a package of potato chips balloons outward until it ruptures a seam. Sunscreen and hand sanitizer erupt unbidden from bottles. In soft sleeper class, Chinese businessmen sprawl listlessly on their bunks, sucking oxygen from plastic hoses. The bathrooms smell of vomit.
Maybe trains were not meant to go this high.
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
