Departing from Kunming to Chengdu, I started my first experience on China Railway yesterday at 10.11am. Earlier, I was a little bit nervous. At 7am I was still in Kunming South Bus Station, half asleep in a comfortable night bus couch which transported me back from Yuanyang (will post about this one later) to Kunming. Luckily, I was with Santa, an accomplished photographer from Hungary, which became a very good company for the last few days. So we could work out a mess for those last 3 hours; my luggage was kept in my former hotel in central Kunming 15km apart and I had to deal with several taxi drivers who don't get English even for a word.

To my surprised, everything went quite well. At 9.30 We were on Kunming Train Station. Santa decided to go to Guilin. At this point we said goodbye to each other.

The China Railway yesterday wasn't as busy as I expected. And I found my coach less than one minute‒thanks for being there right below the staircase where I walked down. So I jumped on board, put down the bone-cracking luggage, and wandered around.

I always love being on a train. For me it's much better than buses, or even flying high on an airplane. It's because both have missing one important thing; a colorful social life on board. During my travel in India of 2009, train has transported me for thousands of kilometers with comfort and ability to meet some of the warmest individuals during my trip.

China Railway wouldn't be far away from that. With some basic Chinese I started to learn after the mess with taxi driver earlier, I was able to communicate for a few times. Not bad. And yes, Kunming to Chengdu trip also offered something more, a 1048 km of nothing but stunning scenery between Yunnan & Sichuan province flashing from my window.

Now I'm in Chengdu :)