To see the previous piece on Golmud click here.

We left Golmud, firmly ensconced in a "sleeper bus," one of two such road trips done on the trip. As the name suggests, Chinese sleeper buses are designed for sleeping. Instead of a seat, you get a bed of sorts, complete with sheet, pillow, and comforter. The problem with these beds is that they are designed for Chinese-sized people. We three Westerners are tall ones – I’m 6’0", Steve’s 6’2", and Sam towers in at 6’4". At these heights, there is no way to stretch out your legs, so your knees are permanently bent, which, after a while, becomes a sort of torture. You can try to go fetal and sleep on your side, but then your knees jut outside of your bed-pen. And there is no room on the bus to stash anything you bring aboard, except in the aisles, which are so narrow that they appear to have been designed for anorexic Darfurians.

Photo: Wikipedia

Despite the cramped conditions, sleep came easily. Hours of public drinking in Golmud, coupled with the last of the Valium, did the trick. Within an hour of hitting the road, I was out, along with Sam, and Steve.

The landscape of western China is arid and surreal, a monochromatic scene of flatlands, scrubs, and psychedelic rock formations, much like that of the American Southwest. It is empty and strange, a place of huge spaces and giant skies. At one point, our sleeper bus pulled to the side of the road for a pee break. It was four A.M. and I staggered off for a leak and a strong Chinese smoke and took in the sky, which was a brilliant tapestry of electric stars. It was a moonless night, and the sky was spread out in mystical splendor, the most vivid and stirring night canopy I've taken in for years.

But let’s talk about the heavens, since earlier, that very day, something happened in the sky that we are lucky to see once or twice in a lifetime: a full solar eclipse. The only thing is that we didn’t know about it before hand – we were "in the dark," as it were. No one had told us about it until AFTER the fact. It wasn’t until a day later, in Dunhuang, that we were made aware of its occurrence by a host of other travelers.

"Did you guys come out here for the eclipse?"

"Wasn’t the eclipse awesome?"

"You came here to see the eclipse, right?"

Wrong.

So… what were we doing during this eclipse, during this spectacular celestial event? We were sleeping. We slept through an eclipse of the sun. It happened at about 7:20, Beijing time. Our bus left at 6, and we were passed out by 7.

Maybe we should have skipped the beer and Valium that time around.

Special thanks to Chris Tharp for letting us republish his article, if you’d like to see the original post, click here to go to Matador Blogs.

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Related Links

Life and View> Chasing the China Total Solar Eclipse 2009!
Life and View> Where to Watch the Shanghai Solar Eclipse
China Explorer> It only gets worse! Miserable Bus Rides 2

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