Xi'an, China

Arrived in Xi'an about an hour ago after a 16.5 hour train ride from Chengdu. China is so big now Im getting used to taking transit for 10-17 hours to get places...and I used to think it was far to take the train to Ottawa! A chinese guy in the dorm room Im staying in here was explaining to a girl and I that he didnt see his parents very often because they lived 3 hours away....both the girl and I looked at each other and started to LAUGH. 3 hours? seriously? in china that is like, right down the street!


After seeing the pandas in Chengdu (totally worth it!!) and exploring the crazy backstreets, I spent my last day in Leshan, a town 2 hours outside of town and home to the world's largest sitting buddha! I thought it would be a bit cheesy, but heard it was good to see and it was really impressive! The Buddha is on an island connected to two other islands that were all temples and tombs...one guy explained it to be as "buddha land." I actually even ran into a guy I met in Lijiang and hiked Tiger Leaping Gorge with from Sweden! SMALL WORLD! I decided to save money and skip the tour arranged by the guest house and head there on my own....an adventure too long to list here, but long story short I made it to the train that night with 10 min to spare! (phew!)




The longer I am in China, the more competent I feel travelling around here. I book my own train tickets, take local buses, eat at street stands.... I am getting used to being talked about and laughed at in chinese by people (this usually happens when im eating and trying to order food in the chinese food stalls). Still not quite comfortable yet buying things from the street stalls/shops in the local chinese markets....my experience trying to buy a tshirt for example:
I go into a store and point at a shirt on the wall. The woman working in the store either: ignores me, stares at me then ignores me, stares at me then laughs with her colleague who is also staring at me, or...comes and talks to me! Loudly. In chinese. A whole conversation in chinese. I tell her I dont understand...she keeps talking to me in chinese...i point at the shirt again then at me...she disappears and comes back with a different shirt that is wayy too big....i point at the shirt I want again, then at me...she pushes the other shirt at me. I look at the shirt and gesture for smaller? She speaks in chinese. I nodd no thanks and leave as she follows me and yells something in chinese. People on the street stare at me.

Geez....buying a shirt! I could just go to one of the glossy stores on the main streets with white people smiling in the windows, but the shirts there are 60 Y, versus 10-20 Y in the side streets...I really want to buy cheap knock off shoes in Beijing--we'll see how that works out LOL.

Sooo...today I am chilling then going to see the terracota warriors tomorrow and some other tourist stuff. I plan on climbing Huashan, one of taoisms' 5 great mountains the couple days after...it can be done in one day, but i want to stay overnight on the west peak at a dorm/monistary to see the sunset, then wake up early and see the sunrise from the east peak...supposed to be fantastic (and those that know me know im pretty into sunsets/rises)! Plus now that Im on the last days of my trip I am travelling slowly and enjoying it all at an easy pace...I have had about 5 different plans for these last two weeks, but they have all been trashed now:

plan 1: spend the last week in Korea--no time due to re-routeing around closed roads :(

plan 2: 3 days trekking/horseback riding in Songpan from Chengdu--they wouldnt sell me a bus tickets to Songpan. NO foreign tourists can take the bus to Songpan until june because the roads are too dangerous and they didnt want anyone dieing (apparently one bus crashed last year and that was that). Tried to get around it by bribing a chinese girl to buy my ticket for me, but they said they wouldnt let me on the bus and id lose my money for the ticket...boo!

plan 3: book it to beijing, then take a train to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia and take a tour of the grasslands-- 10 hour train to Hohhot (1 day + 100Y), tour (2 days--500Y), 10 train back to Beijing (1 day + 100Y) = 4 days and 700Y, with two of these being on a train. No way dude.

THE FINAL PLAN: hang out in Xi'an for awhile, then head to Beijing.

Ps--I miss canadian beer.

Chengdu, China

After 10 hours on a sleeper bus and 17 hours on a hard sleeper train I am in Chengdu!

The bus was looonnngg...my seat/bed was not solo, but connected to another one. The guy sleeping next to me was pretty big and the seats were pretty small (china-size) so he essentially slept ON me half the trip! When he got too generous with the space I was all elbows LOL So yeah, not a great sleep. Then straight to the train station to wait in line with thousands of chinese to buy a train ticket. It all went really smooth tho, the lady at the counter was really helpful (by helpful I meant took her time with me pointing to phrases in my phrase book and not giving me the "why are you wasting my time...learn to speak chinese" look and going onto the next person) and I ended up getting on the train at noon no problem!

I am getting used to being the only white face in the crowd now. I walked through the train looking for any person that spoke english to talk too, but nope...i was the only one. So for 16 hours I read my lonely planet, watched chinese soaps and chinese "gladiator." The guy in the bed under me played chinese pop music on his phone and I think half the train was smoking the entire way (one guy was even smoking under the NO SMOKING sign lol) The squat toilet in the bathroom had a little handle on the wall, which turned out to be very helpful during corners!

Chengdu is awesome! Mostly because it is warm LOL I was in a tshirt walking around today and seriously, I am so happy to not be freezing! Went to the Wenshu monestary, checked out the tea house (super cool), saw the mao statue and the square. Tomorrow I head to the breeding centre to see the pandas with a few people from the hostel and then Ill walk around a bit more to the markets probably...maybe go to the People's Park where people do tai chi and aerobics and play chess.

Ill probably do a day trip to Leshan at some point, then who knows...maybe songpan? Ive had to ditch my plans to go to Korea because of travel issues, so my last stop now is Beijing. Cant believe Im going to be home in less than 2 weeks!

Some quick reflections about China:
-people either ignore me or stare at me and take "secret" pictures on thier cell phones.
-no one speaks english, not even the information people at attractions or bus/train stations. And even when people know you cant speak chinese they will try to carry on a conversation in chinese with you anyway.
-there is no direct travel route from point A to point B by bus.
-stop lights are optional... (actually this is true for most of asia)
-all food comes on a stick :) tasty!
-lines are survival of the fittest: elbows out or hold onto the railings beside you or people will push you aside
-public bathrooms...well....lets say squat toilets dont really flush. its usually poo on poo. plug your nose, lift your pant legs up and dont look down (or hope you make it back to your guesthouse!)
-just because water is in a dispenser in a hostel DOES NOT mean it is okay to drink! I watched them fill it out of the town fountain in Shangri-la. I learned this lesson too late...back on my pills again :( Should have stopped drinking the water when it tasted bad....