More Sleeper Train Success!

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We have arrived in Chengdu! The train was 18 hours, but it was not bad at all. We boarded the train at 1:15pm, instant soup bowls and cookies in hand. This is the way the locals travel, and the shops inside the station sell about 50 different flavors of instant noodles. They are quite delicious, way better than the crap ones we buy at home (Sapporo Ichiban, Soup in a Cup!).

Mid afternoon a young man came through our car handing out metal ring puzzles to everyone. You know the ones, where there are two parts of twisted metal that are seemingly impossible to seperate, but if you twist and turn them the right way they slide apart. Devlin and I played with the puzzle for quite some time before the young girl sitting across from us snatched it out of my hand and voila. Had them apart in less than 5 minutes. She tried to explain it in Chinese, of course we had no idea what she was saying so we just smiled and nodded. The Western tactic for tackling these puzzles is to mash them together and twist the pieces until they finally come apart. The Chinese method of solving them is to study the way in which the metal is twisted, and work it out in your head, until you understand how to do it. No wonder they are so smart!! The girl bought a package of 10 different puzzles and proceeded to solve each and every one. Even once she had them apart, she would sit and study them and put them back together and solve it again, so that she could solve each one in under a minute. I certainly don't have the patience, or the mind power, for this and quickly grew tired and went back to reading my magazine.

5:30am came quickly and we were hustled off the train with the rest of the crowd. It was dark, cold and rainy in Chengdu. It seems every place we arrive it is cold and rainy when we step off the train. Our little hostel card indicated a bus to take from the train station, but since it was so early there were no buses at the station. So our search for a cab or rickshaw who knew where they were going commenced. We approached a few drivers, who then held conferences with other drivers, studying the little map and debating how to get there. They would then give a small laugh and hand the card back to us, and shake their heads no. Hm. Finally one rickshaw driver seemed deseperate for our tourist dollars and assured us he knew where he was going so we climbed into the back, after negotiating a reasonable price (Devlin has learned the numbers in Chinese and this is quite handy when trying to bargain for things, they seem to respect you more if you can say the price in Chinese...).

After driving down the deserted streets our driver pulled up alongside a taxi driver and they yelled back and forth at each other. Uh-oh. Our driver was lost. More driving around and a few stops for him to get out and confer with other people. Finally we reach a desolate narrow alleyway where the rickshaw could no longer drive. A homeless man appeared out of nowhere and started speaking Chinese to us and motioning for us to get out of the rickshaw. So out we get, put our packs on our backs, and start following the driver and the homeless man down a dark, very muddy, alleyway. We had a bit of peace of mind because we recognized the name on the street sign (yes the alley had a street sign) so we followed the two men in the dark.

5 minutes of a walk (and mud in our shoes) we reach a brightly lit doorway, with the hostel sign above it. Unfortunately the hostel was closed (it WAS 6am) so our kind driver and homeless escort pounded on the door and screamed for someone to wake up. I pointed out the doorbell sign (which said "Once is enough!") and they pushed the button about 10 times. I guess once means 10 times. Finally a bleary eyed woman unlocked the door, we paid the driver and waved goodbye, and were led into the reception area. The woman had to bang on another door to awaken another hostel staff member, we apologized profusely for waking them so early, his mattress was just spread out on the reception area floor! One perk of arriving so early, our room was not yet ready so they decided to give us the "suite" at the same price. What a deal! Our room is huge, it has antique Chinese furniture, marble floors, and a canopy over the double bed. Let me say, we have not yet had a double bed! All the rooms we've stayed in have had 2 twin beds (which we foolishly share) so we are excited to sleep in a big double bed. Our room even has a balcony!

After showering and getting dressed we made the exciting discovery of free wifi internet in our room! We have not had wifi since Japan, so it's nice to sit on the bed and be able to surf without watching the clock.

We haven't explored a lot of Chengdu yet, although on our walk to the bank it seems the specialty is frogs. There are large buckets of frogs (live frogs) outside the restaurants. Another specialty is hotpot, which is a large boiling pot of spicy broth into which you dunk the meats and vegetables, and frogs apparently, that you order. I think we'll pass on the frogs, although the idea of hotpot sounds delicious.

Our guidebook lists the hostel as being down a "charming narrow alleyway". Perhaps this was the case when the book was published, but now it's more a "major construction zone sludge pit". There is construction happening on both sides of the hostel, and after the night's rain this means mud, mud and more mud. I'm not exactly sure what they are building, but there are piles of gravel and sand everywhere, and men shoveling rocks into wheelbarrows.

Tomorrow we've booked a tour to the Panda Research Base where we will hopefully see some baby panda bears. The hostel offers a fantastic sounding 4 day horseback tour to Songpan, but unfortunately we aren't in Chengdu long enough to take the tour. The rain has let up and the sun has come out, it must have just been our typical welcoming weather.

Our plans have somewhat changed slightly. A DJ whom we adore is playing at a massive nightclub in Tokyo on October 13 and being so close we couldn't pass it up. So we fly out of Chengdu to Beijing on October 11, and Beijing to Tokyo on the morning of October 12. It actually works out well, because our Visa's are near expiry so we can apply for new ones at the Embassy in Tokyo and then head back to continue our China route as planned. Our return tickets take us from Tokyo straight to Shanghai, which was our next stop after Chengdu. My friend Riley lives in Shanghai so we are excited to see him and have a "local" give us a tour!

Also, I think we have decided to head to Thailand after China. We want to spend Christmas and New Years Eve in Malaysia rather than India and we're hoping air tickets from Thailand to India are cheaper than China to India. We've found a great deal on air tickets from China to Bangkok and it's too good to pass up. It will be a nice break to relax on some Thai and Malay beaches before heading into the chaos of India.

We've mailed home yet another parcel. It's amusing how the parcels keep on getting bigger each time. I guess I need to curb the shopping. One of my finds in Xi'an was a real looking Burberry cashmere scarf. One of the things that are sold everywhere are cashmere scarfs in every print and color imaginable. In Beijing I purchased a couple "Burberry" print scarves (you know, the beige red and black plaid print) but the tags said Royal Rossi brand. At one of the stalls I spotted a nice Burberry print one with an actual Burberry tag sewn on!! Even the scarves in the big pile did not have authentic Burberry tags on them, so I felt like I'd found a diamond in the rough. I wouldn't be surprised if this scarf came from an actual Burberry factory and was perhaps put in the wrong pile for shipping, so I had to have it. The lady was a tough bargain and I couldn't get her lower than 50Yuan, but I wanted it so bad and who can pass up a real looking Burberry scarf for $6?

Sorry we have no pics this time 'round, but there hasn't been much worth taking pictures of. Thanks for reading! Hope you are all enjoying your turkey dinners!!

Cheers!!
xoxoxooxoxooxooxoxoxo

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Comments

[AKA]

Hot Pot Soup!
That is so funny about the soup.... just last week I was at our favorite vietnamese place (Pho 88 of course :P) and there was a large group of men that did just that... a huge pot of spicy broth and raw meat all around that they dip in just slightly to "cook it"... trust me, the meat WAS NOT cooked!! No frogs though :p Have fun, cant wait to hear the details of Danny T... say hi to Riley for us when you see him. No doubt you will be sending some purses home in your next parcel!