Defeat and Retreat

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So I went to Danba. It's the gateway to western Sichuan and as close to Tibet as you can get without a permit.

Alas, my Chinese is not good enough to survive in Danba. Getting a room at what was supposed to be a hostel but turned out to be a hotel was not fun. They couldn't understand why I didn't want to pay more for a remote for my AC that I wasn't going to use because it wasn't hot. But it was nice to have my own bathroom.

I tried to get information on tourism. I made it to the tourism office, was sold a book with English in it, but there was no information about how to get anywhere. Lonely Planet only tells you to negotiate with taxi drivers.

Then there's the issue of food. Outside of the big city, it's Meatville. Now, as a vegetarian, I find this to be difficult. I couldn't even find restaurants near my hotel, and didn't want to wander. The convienence store only had meat in a tube and ramen. Based on my experiences in Kangding, I didn't hope for much better at a restaurant, just higher prices for the foreigner.

I booked my ticket back to Chengdu the same day.

I left this morning at 6:30 am for what I thought would be an 8 hour trip. Excellent, I'll get in just in time for a late lunch. Which is good because all I have for food is peanuts and an apple. And water that I don't want to drink since I don't know when I'll be getting bathroom stops.

So when I finally rolled into the station at almost 8pm, I was not in a good mood.
And the McDonald's hot fudge sundae was the right thing to put me in a proper mood.

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