During breakfast this morning a trip to the Giant Buddha at Le Shan fell into my lap. I went with a couple from England, a couple from Canada, and a family of 6 from the USA. We shared a van together.


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I spent the night before last in the hostel having drinks with the Scots and Irish again. I think they may be a tad homophobic? They only made one gay crack but they're so friendly it's too tough to tell what they might think about it. Either way, I haven't come out to them because they haven't asked any questions where I could give a casual answer ( Read more... )

October 22:
I slept late again; I think I'm getting sick. Maybe the mosquitoes here backwashed some infected blood into me or something. I found the computer electronics market and bought a plug converter for only 5 kuai. I didn't bother bargaining at that price.


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Not even a month has passed but it feels like a month. After sleeping fine on the train, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. thinking I'd arrive in Chengdu in 3 hours. Wrong! I looked at the schedule of trains on the wall and found I wouldn't be in Chengdu until near 4:00 p.m. Better than the two Irish in the car, who thought they'd arrive in Kunming around 9: ( Read more... )

Yesterday I woke up too late for the bus to Hua Shan, so I went tea shopping instead. After tea shopping I ate dinner at the hostel and talked to a Brazilian-American guy named Pedro (pronounced "PAY-droo"), and we agreed to do Hua Shan together the next morning ( Read more... )

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The train ride to Xi'an was awfully noisy and smoky. I didn't sleep much, and what sleep I managed was interruped by loud train horns and abrupt stops. But, the train got me to Xi'an, and to my surprise, the cabs start at only 6 kuai and my hostel is 40 kuai cheaper per night than I booked it for. The staff here is friendly and informative enough ( Read more... )

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