Chilling in China

Day 1: (shamelessly copied from e-mail)
Am tucked safely into my hostel in Chengdu. The flight here was a lot longer and rougher than I"d imagined and my stomach is still funky so it was a tough day. Took the correct buses, but took one the opposite direction... let's just say my one yuan went a long way!! The city is nicer and more interesting (from the bus windows) than I'd expected from previous experience- lots of trees and green stuff. When I finally got dropped off it was far from the landmarks I was looking for so I spent a nerve-wracking half hour or so walking up and down the same few blocks looking, looking. About the 10th person I asked for help actually managed to get me to the right spot. And now I'm here.

Hostel is nice, I'm sharing a 4 bed dorm room with only one other girl tonight. Haven't eaten anything real but did force myself to go buy some crackers and bananas. Will allow myself to sleep tomorrow morning instead of the panda place at the crack of dawn. My roomie just got back from Tibet so I'm sneakily pumping her for all her info (she's an aussie traveling alone for a year). I've also handed over my money for my Lhasa ticket and permit- 1900rmb and I'll be leaving on yet another crack of dawn flight on Saturday. Another reason I'm not doing pandas tomorrow at dawn.

I miss you guys and have had moments of regret that I decided to do this trip alone... but I think I'm going to be okay. Especially if I start feeling better!! Will rent a bike tomorrow and just wander... hopefully I can get a chance to post pictures tomorrow night.

Day 2: (written from the hostel- its about 4pm).
I let myself sleep in today, though that still only meant about 8:30 due to all the Sprite I was chugging last night. I had a nice hot shower and then split a yummy dish of french toast, scrambled eggs and some bacon with my roommate. It was a huge helping and I was thankful for the company. Also quite thankful to have something other than spicey, oily chinese food for breakfast. Not sure my tummy would have been able to deal with that. I was off on my own after breakfast- she was heading to a clinic to have her 3rd rabies shot after being scratched by a monkey somewhere (shudder, another thing to worry about!). After attempting to rent a bike from the hostel (they couldn't find the key for the bike, then they couldn't find the key for the chain that locked all the bikes together, so got a guy from down the street to pound open a link of the chain, then after all that, the bike was a men's bike and too tall for me to get on. I tried to make it work, but the seat was completely loose and there were no brakes, so no go), I ended up setting out on foot. Walked all the way back to where I'd originally caught the bus yesterday. It is sunny and a lot warmer than I'd expected- maybe 70's and a touch humid. I didn't really have much of a goal, but purchased some supplies I'd forgotten (razor, towel, flip-flops for the showers, etc.) and just generally took it easy. Then I took the bus back and got off at the right time!

This afternoon, I wandered over to Wenshu Temple and as soon as I'd entered, I heard someone yell my name!! Completely shocked I looked around, and there were the two young Chinese tourists I'd sat next to on the bus in from the airport yesterday! It was so weird to run into someone I "knew"! We sat in the courtyard drinking tea and chatting for almost an hour, during which time I also met a guy from Belgium who lives in Beijing and will be on my flight to Lhasa tomorrow morning. What a relief that I'm already surrounded by such friendly people! Seriously!

After leaving them, I enjoyed a massive vegetarian lunch in the temple- all by myself with enough food for at least 4 people (I had literally a bucket of rice. It was wood with a handle and everything) and some lovely fresh pear juice. The temple was beautiful and I'd love to share photos but I've yet to find a USB port on any of the hostel's computers.

Needless to say, I've relaxed a lot from yesterday and am now feeling ready for the next challenge: Tibet!! Hopefully I can continue to update from there.