The Last Hurrah

Holy Cow!!! It's been a crazy freaking week. We actually spent the whole week traveling. Here's the low down:

XI'AN: It's not as big of a city as Beijing or Shanghai. But has over 8 million people, considered small to Chinese standards, but is about just as populous as NYC. We stayed in a hostel called the Shu Yuan near the south gate of the city and it was a Western backpackers paradise. They played old 90s music, had pizza on their menu, had happy hour at the bar downstairs, and was just full of westerners lounging, mingling and dining like we were in a cafe back at home. It was so comforting, especially after the last day when it was cold and rainy. We fueled up on pizza and American coffee before venturing back out to eat rice, mystery meat and tea. It was great. Another traveller, Chloe, had summed it pretty well... "You find a place like this and you meet great people and you feel comforted for a little bit, but then you go out and you fight the mayhem of the backpacking world again." So true. So I didn't mind indulging on western luxuries, they're well deserved after squatting on squat toilets and dogding the spitting Chinese.

We biked about 14 kilometers around the city walls to get a really good view of the city, the Wal-Mart in the distance, the kiteflyers, the construction workers on rooftops. And we also walked around the Muslim Quarters of Xi'an the last couple of days buying souvenirs and trying out different foods and it was fascinating seeing the fusion of cultures and religions in this area.

CHONGQING: On Mon Oct 8, we took an overnite train to another town called Chongqing, a city on the Yangtze River, that was supposedly modeled after NYC. (I didn't really see the resemblance, though). We tried the famous "Hot Pot." A pot of spicy broth is placed in a boiler in the middle of your table and you order vegetables and meats to cook in it. Kinda like a Chinese fondu. We got 1/2 spicy and 1/2 non-spicy and it was quite an experience. We couldn't communicate very well, despite the listing of foods we liked written in chinese characters. So Lauren went into the kitchen as the lady opened the refrigerator to show her the types of meat they had. Brains and other innards were offered, but we opted for the dumpling looking meat.

YICHANG: We were shuffled around on the morning of Oct 10 to catch a 3 hour bus to another small town, Wanghao, to catch a hydrofoil to Yichang. The hydrofoil is a fast boat that can take us down the yangtze river in 11 hours instead of 3-4 days. We saw the 3 Gorges, just huge mountains and cliffs that line the river.

We finally arrived in Yichang that night, and after sorting out our travel plans for the next day, eating dinner, and haggling for a hotel room from 350 to 140, we were exhausted. You haggle for everything here and it's so mentally exhausting and draining. I get frustrated and pissed, but just overall, exhausted.

WUDANG SHAN: On the 11th, we took a 6 hour bus ride to Wudang Shan, the mountain "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" was based on, where Tai Chi originated, and where Daoism began. We met Daniel there (a guy we met a week or so earlier in Datong and then in Xi'an) there and he helped us make further travel arrangements and ended up rooming with him in a hotel on the mountain. It was freezing and damp on this mountain. It rained our first day and we stayed indoors all day and played cards and watched Commando, which replayed over and over again. I was miserable. On our second say, the weather looked promising and we trekked up the mountain. It took 3 hours to get to the to summit. It got foggier and foggier as we climbed until we were in a cloud and couldn't see anything past our noses. It poured freezing rain at the summit and was just flooded with tourists that we couldn't even get close enough to see the temple. It took about 2 hours to trek back down the mountain.

In a nutshell, I could have done without this whole leg of the trip...cold and rainy with pretty unexciting views was not my thing. But you live and learn... Seriously, watching Commando, playing cards, climbing mountains, sneaking into the more expensive hotel rooms to use their Western toilets, and sleeping on lumpy beds...all I can do is laugh at the experience.

WUHAN: Oct 13. We took a train from Wudang Shan to Wuhan and met a German couple who have been traveling together for 28 months. Holy crap. I can't imaging traveling for that long. To Americans 3-4 months, like I'm doing, is a really long time. But to Europeans, they take 1-2 years. The couple had spent a few months here and there. They've worked and volunteered in a few places. There's no rush to see and do everything because they have all the time in the world. They saved for 3 years and sold everything to travel the world. They gave us really good tips on where to stay, helped us sort our train tickets to our next leg of our journey, and haggled for our hotel room. They were great. If I was traveling for that long, I think I'd only be able to do it with Ron... so we can grow and learn from our experiences together and we'd feel protected and safe. Anyway, the highlight of our time in Wuhan (which overall, was a dirty, congested, gloomy hole) was going to Wal-Mart. We bought food and toiletries without having to haggle over prices or check the quality of the goods. It was refreshing. Ahhh...

Now, we're in HONG KONG... we took another overnite train and walked over the border and immediately noticed a difference in the cultures. Mainland China and Hong Kong are worlds apart. It's crazy. Stay tuned for the next blog to see why.