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I am midway though my two weeks vacation; traveling with Tyler and Simon. From Beijing we took an 11 hour train to Xi'an. Arriving at 7am we first hired a driver for the day and went to see the warriors; I am glad I saw them, but was expecting a lot more, but still a neat chunk of history to soak in. The muslim quarter; where we must have tried every kind of street food that was being sold. It all looked so good, and IT WAS. We also went to the old mosque in the quarter. The museum in Xi' an was nice, but focus mainly on the warriors and hall of mirrors. It was really great to have most of the captions to the pieces in English though. We also saw the city wall of Xi'an where we had a bit of a run in with our driver due to a lack of communiction between him and the guys who hooked us up with him. But I set it strait. My Chinese is improving noticeably, AWESOME! That same day we caught the train out that night at 11p to Kunming. I day is plenty for Xi'an. A 36 hour train. We made some frinds and even had one meet us at one of the stops in Sichuan. Sally, who goes to Tinjin University was home for the holiday and met us when our train stopped in her home town. She gave us interesting food for the 3 of us: 3 rabbit heads, 3 tea eggs, 3 chx wings and 1 duck cut up with the bones and head. I ate the egg and chx, but could not handle the rabbit heads. At first I thought they were rat heads because the ears were cut off and the teeth were so THERE, but a new friend, nick named jame's bond for his coolness informed us otherwise and said they were very delicious. We gave them to him.
In Kunming we first went to a hostel to get showers. It had been almost 3 days. We met some cool peeps and shared stories. We met a Brit who taught in Haerbin and was traveling for 6 months b4 going to Japan. He gave us a lot of tips for Lijian and the gorge. While in Kunming we took care of random stuff like getting the date for our airplane tickets, Simon buying day pack, and I needed a belt cause I was not wearing long johns anymore. yes it was warm!!!! We took on overnight sleeper bus to Lijian that night. On the bus we met Peter, a sneaky Chinese guy fluent in English that swindled Tyler out of 20 kuai, he said his bag was too big for the bus, no way! There was no way I was going to pay, he said he was going to get the cops and I said bring it, of course he never brought the cops, and he is a sneaky twit. Although, I am happy to report of all of our bags mine is the smallest, much unlike the time I went with Lisa backpacking Italy. I think I carried 3 times then as what I am carrying now.
I am in Lijiang. just got back from hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge. I am very proud of myself for completing such an awesome hike. The uphill like nothing I had ever experienced, just painful and beautiful. We hiked the first day 5 hours to the half way guest house where we met some more cool peeps and shared more stories. Then today we finished the gorges and got a ride back.
Some random views, sorry I can not up load pix, i forgot my cord:
-terraced mountains growing every vege imaginable
-old ladys wearing bright colors carrying huge baskets as backpacks
-CLEAN AIR
-snow capped mountains
-too many stars to count, satellites buzzing the sky
-waterfalls
Tomorrow we head for Dali.
In Kunming we first went to a hostel to get showers. It had been almost 3 days. We met some cool peeps and shared stories. We met a Brit who taught in Haerbin and was traveling for 6 months b4 going to Japan. He gave us a lot of tips for Lijian and the gorge. While in Kunming we took care of random stuff like getting the date for our airplane tickets, Simon buying day pack, and I needed a belt cause I was not wearing long johns anymore. yes it was warm!!!! We took on overnight sleeper bus to Lijian that night. On the bus we met Peter, a sneaky Chinese guy fluent in English that swindled Tyler out of 20 kuai, he said his bag was too big for the bus, no way! There was no way I was going to pay, he said he was going to get the cops and I said bring it, of course he never brought the cops, and he is a sneaky twit. Although, I am happy to report of all of our bags mine is the smallest, much unlike the time I went with Lisa backpacking Italy. I think I carried 3 times then as what I am carrying now.
I am in Lijiang. just got back from hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge. I am very proud of myself for completing such an awesome hike. The uphill like nothing I had ever experienced, just painful and beautiful. We hiked the first day 5 hours to the half way guest house where we met some more cool peeps and shared more stories. Then today we finished the gorges and got a ride back.
Some random views, sorry I can not up load pix, i forgot my cord:
-terraced mountains growing every vege imaginable
-old ladys wearing bright colors carrying huge baskets as backpacks
-CLEAN AIR
-snow capped mountains
-too many stars to count, satellites buzzing the sky
-waterfalls
Tomorrow we head for Dali.