Chongqinq, Round 1
This portion of the blog is brought to you by the letter ‘A’. More on that later.
We groggily got up in the morning to get to some breakfast and head out to the airport. We got a taxi and tried to haggle. We stink at it. The 2 different taxi guys we talked to claim it was metered and there was no way they could change the price, so we had to accept it. I am glad we passed up on the first guy, because I think we had the one of the few sane taxi drivers in Shanghai. He got us there without me feeling like we had to fear for our lives. We arrived with plenty of time.
The flight went smoothly and we landed in Chongqing about 20 minutes late. We hustled to the exit of the airport and finally caught up with E’s cousin. Here is a fact about E’s relatives. There are a lot of them. Just aunts and uncles, blood related, she has 13 living, so there is a little bit of an age gap. Her cousin is middle aged. He was a very cheerful man. This was when China really hit me. Other than E, no one else spoke English. I had come from Shanghai and could talk to Mitch and Kelly, but that was not an option now. E was busy chatting with her cousin while we went to his car. I was completely out of this conversation. He drove us to his apartment, and it was very nice. Chongqing is a very beautiful town, full of hills and surrounding mountains. We met his wife and we sat down for some tea. She was cooking lunch while E and her cousin continued to chat. I watched some weird singing competition in Mandarin on their TV. I never found out who won, it haunts me.
We sat down for lunch and it was the best meal I had to date in China. Everything was simple but delish. Unfortunately, my appetite was still on layover in America, so I only ate a little. After lunch, we headed out to E’s aunt (aka Aunt 7 on her mother’s side) to find out details about our impending tour to JiuZhaiGou and Emeishan. We arrived to their apartment and for the first time I saw what E had told me about the financial disparities between her parents’ two families. It was a very run down building and there were chickens running amok. We came inside and her Aunt 7 along with her husband welcomed us inside. Also in attendance were 2 more of E’s aunts on her mother’s side. With her cousin and his wife there, E was stuck in the middle of a Mandarin hurricane. Her head was spinning because everyone was throwing in thoughts about the impending trip. A lighter note on that moment was that everyone in the room kept saying a long ‘A’ sound. Apparently this is a sound for ‘okay’. This has led me to refer to the Sichuan people as the ‘Fonzies’. As I type on, I will try to use that reference, because I think its clever.
We were given our agenda and had to pack everything in two backpacks and my laptop bag. If we took one of our suitcases, it would become more of a problem to carry around, I wish we had taken it. We then proceeded to find a hotel to stay at that was close to the train station, where we would begin our trip to Chengdu the next day. We found one nearby and went to place our stuff into the room. The quality of the room was a shock, but the cost was dirt-cheap. There were mosquitoes flying everywhere, stains on the bed and the shower was just in a glass setting within the room. The location of the shower was no big deal, it what was right next to the shower, on the floor… the trough. This disgusted me to full complaining American. I had been in locker rooms before, so I know what guys will do in there, but being in a room for both functions grossed me out. And there was no way I was going to wear the provided shower shoes. They were not very clean. After dropping our stuff off in the room, we headed out to eat some hot pot and see Chongqing.
The setting was extremely beautiful. It was an outdoor seating place with tables that had holes for bowls of spicy broth. The only negative was that her cousin ordered far too much food. I was still not hungry, so I ate what I could, but I didn’t want to make my train trip tomorrow difficult. After dinner, we drove around Chongqing. It was beautiful, even at night. Sadly the town wasn’t lit up as it usually was, but I still enjoyed it. Even though I was getting groggy. They dropped us off at our hotel room and we tried to sleep so we could head out tomorrow. From this point on, it would only be E and I. We didn’t know how many bumps we would encounter.
We groggily got up in the morning to get to some breakfast and head out to the airport. We got a taxi and tried to haggle. We stink at it. The 2 different taxi guys we talked to claim it was metered and there was no way they could change the price, so we had to accept it. I am glad we passed up on the first guy, because I think we had the one of the few sane taxi drivers in Shanghai. He got us there without me feeling like we had to fear for our lives. We arrived with plenty of time.
The flight went smoothly and we landed in Chongqing about 20 minutes late. We hustled to the exit of the airport and finally caught up with E’s cousin. Here is a fact about E’s relatives. There are a lot of them. Just aunts and uncles, blood related, she has 13 living, so there is a little bit of an age gap. Her cousin is middle aged. He was a very cheerful man. This was when China really hit me. Other than E, no one else spoke English. I had come from Shanghai and could talk to Mitch and Kelly, but that was not an option now. E was busy chatting with her cousin while we went to his car. I was completely out of this conversation. He drove us to his apartment, and it was very nice. Chongqing is a very beautiful town, full of hills and surrounding mountains. We met his wife and we sat down for some tea. She was cooking lunch while E and her cousin continued to chat. I watched some weird singing competition in Mandarin on their TV. I never found out who won, it haunts me.
We sat down for lunch and it was the best meal I had to date in China. Everything was simple but delish. Unfortunately, my appetite was still on layover in America, so I only ate a little. After lunch, we headed out to E’s aunt (aka Aunt 7 on her mother’s side) to find out details about our impending tour to JiuZhaiGou and Emeishan. We arrived to their apartment and for the first time I saw what E had told me about the financial disparities between her parents’ two families. It was a very run down building and there were chickens running amok. We came inside and her Aunt 7 along with her husband welcomed us inside. Also in attendance were 2 more of E’s aunts on her mother’s side. With her cousin and his wife there, E was stuck in the middle of a Mandarin hurricane. Her head was spinning because everyone was throwing in thoughts about the impending trip. A lighter note on that moment was that everyone in the room kept saying a long ‘A’ sound. Apparently this is a sound for ‘okay’. This has led me to refer to the Sichuan people as the ‘Fonzies’. As I type on, I will try to use that reference, because I think its clever.
We were given our agenda and had to pack everything in two backpacks and my laptop bag. If we took one of our suitcases, it would become more of a problem to carry around, I wish we had taken it. We then proceeded to find a hotel to stay at that was close to the train station, where we would begin our trip to Chengdu the next day. We found one nearby and went to place our stuff into the room. The quality of the room was a shock, but the cost was dirt-cheap. There were mosquitoes flying everywhere, stains on the bed and the shower was just in a glass setting within the room. The location of the shower was no big deal, it what was right next to the shower, on the floor… the trough. This disgusted me to full complaining American. I had been in locker rooms before, so I know what guys will do in there, but being in a room for both functions grossed me out. And there was no way I was going to wear the provided shower shoes. They were not very clean. After dropping our stuff off in the room, we headed out to eat some hot pot and see Chongqing.
The setting was extremely beautiful. It was an outdoor seating place with tables that had holes for bowls of spicy broth. The only negative was that her cousin ordered far too much food. I was still not hungry, so I ate what I could, but I didn’t want to make my train trip tomorrow difficult. After dinner, we drove around Chongqing. It was beautiful, even at night. Sadly the town wasn’t lit up as it usually was, but I still enjoyed it. Even though I was getting groggy. They dropped us off at our hotel room and we tried to sleep so we could head out tomorrow. From this point on, it would only be E and I. We didn’t know how many bumps we would encounter.