aiya!
I can proudly boast that I am now a hardcore traveller. Yesterday Michelle, Ryan, Hiro and I endured an excruciating 26 hour train ride from Beijing to Chengdu in Sichuan province. Sleeping on the stiff, upright, crowded, uncomfortable "seats" was impossible. We managed to survive and even made some friends with locals along the way. At least we had seats. hundreds of people were forced to stand or squat the entire way. We were unfortunate not to have scored a hard sleeper even though we bought the tickets four days ahead right when the ticket place opened. It was frustrating to find that most of the tickets had sold out by the time we got there. From now on we need to use a travel agent.
Anyways, Chengdu is a beautiful city that is so unlike Beijing. I love it! It's clean, less crowded, has a modern feel, and it has tons of coffee shops and great street food. We went to a coffee place called Goodwoods last night and it was amazing. Comfy, beautiful interior, great shaved ice, and Tiffany's lamps on each table. The street food looked less sketcy than in Beijing and was by far tastier. Sichuan is known for its yummy spicy food. I think I'm going to be in food heaven for a while lol. mmm...even the air smells spicy.
So early this morning we tried to buy bus tickets to Jiu Zhai Gou but they were already sold out, so now we have to shell out more money and wait for a plane so that we can sort of stay on schedule.
Backpacking like this is already really cool. Last night just walking around the city with the others I felt as if I had grown up a tiny bit. We made plans and figured everything out on our own, and here we are.