Quick Update
Unfortunately, this is going to have to be a quick post–I have to catch a train in an hour to my next destination–Guilin and Yangshao. The thing I love about traveling is that you meet interesting people and they tell you all sorts of cool places to go. So although these stops were not on my itinerary, I added them yesterday, LOL.
My train ride will be about 28 hours! I should have caught a plane, but since I didn’t even think about going to Guilin and Yangshau until yesterday, the train was the best bet. Fortunately, I’m not on a hard seat, but unfortunately, I am on a hard sleeper. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the hard sleeper–primarily that they aren’t all that soft (LOL) but others say the only difference is that there are more people in a room in a hard sleeper. I was hoping and praying for a soft sleeper–it’s going to be a long ass ride–and I don’t want some loud, funky, spitting person up in there with me. Let’s just hope for the best…
I didn’t really want to stop in Guilin, but that’s the only way to get to Yangshau. From Guilin I have to take a bus there…but my train gets in at midnight…so I’m going to crash in Guilin, maybe wanter around for a few hours, then take a one hour bus ride to Yangshau.
Yangshau is supposed to be absolutely amazing–and beautiful. Very peaceful, mountains, greenery…all the stuff I haven’t gotten in Beijing and only partially in Xi’an.
Last two days have been pretty cool. Yesterday I went to a museum, which was MUCH better than the one in Beijing. I also went to the Big Goose Pagota. It’s an old monk temple–which was really nice too. I didn’t go inside because the thought of climbing steps yesterday was NOT appealing, LOL.
After that, I wandered around the city for a while and met up with O to go out. We went to “Bar Street” which reminds me of Adams Morgan in DC except much cleaner and a LOT less crowded. I had a vodka tonic (I’ve been dying for something other than beer, LOL) and it even had ice in it. You can’t begin to imagine how hard it is to get ice around here. In all honesty, you probbly woudln’t want the ice because you can’t drink the water here…but I think I lucked up last night.
After bar street, we hopped around to a few clubs and ended back at the infamous 1+1. We didn’t stay out long…honestly O was trying to get some and couldn’t find any “cute Western boys” to help him out, LOL.
Today, I went to the Great Mosque of Xi’an. It’s one of only 20 mosques in China–and was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The mosque has four courtyards and is still in use–so it was interesting to see all of the Chinese boys and men put on their hats and go pray.
After that, I went to the Bell Tower and Drum Tower. These are two towers in the middle of the city–with mini museums inside. These were cool too. Hopefully I can put some pictures up soon. I also wandered around the Muslim Quarter (sorta like the French Quarter in New Orleans). Besides being hot as hell (which it is every day around here) it was a good day.
Okay, a couple of quick things before I bounce out…
1) It was a matter of time before it happened–and I knew it would…someone spit on me yesterday. Not intentional I don’t think–it landed on the heel of my foot. Can we say gross?!!!!!! I thought that I stepped in a puddle–felt something cool on my foot. Then I realized there was no water around and I looked down…and there it was. My stomach turns just thinking about it. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t so slimey…. I’m sure I was quite funny cursing everyone out around me, pulling out my toilet paper from my bag (which is a must have in China) and using about a half of a bottle of hand sanitizer to clean off my foot, LOL.
2) I saw a corn popcicle today. I didn’t try it–I wanted to, but just had a popcicle before I saw it. What’s up with the healthy popcicles?!
Okay, well I’m going to try and grab some snacks for this long ass ride. I’ll be on the train for the next 28 hours–so there won’t be a post for a while.