Sitting in a obscenely crowded internet place in a town where yet again, I stand out like a sore thumb. I know I've mentioned this before and I hate to be repetitive, but when you get into your forties and I encounter something for the first time despite my worldliness, it just doesn't fade away all that easily. And again, I'm not complaining at all...but I can't help but say something. At least at this place (unlike the one in Chengdu) the air is breathable. The other one could not have had a bigger show of no-smoking signage at the entrance despite boasting a collection of overflowing ashtrays that would rival a typical casino in Vegas.
Pandas: Gotta say that the panda thing was actually pretty cool. They are hilarious animals. Got there early enough to see them quite active and putting on quite the show. I could've actually held one and been photographed, but the 'donation' they were requesting was over $100 for less than a minute. And that's dollars, not RMB. I like them and all, but that would buy a lot of a lot of things here. The night before, was convinced at the hostel to attend a performance of the Sichuan Opera. When I made a face, I was assured that by 'opera' they meant something that had nothing to do with my idea of what an opera is. Fair enough. It turned out to be more like a variety show of all kinds of talented folks doing everything from hand shadow puppetry to mask-switching to a nimble young lady who juggled a table (!) with her feet. That was incredible. By the way, the mask-switching is awesome. Hard to explain it, but it's kind of like a magic act in that the performers literally change the elaborate mask they are wearing into a completely different one in the blink of an eye. Google it. It was that cool.
Buddha: The reason this town is on the map, is because of the world's largest Buddha carved into the side of a hill. Kind of like Mt. Rushmore, I suppose. The thing is 71 meters high. First you get to climb a bunch of steps to get to the top of it, then descend an insanely steep and vertigo-inducing set of steps to get to the bottom of it. Then walk up again. It sounds kind of goofy, but it was pretty cool, I have to admit. The place was crawling with tourists. At one point, a Chinese woman motioned for me to pose with her so her friend could take our picture. When I tried to indicate to her that I was a sweaty, repugnant mess, she made it clear that it was OK. Maybe she was participating in an elaborate scavenger hunt and I satisfied the get a picture with a foreigner requirement. The hotel I'm 'enjoying' is the second worst one on the trip. It goes to show that blindly following the old Lonely Planet travel guide can sometimes be a lousy strategy.
Confessions: I have two. First, for the most part, I really enjoyed the hostel environment in Chengdu. I hadn't stayed in a proper hostel in ages, but found the whole dynamic there very, very invigorating. You meet people of all ages from all over the world, share stories, maybe play some pool and just hang out. The place had a bar, restaurant and the staff made it very livable. I may be staying in a few more before this trip is over. The price is very right, which doesn't hurt. My other confession involves what I are for dinner tonight. I usually make fun of the tourists who eat in Western places whilst in eastern locales, but I caved. Mostly, it was cause honestly, the majority of places I've seen here look a lot like the place in Hanoi where I had that gnarly bowl of noodles that made my insides an ugly place. The other thing is that I go to KFC about once every three years anyway, so while it did have some of the comfort of a meal from home, it was still kind of exotic for me. But wait, it gets better. I ate a chicken sandwich with what can best be described as a hazelnut curry spread. This was served with fries (that was nice) and little fish sticks and a coffee-flavored drink. This value meal was about $4. The chicken patty was not the all-white meat you get back home, but the ketchup was Heinz, so they got that right. I only feel a little guilty because after four weeks of different versions of a lot of the same things, I needed to change it up a bit.
Tomorrow, it's off to Chongqing to kill a couple of days in preparation for a Yangtse river cruise. By the way, the 2-hour bus ride here was by FAR the best bus I've been on in four weeks. It helps that the road was paved correctly and free of animals, tuk-tuks, bicyclicsts and mopeds. The only thing that made it any different from being home is the unique driving style of the Chinese. I think that's about as far out on that particular limb as I'm willing to go.
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