10/30/2006 China Day 35: SUV Paryang --> Saga, Tibet

10/29/2006 China Day 34: SUV Darchen --> Paryang, Tibet

10/28/2006 China Day 33: Trek Mount Kailash: Zutul-puk Monastery --> Darchen, Tibet

10/27/2006 China Day 32: Trek Mount Kailash: Dira-puk Monastery --> Zutul-puk Monastery, Tibet

10/26/2006 China Day 31: Trek Mount Kailash: Darchen --> Dira-puk Monastery, Tibet

10/25/2006 China Day 30: SUV Paryang --> Darchen, Tibet

10/24/2006 China Day 29: SUV Saga --> Paryang, Tibet - Bivy Sack Womb

Woke up this morning at 2:23 AM from a very soothing dream and wrote this down immediately in my journal. From a perception standpoint, the entire dream took place from within my red bivy sack in which I was sleeping that night.

To better understand my dream, you should visualize the breathing opening for my sleeping bag is shaped like a semicircular tunnel mouth. The same is true of my bivy sack. So when I'm looking out through my sleeping bag and bivy sack at night, everything looks like I'm viewing it through a tunnel mouth.

And so it was too in my dream that all interaction with the outside world took place through a tunnel mouth. And in my dream, the outside world was an unknown woman. But everything I needed, whether warmth, food, drink, or love, I told this woman, and I received it without much effort on my part except to ask for it. I'm not sure what language we were speaking, and I'm not sure exactly what I asked for or how I received it, but it was a very warm and nurturing environment.

Thinking back upon my dream now, it seemed very wombish. I needed things, I wanted things, and without budging much of any muscles, except for telling a woman waiting at the mouth of my perception tunnel, I received them all, perhaps through an umbilical cord, although I felt no abdominal sensation in my dream or after waking up.

The only other sensation I had throughout the dream was that I kept wondering who this woman was. I knew it wasn't Kim, the only female in our 4-person travelling group, because she has a boyfriend (who is travelling with us) and has never really been caring or nourishing to me in that kind of way. It also wasn't Tian Fang, who has been caring to me in exactly this kind of way when I was sick with food poisoning in Golmud, Qinghai and Lhasa, Tibet. Tian Fang tried to get me whatever she thought I needed even without my asking, or wen I did ask, she got me what I asked for without me having to move much. But in my dream, it wasn't Tian Fang, because she wasn't there in reality, and my dream had that grounding in reality. For the same reason, it wasn't Max either.

So in my hazy dream state of mind, I kept turning over and over who this mystery woman was. I kept thinking who was in the tour group and who was female. Kim. OK, but it wasn't her. So I would recount the number of people in the group: 4. I knew the other 3 (including me) were all male. so it wasn't anyone from our tour group. Or was it? kept struggling in my dream with the possibility that I had missed a woman travelling with us. That night, we were actually camping with another group of 4 travellers that the Belgian couple (Kim and Rembi) had met before and introduced me to in Lhasa - well, only 2 of 4 of the 2nd group. There was also 1 female in that group, also taken, and also had never shown me any kind of affection. So it wasn't her either.

Of course, I never did figure out who this mystery woman was - either in my dream or after waking up - probably because she is no one in particular and does not really exist. When I woke up due to dogs barking in the distance, I didn't have a feeling of sadness or loneliness that this woman didn't exist or that no one is taking care of me in this manner right now. Rather, the feelings of warmth and compassion persisted from my dream, perhaps with the warm antcipation that someday soon someone like this mystery woman will take care of me.

10/23/2006 China Day 28: SUV Lhatse --> Saga, Tibet

10/22/2006 China Day 27: SUV Gyantse --> Lhatse, Tibet

10/21/2006 China Day 26: SUV Lhasa --> Gyantse, Tibet

10/20/2006 China Day 25: Lhasa, Tibet

10/19/2006 China Day 24: Lhasa, Tibet

10/18/2006 China Day 23: Lhasa, Tibet

10/17/2006 China Day 22: Lhasa, Tibet

10/16/2006 China Day 21: Train Golmud, Qinghai --> Lhasa, Tibet - Farewell Golmud!

Since the incubation period for food poisoning can range from several hours to several days, I really have no idea if I got sick in Golmud, Qinghai; in the taxi ride from Dunhuang, Gansu; or in Dunhuang; but regardless, I don't have a great memory of Golmud anyways. So I was happy to leave Golmud.

In a brand, spanking new train, no less! The train cars from Golmud, Qinghai to Lhasa, Tibet are specially designed - they are pressurized like an airplane cabin, and in addition, each berth has an oxygen supply if needed. This train line reaches the highest elevation of any train line in the world: 5,072 m (16,640 ft). Another
engineering marvel, the track includes a 550 km section built on permafrost. The permafrost is hard and expands in winter, but can be soft and wet in summer - not very stable for train tracks. So what Chinese engineers did was build in a solar-powered cooling system along the railway to ensure that the permafrost along the tracks is indeed "perma" and "frost" (i.e. always frozen).

So Tian Fang and I got up at 3 AM to catch the 4:15 AM train (350 RMB / person). I was surprised again in the morning that I still didn't have smallpox. I was still sick with food poisoning, so I slept the entire 12-hour trip from Golmud to Lhasa, with the obligatory restroom breaks. I also found the appetite to eat a bowl of instant noodles. Oh, and to try out the oxygen supply. I didn't feel any difference after 5 minutes (although the plastic smelled funny), so I figure that my extreme fatigue was due to my illness rather than altitude sickness.

We arrived in Lhasa around 4:30 PM, caught a bus to the city center (1 RMB / person), and then another bus closer to the Tibetan (west) side of town (2 RMB / person). We still had to walk 10 minutes with our big backpacks to get to the hostel / tourist area. We checked out a couple of the top hostels recommended by Lonely Planet. Yak hotel was full, so we settled on Pentoc Guesthouse (30 RMB / person). Tian Fang wasn't too happy about the dormitory rooms at Pentoc because 4 beds were squashed into a really tiny room (admittedly so), but I'm not that picky. If you're staying in hostels, I figure, beds are for sleeping, and the rest of the time you're out and about anyways.

We walked around Lhasa for a bit, and then decided to have dinner at a Western-style restaurant that served Chinese, Tibetan, Nepali, Indian, Italian, French, and probably other kinds of food. She ordered from the Chinese menu, and I ordered from the English one. I was really surprised when we both ordered the same thing: Chicken Tikka Masala! The actual dish itself was mediocre by San Francisco standards. The portion was small, but more importantly, the flavor wasn't that great. Nevertheless, I still didn't finish my serving, since I was still sick.

Went to sleep around 11:00 PM.

10/14/2006 China Day 19: Taxi Dunhuang, Gansu --> Golmud, Qinghai

10/15/2006 China Day 20: Golmud, Qinghai - Food Poisoning

Woke up at 9 AM this morning feeling a bit light-headed and dehydrated - as if by alcohol, but without the hangover. I didn't really want to get out of bed. When I finally did, I was really sluggish. Took a warm shower that ended in the dark because the power in the hotel went out. I asked Tian Fang if the hotel had decided to cut the power at a certain time, but she said no, it was a city grid problem.

We took a cab to the train station at 10:30 AM, but by then, all 3 of the days trains had already passed (4 AM, 7 AM, and 10 AM). Sigh, that meant we were stuck in middle-of-nowhere Golmud for 1 whole day. When we tried to buy tickets for the next day, the ticket agent had a computer problem and couldn't generate any tickets, so we decided to go eat brunch at a nearby restaurant first.

I was really lethargic at the restaurant. I barely had any appetite, and I couldn't even hold my head up and sit properly at the table to be polite. In between bites, I laid my head down on my arm on the table. Tian Fang had to explain to the restaurant workers that I was really, really sick (lunch ~50 RMB).

In my worsening condition, we decided to just find a nicer, closer hotel to rest at for the day. We succeeded on the second count, but failed on the first. When we mentioned in the restaurant that we were just going to look for a nearby hotel room to rest in, they said, why not stay in their guest room (20 RMB)? Well that was certainly cheap, so Tian Fang checked it out. She said it was fine; there was no shower, but there was a bathroom. Good enough for a sick guy. I had no intention of taking off my clothes and taking a shower in my condition anyways. So we went to their guest room. One of the restaurant workers helped me carry my large backpack.

Unfortunately, when we got to the room, it wasn't really fine. In hindsight, I think Tian Fang was a little overzealous in wanting to save money. First of all, there were no windows, so inside it was several degrees cooler than outside, and it was a little bit damp - kind of like a wine cellar, now that I think of it, except I wasn't feeling much like a Corton Charlemagne at the moment. Second, the blankets were all dingy and disgusting. No attempt was made to disguise the fact that they had never been washed, and you could no longer discern their original colors. If you can imagine what the smallpox-infected blankets given to the American Indians during
Colonial times (mid-1700s) must have looked like, I imagine they must have resembled these blankets. (Note that there is considerable debate regarding the actual degree and efficacy with which this tactic was used against the American Indians.) I'm actually surprised I didn't catch something else from that room, especially considering the next point. Third, we found out after I woke up from a nap that the room was infested by at least one, but probably more mice. I cannot report seeing any rats or cockroaches, although I believe there was a fly too. I slept through the afternoon this way - alternately sleeping and getting up to use the restroom. Tian Fang took really good care of me. She bought me a couple vials of traditional Chinese medicine - one of which I took before sleeping - and some bottled water.

Finally, in the early evening, I felt good enough to get up. Tian Fang and I walked to a nearby Internet cafe (2 RMB / hour), where I showed her some of my China farewell party and Burning Man 2006 pictures. I didn't get to show her that many because the download speed at that cafe was too slow. I think she was shocked by some of the pictures, but she internalized much of it for later. Oh yeah, and the first picture she saw of Barzel, she picked him right out and said, who's that? He's hot!

After the Internet cafe, we caught a bus (1 RMB / person) to dinner (~50 RMB). Tian Fang ordered a lot of food - 4 dishes between the 2 of us. We had a lot of leftover food since my appetite was still non-existant. 2 small things of note occurred over dinner. First, we heard a huge crash of dishes breaking while we were eating. It was the loudest crash of the most dishes breaking that I had ever heard. It sounded like perhaps 50 dishes breaking. I thought there had been a huge accident in the kitchen, but that later turned out not to be the case. Several minutes later, we saw 3-4 bellicose men being led out separately from the restaurant from an upper floor, each flanked by 3-4 other men to prevent any further altercations. You could tell which were the guilty parties because they were still mouthing off on the way down. The second thing that happened was that I noticed one of the waitresses in her early 20s at the restaurant smiling at me, so I smiled back. She covered her mouth and giggled, then went further away and told the floor manager that she thought I was cute (I read her lips). All the time she was still looking at me, so I smiled still more at her. Soon, she was too embarassed to look, so she ran off into an adjacent room and made busy. Once she peeked out to see if I was still looking at her, which I was, so she hid again, not to come out again until I left a few minutes later. As I left, I smiled at her and told her that she didn't have to hide in the other room. Chinese girls are too shy and immature.

After dinner, Tian Fang stopped in a dessert/bakery kind of place. She bought 2 sweet bread products, and I bought 2 scoops of strawberry and honey dew ice cream. Some sort of Chinese hip hop was playing, so I sashayed over to Tian Fang sitting at a table. She got embarassed and said people were staring at me. I laughed and said I didn't care. One of the employees clapped when I was done (easily impressed).

That's about it. We ate the ice cream and then took a cab back to the smallpox guest room. It was probably only 10 PM at the time. Tian Fang wasn't tired yet, but I was exhausted from my illness.

10/13/2006 China Day 18: Bus Liuyuan, Gansu --> Dunhuang, Gansu

10/12/2006 China Day 17: Train Urumqi, Xinjiang --> Liuyuan, Gansu

10/11/2006 China Day 16: Bus Bu'erjing --> Urumqi, Xinjiang

10/10/2006 China Day 15: Kanas Lake, Xinjiang

10/9/2006 China Day 14: Collective Taxi Bu'erjing --> Kanas Lake, Xinjiang

10/8/2006 China Day 13: Bus Urumqi --> Bu'erjing, Xinjiang

10/7/2006 China Day 12: Urumqi, Xinjiang - Chinese Short Stories

This morning I finished up the 23-hour train ride from Kashgar back to Urumqi with the 15-person Chinese group. In the afternoon, I simply rested. I washed my clothes (5 RMB), took a shower, transferred photos from my memory cards to CD (10 RMB / CD), and bought some food for my upcoming trip to Kanas Lake.

I wasn't sure until 6 PM whether I'd be leaving for Kanas Lake the same night at 8 PM or the next evening because Tian Fang and her friend Yu Chi wanted to come with, but Yu Chi wasn't sure she'd be able to get the time off of work. At 6:15 PM, I called Tian Fang, and after some playful kidding, she said that she and Yu Chi were coming with me! That meant that we would wait until the next evennig and catch the overnight bus together to Bu'erjin.

The Dining Car Is for Eating

On the train ride back from Kashgar to Urumqi, Tian Fang and I had brunch in the train dining car. As we were finishing up the meal, we were enjoying the view out the wndow, my arm around her shoulders, my cheek pressed against hers. We were interrupted by a male voice asking gruffly, "Are you done eatng?" Startled, I looked up to see the voce's owner, a uniformed train policeman. Not knowing what was to come, I answered yes. This apparently gave the policeman the license he was waiting for to launch into his tirade about how this was a public dining car for eating, and look at all the people around. Well, I didn't understand everything he said or all the public decency standards I was apparently violating, but judging from his tone, it was a lot of them!

My initial thought after the surprise of being interrupted by the policeman wore off was of a French expression that Max had recently explained to me and another friend or two, "être mal baisé" - or in English, "to be badly fucked". The meaning is that someone is in a bad mood because they are not having good sex. My thought was that for a policeman to make an issue out of so little (by American standards), he must be really mal baisé. I didn't bother trying to convey that to him in Chinese, though. Instead, we just paid for our meal and left (giggling a bit too).

Crossdrives

I could have written this on almost any other day in China, but since today is a collection of short stories, it seemed like an appropriate time. In China, there are street markings that bear a striking resemblance to crosswalks; however, they are actually crossdrives. There are no crosswalks in China.

A crossdrive is a street marking to indicate that while as a pedestrian you may be able to cross when there are no vehicles passing, you must always pay attention and yield to all passing vehicles. If you do not, they will surely honk at you for your callous disregard for their right of way. It stands to reason then, that if heaven forbid you actually hit a car while on foot in a crossdrive, you or your survivors wll more than likely be responsible for any damages to the vehicle.

I've been in some countries where drivers have a callous disregard for pedestrians. France comes to mind, but they won't actually honk at you if you have the right of way - they'll just begrudgingly cede it to you if you force their hand. Peru is actually pretty bad. They will honk at you if you're crossing the street and there is no crosswalk. However, they won't ignore a red light, make a left turn into a 2-way street, and honk at you if you happen to be in the crossdrive at the right time. In China, they will. I don't know where such disregard for both pedestrians and any rules of the road come from, or why all traffic violations are completely ignored by police officers, even if they occur right in front of them!

Chinese Customer Service

Throughout the entire world, the Chinese are known for their superb lack of customer service. Some of you gentle Fluid Readers may attribute their cultural lack of customer service skills to a language barrier in a foreign language, but I'm here to tell you that it just ain't so. This evening, Tian Fang took Yu Chi and me to one of her favorite Uighur restaurants. As is the case in some resaturants in China, we had to prepay for our meal. That was OK, and the food was OK too.

After we finished the main course, we decided to order some homemade ice cream for me. This, it turns out, was one of the main reasons that Tian Fang had selected this restaurant - she had remembered me saying on a couple occasions on our trip to Kashgar together how much I loved ice cream. Apparently, this craving is just as odd in China as it is in France and surely many other countries. You can't just go to any restaurant in China and expect them to have (even bad) ice cream on the menu for dessert.

We asked the server which flavor was the best, and she indicated the plain (also the cheapest) was the best. And it really was good when it came! My only beef was when we ordered the ice cream (4 RMB), the server said, "Xian fu," whch more literally translated means, "Pay first." But I believe that a translation that more accurately conveys the curtness of her statement would be "Money first." In either case, all 3 of us (native and non-native speakers) were equally shocked at the server's lack of tact, and we laughed it off as we paid.

One extenuating circumstance may have been that the server was Uighur, and her Chinese may not have been that good. I tend to dismiss this possibility, however, because she was not that old and should have learned Chinese in school.

Don't Touch Me

After dinner, Tian Fang, Yu Chi, and I were talking about cars, and Tian Fang told me about a satirical expansion the Chinese have for the BMW abbreviation: "Buyao Mou Wo", which translated means "Don't Touch Me". I found it humorous and appropriate.

10/6/2006 China Day 11: Train Kashgar --> Urumqi, Xinjiang

10/5/2006 China Day 10: Tianshan Grand Canyon, Xinjiang

10/4/2006 China Day 9: Aoyitake Glacier --> Tianshan Grand Canyon, Xinjiang

10/3/2006 China Day 8: Tashkurgan --> Aoyitake Glacier, Xinjiang

10/2/2006 China Day 7: Karakoram Highway, Xinjiang

10/1/2006 China Day 6: Kashgar, Xinjiang

9/30/2006 China Day 5: Train Urumqi --> Kashgar, Xinjiang - Le Voyage, The Excitement of a Trip within a Trip

Even though I am already on a vacation of my own, today I was really excited to leave on my trip within a trip with some local Chinese to Kashgar a trading center on the Silk Road, near the western Chinese border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

I woke up at 6 AM to take care of a few things before leaving on the trip. Unfortunately, things didn't work out quite so well. First, I was going to hop on the Internet at my hostel, check my email, and update this blog. However, for some reason, at this hostel, you can only use the Internet after 10 AM. Well, that wouldn't work for me - I had too much to do that morning and besides, I had to be at the train station at 11:30 AM. There were no Internet cafes in the area open at that hour, so I was out of luck on that count.

While I was searching through my backpack, my iPod dropped out. I picked it up and there was no outward damage. And when I turned it on, everything seemed to be working properly - that is, until I tried to play any music or a movie. Nothing would play - it seems there was some damage to the hard drive. So to any of you more technically inclined, it seems that I inadvertantly discovered that the iPod OS is stored entirely on ROM. So yeah, my photo hard drive backup is shot. I'll just have to rely on burning CDs I guess. In a way, I suppose it's good that this happened before I transferred any photos over and erased them from my memory cards. At least this way, I haven't lost any photos - just an iPod.

Next up on my list of things to do was to try to return my bus ticket to Bu'erjin. It was almost 8 AM by this time. I took a taxi to the station (9.5 RMB). The area around the bus stop looks a lot poorer than the other areas of Urumqi that I have seen, such as the area near my hostel, the clinic where I got my rabies shot, and the Wuyi night market. It seems that the population around the bust station is heavily Uighur.

I don't want to be, but I'm a little more hesitant to interact with Uighur men - especially merchants - after the altercation with the canteloupe vendor the previous night. So, for example, as I was walking towards the bus station, a couple Uighur men offered me some sort of honey-puffed-rice-nuts cake like a rice krispe treat, except for with nuts and not disgusting. I tasted a piece and it was pretty good, and I think I normally would have bought some, but I didn't because communication was difficult and I didn't want 2 Uighurs with knives running after me - especially with me carring a 20-pound backpack.

I got in the refund line at the bus station just before 8 AM, which is when that window opens, so it was lucky timing. While I was waiting in line for the window to open, a couple scalpers came up to me and offered to buy my ticket for 20% off face value. They said taht this is the same amount that I would get after returning my ticket. I later learned from another traveller near the window that this was a a bit of a lie. The service charge to return a ticket is 10% until 2 hours before departure, and then 20% after. Since my bus wasn't leaving until 8 PM and it was 8 AM, the service charge would only have been 10%. In any case, I refused their offer because the ticket window was almost open and I was 2nd or 3rd in line.

In the end, I didn't return my bus ticket at the window either because I thought there was some chance that I wouldn't be able to get on the train to Kashgar with my new friends because it was the autumn national holiday and (almost) everyone in the country (1.5 billion people) was travelling everywhere. And if I wasn't able to travel with my friends to Kashgar, I still wanted to be able to go to Kanas Lake that evening. I was afraid if I returned the bus ticket, the overnight bus to Kanas Lake might sell out and I would have to wait another night to go. Also, I was sick of getting in taxis clear across town from my hostel to buy and return bus tickets. So I decided I'd eat the $20 bus ticket if I got a seat on the train to Kashgar.

I had 2 things left to do before meeting Tian Fang at the train station at 11:30 AM. I could go to an Internet cafe, and I wanted to buy a water filter (no more carrying 11 pounds worth of water!). Unfortunately, netier Internet cafes nor camping stores were open that early. So I sat down at the bus station, wrote in my journal some, and met a few fellow travellers at the bus station who were waiting near me. In particular, I met a soft-spoken Uighur man who came to visit his sister and her daughter for the national holiday. His sister was emigrating with her daughter to Canada in the next couple weeks, so I'm sure it was going to be a touching week for them all.

At around 10 AM, the stores started opening. I passed by a China Mobile store while searching for an Internet cafe, so I popped in and bought a 100 RMB prepaid SIM card. I thought it'd be quick, but it wasn't. Their paperwork wasn't designed for Western names, and it took a while to explain the different calling plans to me with my limited Chinese. The saleswoman was admirably patient, though.

By the time we were done, it was 10:30 AM. There was no more time for me to spend at an Internet cafe even if I found one, so I got in a taxi (6 RMB) to the camping store. Actually, the camping store had 2 locations, and I didn't know which one was closer, so I went back into the China Mobile store and asked the same girl who had helped me which store was closer. She told me which one, and even interrupted helping her current client to call the camping store, go outside and hail a cab for me, and give him directions to the camping store for me. Unbelievably kind and helpful!

So yeah ... camping goods ... one thing you don't want to come to China to buy because they import all the good stuff from the U.S. and Europe, and it's damn expensive! For example, a Platypus collapsable plastic water bag that costs perhaps $12 at REI costs 320 RMB ($40) in China! The Ketadyne Hiker water filter that I bought normally costs about $55 at REI. Here, I had to pay 700 RMB ($88) after a 10% discount! Ah well. You win some, you lose some.

I finished buying the water filter at 11:15 AM - just in time to catch a taxi to the train station to meet Tian Fang. She didn't arrive until 11:45 AM and there was a crazy number of people at the train station, so I'm glad I happened to get a SIM card that morning, otherwise I never would have found her. When we met again, she was was wearing another beautiful, colorful outfit.

We waited a long time for the rest of her friends to slowly arrive - perhaps until 12:15 PM. By that time, it was time to board the train. We bought a 1 RMB "Buy your ticket on the train" ticket and I was able to board with that. Actually, Tian Fang was able to board with that because she gave me her ticket. The train car was so full of people and bags in the aisles and everywhere else. Several times, people couldn't move in either direction. Eventually, we got to our seats, but of the 15 of us, only about 8 had tickets, so a lot of us were standing in the aisles. It was hot too!

So apparently, you can get on any train you want to in China. Just buy one of those 1 RMB "I'll buy my ticket on the train" tickets and get on. You actually do have to buy a ticket later though, because they chekc tickets on your way out of the train station, and a 1 RMB ticket won't do. After almost 2 housr on the train, we heard there were several sleeper cars available. Wen, a professional tour guide, and the organizer of this trip, went to see how many he could acquire. When he came back, he had great news. He had sleeper cars for all of us!

That was the hectic beginning to my trip within a trip. After we got to our sleeper car, however, things were a lot more relaxed and enjoyable. We passed the time like I imagine any group would on a train - alternately sleeping, talking, looking out the window, taking pictures, sharing food we had brought or bought on the train, and drinking some alcohol at night. The terrain we rode through was pretty - arid desert with earthen mountains in the nearby distance. I wrote in my journal a lot, and I found the luggage ledge in my sleeping compartment perfectly suited for pullups. It was very enjoyable to travel with this large family like this.

Chinese trains are mostly like American ones - not very new, but adequate. There is a dining car with pretty good cooked food on each. The one difference I noticed was taht while in the U.S. you might have potable cold water somewhere in each car, on Chinese trains, there is no potable cold water - only potable hot water. The hot water is good for drinking directly, making tea, or instant noodles. The only thing it's not good for is a cool drink, if that's what you want.

I spent a lot of time talking with Tian Fang. Like almost all of the Chinese I haev met until now, no one in this group speaks any English to speak of. While my Chinese is good for getting around, it is very inadequate for having deep or lengthy conversations unless the person I'm talking to is really interested in hearing what I have to say and patient enough to wait for me to fumble with my words and only get an approximation of what I really meant to say. She often has to do the same in reverse - repeat what she said using progressively simpler words and further approximations from what she originally menat. When we have a lot of time on our hands like this, a dictionary helps too. Went to sleep around midnight.

9/29/2006 China Day 4: Tian Chi --> Urumqi, Xinjiang - Uh Oh, This Is Not Good ...

I may never (want to) work again like Barzel! That's what I thought this morning as I was brushing my teeth gazing at Tian Chi lake seated upon a rock.

Woke up at 3 AM ready to go. Where's the sun?! Oh, it's only 3 AM and it's damn cold! Went back to sleep until 6 AM, and then 7 AM. Got up, brushed my teeth, and packed up my sleeping gear except for my sleeping bag, which I laid out to dry in the cold air.

On the way back from rinsing off my hands in the lake, I met Hyo Dros, a Dutch man on 12-month sabatical in Asia. He came with the Dutch tour group, but he's continuing on without them as they return today. He doesn't speak any Chinese. He's going to Dunhuang first and then headed to Tibet. I thought we might meet up there, since I'm headed there after visiting Kanas Lake and Kashgar.

For breakfast, we had some noodles. The English and I played a round of cards, and then they packed up to leave. (I had already packed.) We left Rashid's place around 11:30 AM and headed down the mountain.

At the welcome center atop the mountain, Brian and I parted ways with the 3 English guys because they wanted to kill some time there because their prepaid bus didn't leave until 4:30 PM. Brian needed to get back to Urumqi as early as possible to catch a bus to Turpan. I was happy to get back to Urumqi to arrange travel to Kanas Lake. I told the English I would see them at their hostel in Urumqi because it was cheaper (30 RMB) than my last hotel (160 RMB) and good enough.

On the hike down, Brian pointed out a woman that was wearing red pumps and having a very difficult time getting down. On the tour bus to Tian Chi, on the trails, and atop the mountain, there was no shortage of Chinese tourists not dressed for hiking - button-down dress shirts, dress slacks, and dress shoes. We descended the mountain uneventfully and arrived right on time to catch the 2 PM municipal bus to Urumqi (20.5 RMB).

In Urumqi, Brian and I parted ways. I helped him catch a taxi to the other city bus station to catch his bus to Turpan. I headed to the hostel.

I checked in at the hostel and an employee there who spoke very good English gave me very detailed instructions on how to do the 3 things I wanted to get done that day:

• Make arrangements to get to Kanas Lake


• Get my 3rd and final rabies vaccination shot


• Buy a water filter

Lonely planet makes it seem difficult to get to Kanas Lake without a tour group, but the guy at the hostel made it seem easy. Catch an overnight bus for 160 RMB, then catch a 4-passenger jeep (50 RMB) to Kanas Lake that leaves when it's full. He also gave me directions to a clinic where he had gotten rabies shots, as well as the card for an outdoor gear shop.

I went to get my rabies shot first because it was around 4:30 PM and the clinic would close earliest. I tried to take the bus (1 RMB), but it was near impossible without either the name of the clinic or the name of the bus stop to ask the driver or a passenger to help me out. So I got off at the wrong stop and took a taxi to the clinic. With the aid of a dictionary, getting a rabies shot (80 RMB) was not that difficult.

Next, I went to the bus station to get my bus ticket to Bu'erjin (160 RMB), the closest town to Kanas Lake. It being the Friday before the autumn national holiday (everyone in the country gets the week off), the lines were pretty long, but they were orderly. It took perhaps 30 minutes, but I was able to purchase a ticket without any problem.

By this time, it was 6:30 PM and although I could have gone to buy a water filter then, I was hungry and I thought my English friends might have arrived back at the hostel by then and be hungry also. Turns out my timing was just right, and I arrived just as they were checking in. Dan needed a shower, so we all took one. Then we headed off to the Wuyi night market to eat.

We went back to the same kebab place that I ate at alone 2 nights before. The restaurant is actually 4-in-1. It has an outdoor kebab place, and indoor noodle soup, fried noodle, and fancy sit-down places. Since none of us could really order food by name, we instead walked around with a server and pointed out things on a picture menu (where available) or things that people were eating. We ended up with a delicioous meal of noodles, Chinese pancakes, kebabs, and beers that we all shared. Total price: 80 RMB = $2.50 per person.

2 interesting things happened over dinner. The first was that a poor Uighur man trying to make a living by selling canteloupe slices got mad at me due to a linguistic barrier. The Uighur have their own language, and some of them, especially some of the older ones, don't speak Chinese very well. So the canteloupe vendor came by our table and let me taste a sample. It was very sweet and flavorful, so I thought I'd order a slice. I asked the vendor how much a slice would cost, and I believe he answered 3 RMB (expensive in retrospect - should be about 1 RMB). However, either he or I misunderstood, and he started cutting up 3 canteloupe slices instead of charging me 3 RMB for 1 slice. When I protested that I only wanted to buy 1 slice, the vendor started to get agitated (presumably because he had already sliced the other 2 pieces) and the Chinese restaurant workers stepped in on my side (I had previously made friends with a couple of them) and tried to diffuse the situation. The fruit vendor was insistent, however, wanting me to buy all 3 slices. The restaurant employees told me to only buy what I wanted. In the end, however, the vendor insisted on 3 pieces, and then 2 pieces for so long, and he even clenched his fist at me and growled in Uighur at me, that the restaurant employees chased him away without me buying anything at all.

Afterwards, I was a little bit worried about the altercation because the canteloupe vendor was still hanging around and his canteloupe knife was pretty long! He was also sulking with a few of his Uighur friends, so instead of 1 angry Uighur with a knife after me, it might have been 4 angry Uighurs with knives after me. The Uighurs, like the Turks, with some common ancestry from Turkistan, Kazakhstan, like their knives. And I had forgotten Zeki's admonitions until now to be careful with Turks and their knives. Luckily in the end, I didn't get stabbed.

Well, the other thing that happened at dinner was that I met a beautiful girl in what seemed to me to be such an unlikely string of occurrences. She was sitting at a table next to ours with 2 guys. I first noticed her beautiful, colorful skirt. Being the new, more outgoing me, I wanted to compliment her on her skirt. I waited a bit for her to turn my way for me to talk to her, but she never did. In the meantime, the 3 English guys noticed my distraction and we started talkinga bout the girl in the pretty skirt.

To my surprise, most or all of them said it would get their goat if a random guy came up and complimented their girlfriend in front of them. They would either want to fight to defend their honor (actually, I'm not sure whose honor would have been offended there) or would just watch the guy with a very wary eye.

I tried to convince them that it was just an innocent compliment, and that it was nice to make other people feel good, but they weren't convinced that I was so innocent :-). I persisted and said if it were me, I would just be happy that someone else thought my significant other loved me enough to want to stay with me. Violence or defensiveness couldn't be the answer because someday someone would say the same thing to her and they wouldn't be there to do anything. I would just be happy that she chose to say with me every day.

To which the English responded that while they didn't necessarily disagree with me, they would still get angry. To which, I threw up my hands in the air and gave up. However, the English were now riled up and they were daring me to go over and talk to the girl. They wanted to see how a Chinese boyfriend would respond. Without their egging, I probably wouldn't have gotten out of my chair to tell the girl that I liked her skirt, but in this case, I said, what the hell.

So I got up, walked 10 steps around out table, and told her. I asked here where she got it, and could I buy on too, and she said Beijing. I asked her if I could take a picture, and she said yes, but not to include her face. A shame, because she had a pretty face that was getting prettier by teh second (It's a well known fact that if a man likes a woman's personality, her outward appearance becomes more beautiful to his eyes.) At this point, not only did she get up for me to take a picture, she actually posed and modelled it.

Afterwards, she invited me to sit down with them, and she introduced me to her 2 friends. We talked a little, and I told them where I was from. After a while, I asked her to write her name down for me so I could write it in my journal, and she did (Tian Fang) - along with her telephone number and email address. At some point in there, we actually took a couple real pictures together including our faces. And I asked her what she was going to do tonight, and she said she was going to the bar.

That's about it, and I went back to my table, happy to have met a sweet girl. Back at our table, the English were mildly impressed. Personally, thinking back on it, it felt to me like a staged performance with accomplices in the audience. Honestly, I just expected to go over to her, compliment her, hopefully watch her smile and say thank you, and then say goodbye. But as each new invitiation to stay a while came (invitation to sit down, take pictures, getting her phone number), I kept thinking, this shouldn't be happening to me, I'm just not that slick.

So Tian Fang and her 2 friends left first. We waved goodbye. My English friends and I finished soon after and decided to go to a bar ourselves. I have no idea what bar Tian Fang went to. We went to a bar the English had been to before - Fubar. I recognized the computer meaning of the name ("foo" and "bar" are the canonical first 2 variable names in programming, like "x" and "y" in algebra); the English told me about the military meaning (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) which I didn't know previously; and the bartender told me that the Chinese translation had a very good meanining as well - "Good Luck Bar" or "Happiness Bar".

Apparently Fubar is the only foreign-owned and -run bar in Xinjiang. The bartender's name was Hiro. He was Japanese and spoke very good English and Chinese. He had very good beers and scotches, such as Leffe, Duvel, and Macallan 12. I had a Leffe. I asked how much a shot of Macallan 12 was, and he said that he could only sell it by the bottle because the Chinese didn't know it and weren't inquisitive enough to discover it. Same for the Belgian beers. He was selling the Macallan 12 for $120 U.S. or so.

I played a couple games of pool with the English when I got to thinking, if Tian Fang gave me her phone number without me asking for it, she must have wanted me to use it. And the only time I could really use it was that night, because she told me she was leaving for Kashgar, Xinjiang the next morning for 1 week. And I was leaving that same evening for Kanas Lake.

Since I had no phone (and neither did my English friends), I asked Hiro if I could use the bar's phone to make a phone call. He cheerfully agreed. I dialed Tian Fang's number twice, but could not get through. There was a recorded message from the phone company, but I couldn't understand it. One of the regular bar patrons sitting next to me at the bar took and interest in my escapades and asked if she could help. I showed her the number and she dialed it on her mobile. The recording again came on and said it was a bad number. My new friend thought for a while and then thought that perhaps this was not a local number and she needed to dial 0 first. That worked, and we got through, but Tian Fang didn't pick up. I don't think she had voicemail, because my friend didn't leave a message or ask me if I wanted to leave one. Oh well, I tried.

I spoke some with the girl who helped me call Tian Fang. She's a travel agent who is also learning English on the side. I asked if she was learning English to be able to help foreigners, but she said it was just for her own interest.

I also talked to another Chinese woman who looked very bored and unhappy next to her boyfriend, who was busy on his laptop. I went over and asked her why she was unhappy, but she denied it (could have fooled me). She is a sculpting teacher, and was making some sculptures of the 3 bar owners for the bar. I can't think of where the sculptures would fit in with the bar decor. Turns out she and the travel agent were friends.

About 30 minutes after we called, Tian Fang called back the travel agent on her phone, and the travel agent brought me her phone - so nice of her. I spoke with Tian Fang a few minutes - asked her if the bar she was at was fun; she asked the same of the bar I was at. Neither of us was really crazy about the bar we were at, but she decided to come over to Fubar. That was 10:30 PM.

She arrived at 11 PM with a couple friends. We talked a bit and then decided to head to another bar where some of her friends were hanging out that night. When we got there, I was pretty excited to see an authentic Chinese bar where real Chinese hang out. It turned out to be a special night - one of Xinjiang's best known poets was having a gathering with several other poets and some musicians. So there were many poetry readings and some musical performances. I was even inspired to recite half of Beaudelaire's "La Musique". Unfortunately, I couldn't remember the whole thing at the time (now I do), so the poem ended kind of ubruptly. The audience was still kind enough to clap though.

At some point later in the evening, they took a break from live entertainment and put on a few danceable tunes. A couple started (fast) dancing and I grabbed a female poet that I happened to be talking to at the time, and we started dancing. Soon other women joined the dance floor. Since there weren't many other men on the dance floor, I started dancing with the other women too. The guy from the original couple handed me his girl to dance with too. It felt good to dance with so many girls. I was really tired out after 3 songs though.

Another interesting thing about the Chinese bar was that several tables were eating popcorn. While this is not at all unusual in the United States, it is unusual in many other countries, such as France. They don't eat popcorn at all in France. So it was interesting for me to see that they do eat popcorn in China.

The rest of the evening, I drank alcohol with some of Tian Fang's friends. At some point, she invited me to go with her and 15 of her friends on their vacation to Kashgar in the west of Xinjiang. I immediately thought of Barzel's advice here: "If anyone (local) ever invites you to do anything, drop wahtever you're doing and go with them, because then you'll get to see how the locals really live." So even though I had already bought my bus ticket to Kanas Lake ($20) for the next evening, I happily accepted Tian Fang's invitation.

People started leaving the bar around 2 AM, and I was tired too, so I got up to leave. Tian Fang accompanied me to my hostel even though I protested because her home was in the opposite direction. We made plans to meet at the train station at 11:30 AM the next morning. Went to sleep at 2:30 AM.

9/28/2006 China Day 3: Tian Chi, Xinjiang - Techno Yurt!

Woke up at 6 AM, packed, and checked out of my hotel. Took a taxi (6 RMB) to the city park to catch a bus to Tian Chi, not knowing the park was only 6 short blocks away from my hotel.

There were several tour groups offering tours of Tian Chi - all at the same price. I didn't want to join a tour though; I just wanted to get a ride up there to explore on my own, so I would be able to hike up the mountain and be able to spend the night if I liked. The tour group was taking a chair lift up the mountain and only spending 2.5 hours exploring before returning the same day.

The price of the bus ride only to Tian Chi was interesting. It was 40 RMB round-trip if you went and came back the same day. However, if you slept there and you wanted to come back a different day, then you would have to pay another full 40 RMB for the return trip. This was the same across all tour groups.

Their reasoning, if you only think about efficiency, was sound. However, this kind of reasoning totally ignores building a reputation for good service, which is what I hate about Chinese (small business) ultra-efficiency. Their reasoning was that they are always able to fill up their minibus with paying customers (my bus up was full). So if they have to bring you back on another day, that means that they have to leave an empty, paying seat on the way up, so you have to pay full price for that seat on that day too.

So of the 5 or so tour groups there, I chose the one with a permanent physical office there because I figured if there were any problems, I could come by and find them more easily. All of the others had just set up signs and a couple of stools and were shouting out to passers-by. I slightly regretted this decision over the next couple hours because another tour guide was cuter, but more importantly, she helped me out a lot over the next hour or two, telling me where to get breakfast, food, and water for the trip, and how to get back from Tian Chi on a different day on the municipal bus for 20 RMB.

On the bus ride up, I met a couple Chinese guys visiting Urumqi and Tian Chi from a different province. We had the usual conversation about where was I from? How did I speak Chinese? And was I really of Chinese origin even though I was born in America? However, I wasn't happy with my hotel situation in Urumqi. I didn't want to pay 160 RMB ($20) per night for a room. So I asked one of the Chinese men how much he was paying for his hotel. He told me 20 RMB, which I thought was great, as long as the rooms weren't too dingy. I think there is some disctinction between hotels that can take in foreigners and those that can't, so I as concerned that I might not be able to get in for that reason. He told me that his hotel was around the city park, andI didn't ask for more details than that because unless he had the actual address on him, nothing else would have really helped me.

The trip up to Tian Chi was otherwise uneventful. When we got there, we stopped at a tourist trap selling Chinese herbal medicines. It seems that many or all tours do this, as several other tour buses stopped there while we were there. This was a minor annoyance because I wasted 30 perfectly good minutes standing around at an ugly roadside shop instead of hiking or even just relaxing in Tian Chi.

I did, however, meet Brian, a Scot traveling China for a couple weeks during this stop. He was on the same bus as me - we just hadn't noticed each other until we got off the bus. And even then, most Westerners apparently wouldn't be able to distinguish me from a Chinese person. Brian is finishing his Ph.D. in Risk Management in 1 month in Scotland. He came to China ostensibly for a conference in Beijing, but really just came to travel China.

Brian packed light because he was planning to spend the night in a yurt. I packed heavy because I was planning to rough it up to 2 nights - sleeping outside in my sleeping bag and a bivy sack. I was carrying 5+ L of water for 2 days because I didn't have a water filter (left mine at home thinking water in China would be too chemically polluted to want to drink even if filtered). 5 L x 5 kg = 11 lbs = :-(

So with my bus ticket purchased at 8:15 AM, I had an hour or so to kill before the bus left at 9:30 AM, and I was hungry! I went to a restaurant recommended by the cute tour guide. It was a little hole in the wall, but it was awesome. I had a bowl of beef(-flavored) noodles for breakfast and ordered a mixture of 20 freshly steamed pork and vegetable buns for the hike. The 3 women working in the restaurant were so happy to have a foreigner who spoke Chinese visit their restaurant, and everyone including me was smiling. It was a wonderful breakfast.

The bus ride up to Tian Chi was uneventful. Brian met Rashid (or was it the other way around) in the bus parking lot. Rashid is a famous yurt host in many Western guide books because he is friendly, has a nice place, and speaks perfect English. He told me that he has never visited an English-speaking country, and that he developed his English simply by speaking with his many inerational guests. So Brian made arrangements to stay at Rashid's for the night (40 RMB) and we began our hike up the mountain.

It's not a very tall mountain - perhaps 6000 feet. There is a waterfall or two on the way up, and the main attraction is a lake at the top. It's a nice lake, but nothing you can't see at Lake Tahoe, California, and certainly falls short of Yosemite and Kings Canyon national parks (also in California). In the afternoon when all the tour buses arrive, te place is overbooked and the tourists overwhelm the serenity of the lake.

Rashid's place is the best yurt place to stay at the lake for 2 reasons. First, it is on the water's edge, whereas all the other yurt places are back off the water's edge. The other reason is that his place is at the far side of the lake relative to where the chair lift arrives and all the Chinese city-slickers congregate in their dress slacks and dress shoes. So with a 30 minute walk to the far side of the lake, you can get away from the tourist crush even in the afternoon.

When Brian and I arrived at Rashid's after 2 hours of hiking, there were already 2 tour groups of 20 Germans and 16 Dutch. While this is much more than the usual number of guests, it gives a good idea of Rashid's popularity. It was almost 4 PM at the time. Brian and I sat down to have a late lunch. I ate some of the steamed buns that I had brought up. Brian at rice with carrots and corn prepared by the camp. We each had a beer (5 RMB each).

After lunch, Brian decided to go for a 3-hour horseback ride to the top of some vantage point where you can get a better view of some nearby snow-covered mountain peaks. I declined, preferring instead to hang out at camp, enjoy the scenery, maybe meet some people, and maybe write some in my journal.

What I ended up doing was meeting 3 cool English guys: Dan, his younger brother, Rich; and Dan's friend, Matt. They were playing a card game called Shithead. I watched a round, and then they dealt me in. Dan and Rich, especially, are the coolest blokes. They have the funniest shit to say, and they have comical brotherly arguments in too much detail about shit that nobody cares about.

We had a great time shooting the shit and playing cards until Brian came back from his horseback ride. Dan speaks and reads pretty good Chinese (500 characters) because he taught English in China for a year some years ago. Turns out the 3 English guys had a tiff with the Germans and Dutch because the English guys had arrived the day before and stayed in a yurt. Then, when the Germans and Dutch arrived the next day while the English were out, Rashid somehow put a full contingent in the yurt the English were staying in. Well, instead of asking Rashid if there was some sort of mistake, the invaders simply pushed all of the English guys' stuff out of the way and set up their own. Then, when the English came back, the foreign occupiers chased them out of the disputed yurt yelling, "No way! Get out! This is our yurt! We already paid for it! Go talk to Rashid!" Typical self-important Germanic peoples! We're not actually sure whether it was the Germans or the Dutch who were actually responsible for this, but it's easier for us just to blame them all in a blanket fashion.

So Brian came back and the 5 of us (3 English, a Scot, and an American) had lamb kebabs (10 RMB) and the same carrot-corn-rice from lunch for dinner. I believe the lamb kebabs were a special treat because the English had decided to buy half a lamb (raised in Rashid's camp) from Rashid for 200 RMB. In an act of cosmic retribution, the Germans and the Dutch didn't get any kebabs.

After dinner, the English didn't want to just play cards and fall asleep, so we decided to go looking for the magical, mythical dance club hereafter and forever known as "Techno Yurt"! Yes, I said dance club in the middle of a Chinese national or provincial park where on any typical summer night, you can expect a sum total of 20 foreigners staying overnight. And no, we weren't high. We walked for a good 30-45 minutes, but we never found Techno Yurt that night. Too bad, because the ladies have no idea what they missed.

That's about it. The English slept happily in the same yurt as Brian. I would have slept in the same yurt too, but I decided to test out my fancy cold-weather camping gear, so I slept outside in my sleeping bag and bivy sack with several layers of clothihng on and a hat. I'm happy to report that I was warm as a bunny even though it was probably 0ºC or colder at night. Went to sleep at 11:30 PM.

That's it for now, Fluid People! Talk to you soon.

9/27/2006 China Day 2: Urumqi, Xinjiang - Uighur Women Are Hot!!

because they all look like Elif! Sorry for those of you who don't know Elif - you are very unlucky.

Uighurs are the original inhabitants of Xinjiang before the Han Chinese seized control in the late 1860s. They came from Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and other regions, and their faces are a mix of central Asian and Chinese features. Very sexy. This is what i see in Elif, even though she is Turkish.

Today, I woke up at 6 AM, did some pushups, and ate an American breakfast (16 RMB) at the hotel. At breakfast, I sat with Jo, an English girl finishing up her travels in China. She likes nature and traveling off the beaten path like me. Coincidentally, she traveled to the same 2 places where I'm starting my journey - Xinjiang province and Tibet. She gave me some tips and told me about her adventures hitching through Xinjiang and Tibet.

Jo's entering her 4th year of college in England. She's studying Sports Engineering. I didn't know what that was, so I asked her. She told me that she's studying to create new types of sports equipment. She visited China this year during her summer break. She loves Asia for its cultural differences and inexpensiveness. She's already visited Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and more, and she'd like to come back to visit India soon.

Jo also told me about a Japanese guy she met who rode his bike across Japan and China. He was headed through Tibet, Nepal, and India. Awesome!

So after breakfast, I caught a cab (14 RMB) to the airport bus (16 RMB). Once I was on the bus though, I realized I forgot to return my keys to the Beijing hostel for my 50 RMB deposit. So once I got to the airport, I bought an envelope (1 jiao = 0.1 RMB) and asked a stranger to address the envelope for me back to the hostel. The stamp cost 1 RMB, but I have no idea if the envelope will arrive and I'll get my $6.25 deposit back :-).

On the 4 hour flight to Urumqi, I met a couple of government workers going to visit Xinjiang province with a few of their coworkers. The youngest one had been to Tibet a few year previous, so he gave me a few tips. We also talked about music some, and I let them listen to some African hip-hop and some psytrance on my iPod.

I mad the mistake of not having my lodging for the night picked out before arriving at Urumqi - that is to say, I didn't know where the local Hostelling International (HI) hotel was in Urumqi. I had such a good experience with the HI hostel in Beijing that I'll try to stay in the HI hotels in any city I visit where they have one. In this case, I decided to try one of the non-HI hostels recommended by Lonely Planet.

Although the guide book indicated that this and other nearby hostels were near the train station, it neglected to mention how forlorn the area was. It was well-removed from the center of town, and there didn't seem to be any restaurants, convenience stores, or anything else to do. Nevertheless, I took a look at the recommended hostel. But it was a rip-off. 80 RMB for a dorm style bed (which was otherwise fine) but it was in a shitty part of town and no shower was provided! I wasn't going to pay 20 RMB more in Urumqi for way worse accommodations than in Beijing.

This is for Jake

So I took a Taxi to a real hotel recommended by the guide book. The good thing about real hotels versus hostels is that you get hookers calling you from check-in and through all hours of the night asking if you want a massage. Here is what you can get for $25 U.S.:



So on my way up to my room (160 RMB), I share the elevator with this provocatively (by Chinese standards) dressed woman. I think, hrm, that's strange, I've never seen such a provocatively dressed Chinese woman. Maybe she's Westernized, or is going dancing tonight. I smile at her (why not?) and she turns away and giggles.

Later, while walking back and forth from the front desk, I see her again from a bit of a distance. After I get to my room, the phone rings. I am intrigued, since I know no one in China, and no one significant to me in the world knows my exact whereabouts. I pick up the phone, and it is her.

"Do you want a massage?" she asks in Chinese. Hrm, I know where this goes. I say no, I am going out (for dinner and to arrange tomorrow's excursion). She persists and says, "Then why did you look at me that way before?" I see she is in her element here, playing the sly fox.

I tell her because she is pretty (well, sort of) and she tells me I am pretty cute too, and are all American boys as cute? I say no, truthfully, thinking of Jake.

So I invite her up to my room for a 50 RMB ($6.25) massage. This would have been a great deal, if only she knew anything about massage. As it were, however, it was the worst, most useless massage of my life. She obviously didn't graduate from a very prestigious school of massage.

That's OK. I learned some new words, like "hang out" and "make love". She was actually embarassed to have to explain to an adult the meaning of the latter. I asked her how much and she said 300 RMB. I said no, so she said, OK, 200 RMB ($25)? I didn't bother bargaining further because I really wasn't interested.

However, I did find out how the trade works. The prostitutes either work directly for the hotels, or in close association - I don't know which. For each massage, the house keeps 30 RMB, and she keeps the rest. For sex, the house keeps 100 RMB. After an hour, her boss called up to say time was up. I paid her her 50 RMB and she left.

Well, it almost happened like that. Right before she left, she noticed the white, leaf-decorated journal that Arti gave me for this trip. At the time, it was still empty because I wrote my first journal entry directly into my blog. She said she wanted it, would I give it to her? I said I couldn't because a very dear friend had given it to me. Nevertheless, for the next 10 minutes, she tried to cajole me into giving it to her. Finally, I had to forcefully remove it from her hands. For the rest of the night, I was left with a profound sadness for this person's immaturity and lot in life.

At this point, it was 8 PM and I got ready to go out to eat dinner. It was too late now to make arrangements to go to Kanas Lake, as I had originally planned. That's OK, because my alternate plan was to hike the nearby and more easily accessible Tian Chi. There, I might meet some other travellers interested in sharing a taxi to the more distant Kanas Lake afterwards. So I just went to the Wuyi night market for dinner.

Even in the taxi on the way to the Wuyi night market, I was already feeling so tired that I felt like I could easily sleep without eating. But another side of me knew I was leaving at 9 or 9:30 AM the next morning for Tian Chi, and if I didn't eat both the evening and morning before, things would turn out very badly. So I got out at the night market and looked for something to eat.

I first tried to find a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. I walked around trying to find the right streets, asking people for help, and comparing Chinese characters to try to find this restaurant for over 1 hour! It was really hard for me to keep looking for this place beacuse I was really tired and hungry, and there was so much delicious kebabs and other food all around in the night market! I persisted because I didn't want to eat kebabs every night. I wanted to try something different. Finally, I found someone who knew that the restaurant had closed up shop some months ago. Argh!

So if there's one thing I learned, it's that it's fucking hard to find something specific if you can't fucking read. :-(

So yeah, I broke down and had kebabs again. They were delicious, but I ordered too much food. I had pork ribs, beef, fish, eggplant, mushrooms, and a beer (65 RMB). It was a little lonely eating alone, though.

Took a taxi (8 RMB) home and crashed at 11 PM. Goodnight, Fluid People.