Stranger No More

Yeah, I’m a week late telling you about this. It was a pretty remarkable week. Overall we had a great time. I’ve intentionally waited before putting to pixel the events of May Holiday in an attempt to see if just the best parts can be passed along rather than the details of our bowel movements, (quite free-flowing), in the woods. So, despite the length of the following you can be assured that it is the distilled version.

Leaving Chengdu

I arrived in Chengdu the night prior to our departure and met up with Evan and Sergio at Dave’s Oasis for a pizza before heading back to Evan’s. It was to be an early night since we had to be up quite early for the 10 hour bus ride North to Song Pan.

We were five.

Evan, Richard, Jon, Sergio and I headed off to the bus station in separate staggered taxis. Richard and Jon a bit ahead of us. Sergio and I headed up the street so I could grab some cash with Evan rolling up in a taxi after a couple of minutes. Before Sergio and I left the apartment I grabbed the three tickets off the coffee table.

At the bus station we didn’t see either of the lead party so we headed for the bus expecting to see them there. They were nowhere to be seen and after a few nervous minutes Evan spotted Richard in the terminal and headed in to get him. What happened next could only be described as a complete meltdown. Richard’s face was glowing as he moved his head in jerky motions while his arms flailed about excitedly. Sergio, in great deadpan delivery said, ‘Richard is mad.’ Finally, what must have been just short of cardiac seizure, Richard stormed out of the building. With no idea what had just happened we looked on eagerly as Evan and Jon boarded the bus. It seems that Richard had lost his ticket. Rather than buy another ticket, (this is the place where they make them, afterall), he decided to freak out and blame me for picking up the tickets. Whatever.

And then there were four.
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I am in Song Pan with Evan, Jon and Sergio where we will depart in ten minutes for a five day trek on horseback. Jon is recovering from food posoining and Sergio is sick. Hopefully they will start to feel better in the cool clean mountain air. I look forward to telling you all about it next week. Our guide awaits!

With my schedule tweaked to perfection I took off Thursday afternoon to Chengdu to hang with Evan. We were going to Leshan the next day and planning to return in time to go to Lisa’s 30th birthday party. Just play along, you’ll figure out who everyone is.

I made my way to Evan’s where we decided the head-to-Leshan-tonight plan was too late to be acted on and that if we waited until the morning then Jon could join us. We instead headed over to Dave’s Oasis for pizza and beer. Imagine my joy when Dave said he had some Newcastle Brown Ale that wasn’t on the menu. I guess you don’t have to imagine, I just told you. Yum. He also makes a great spicy chicken pizza. We hung out on the sofas while Daft Punk played and really just had a nice relaxed evening. With Jon a no show we decided that the next day would be a long one and wisely decided to call it a night.

Evan is quite a breakfast eater. I’ve never stayed with him without a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, beans and toast. I actually gain wait during even a few days spent in Chengdu. He made breakfast and we both enjoyed it. Jon met up with us and we grabbed a cab to the bus station while Big Jon grumbled about hunger. Dave had told us that a bus would depart for Leshan every 30 minutes beginning at 7:30 and Evan was optimistic about the 8:00 but I figured 8:30. We were going to be on the 9:00. Tickets in hand we decided that we would have to find Jon something to eat. I knew that Dico’s was very near and suggested it. Jon thought a fried chicken sandwich with french fries sounded like an awesome breakfast. They were a bit slow in processing his order and it was rapidly approaching 9:00. We anxiously watched for a bus to drive by when at 9:00 they turned on the lights inside the restaurant as they opened for business. Heh. Jon protectively clutched his meal in one hand and his Trans-former meal toy in the other as we trotted over to the bus station where we were quickly whisked to our waiting bus. Hooray.
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My third and final day in the ancient capitol began easily. I slept in and it was not until nearly 9:30 that I checked out. Grabbing a taxi to make my way to Anne and Evan I was beginning to anticipate breakfast at Dad’s. Once at the hostel I found Evan patiently waiting for Anne who it seems is quite the deep sleeper. Since I was planning to leave that day it was decided that I would be wise to go to the nearby train station to buy my ticket in advance and drop off my loaded up backpack. Along the way we ran into Jackie, our guide from yesterday, and when finding out I was leaving he wrote on a piece of paper what I needed so I could just present it to the ticket agent. Apparently 10:00AM is too late to beat the rush and after waiting in ‘line’ for about twenty minutes I was able to get my ticket. I use the word line very loosely as the Chinese aren’t too keen on the concept. If not for the rails at the train station it would no doubt just be a throbbing mob of people jockeying for the ticket window. Kind of like it is at China Post now that I think about it. A glance at my ticket before tucking it safely in my wallet let me know that I would depart at 11:41PM. We then safely stored my bag at the, um, bag storage place and I was looking forward to another day in Xi’an with Anne and Evan.
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Despite only about three and a half hours of sleep I was up by 7:30 and on pace to meet Anne, (despite whatever I may have led you to believe, it turns out her name is not in fact Anna. Oops.), Evan and Dave at their hotel near the train station. We had pretty lofty goals with plans to hit the terracotta warriors, a Neolithic village, hot springs and the First Emperors tomb. First we had to manage to get all of us into the same room. I swung by McDonald’s and grabbed a breakfast sandwich for everyone before taking a taxi. I arrived to find Evan in the lobby but Dave was still trying to take a non-Doobie Brothers shower. That is to say it was ‘old black water’. Eww. It was not long before Anne joined us and it was decided that since Dave would be leaving that afternoon at 5pm that we would allow him to get his shower while we went back downtown. I wanted to buy a new camera and Anne needed gloves and such. We headed back to the McDonald’s I had earlier visited with the plan to meet back there after we each accomplished our goal. I found a camera store right above the McD’s and found a camera that would meet my requirements. I began negotiating and even left once eventually driving the price down by ten percent. Since we had agreed on a price I needed to get cash so I asked the store owner where a Bank of China was. I was sent a block and a half and around the corner only to have the tellers at the branch tell me that since it was not my branch that they could not help me. Wow. Beginning to worry about time I jogged back and was able to draw the cash from the BoC ATM I had passed. A fistful of cash and no idea where Anne and Evan were I was pretty quickly alerted to their presence as they snuck up from behind and stuck their hands in my pockets. Jokers. They headed to McD’s while I went to complete the purchase of the camera. I explained in a ‘charades’ sort of way to the Chinese man that was helping me in the camera store why I needed a new one and he teased me. It turned out he is one of many photographers that stand near scenic spots and wait for Chinese tourists to pay him to take pictures of them. With my new Sony DSC-W1 in hand I went back down to the McD’s to show it off to the kids. From the door I made eye contact with a lau wei and said hello. Dan is from Southern California, lives in Korea and was traveling alone during his holiday. With another stray we now numbered five. Now that we were nearly half an hour late to meet back up with Dave we jammed ourselves into a taxi and headed to the hostel.

Tick tock. We were starting to get concerned about time which was really nice of us since it was us who were late. Now we couldn’t find Dave. Read the rest of this entry »