Ma Da Zhuang

STILL on the train. In stead of getting off at 2pm we get off at 2:3am the next day!!! A 28 hour train ride. Fuck Fuck Fuck

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Left kunming and are on a train to Guilin to the far east. There are three kids here and i’m conserned that there going to cry the whole way. The sleeper car squeeks and is warm. I’m laying down and i have a pillow. Life is good.

Were in Kunming now and about ready to go to Guilin. That’s where those towers of stone rise out of lakes. It’s supposed to be beautiful. Kunming is a large city that is fairly impersonal. It looks like any other large city. As always the people are nice. Last night we stayed in the hostel “The Hump”. It was ok. 8 people to a room and it was coed!! I thought it was going to be olen and myself in a serority setting but as it turned out it was mostly guys. Bummer. We went to this Budist Temple today. It’s raining here a little so we had the whole place to ourselfs. It was beautiful. Now were in a net bar waiting to hop a 12-16 hour train to Guilin. I’m sure we’ll play cards alot.

I’m in Lijiang now. Very beautful. All the beds are too small here. i’ve been here for two days now, to get here it took a 12 hour train ride and an 8 hour bus ride right after that. So we were beat yesterday. Sat up last night talking to two Norwiegian girls, two israeli guys, another norwiegian guy, two dutch guys and two chinese girls. everyone speaking english. Very cool night.

yesterday i met Dr. Ho the old man was cool. Very full of himself but for good reason he’s the man when it comes to herbalism.

 

Today i met Olens kids. There was about 1400 of them. We’d walk in and they would all go oooohhh. i would tell them my name where i was from and where i was going to go while i am here. Then we’d open it up for questions. What sports do you like? Do you like China? and the best one….what is your Chinese name? Olen said he done’s have one would you like to name him? She thought about it for a bit while we talked to the other students and when asked again she said Ma da zhuang. This means “Horse big strong”.

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Showed up in Chungdu and Olen was about 10min late. Not a biggy. He says western food for the first day? i say ok. So then I have the best Philly Cheesesteak sandwich i’ve ever had. Big too. Nice.

We leave Chungdu and and head to San Tai. 2hrs later we pull into the city. It is cool. Small town, tree lined streets and everyone smiles and says ni hao. Very friendly people here. Turns out, it will always be this way.

These people are so nice, it’s incredible. The people of the US should come here and learn something of friendliness and hospitality. They’re a messy but clean people. They spit everywhere and throw everything on the ground, have their infants pee in the gutter and can be smelly. That being said, their always cleaning stuff, sweeping everything, washing the side of guard rails on the highway. You name it. There are people that you can get a massage (sex and no sex), get your shoes cleaned, hair washed, shaved and many other things. Sometimes all at the same time. a very interesting place. I recommend it to everyone.

So left San Francisco with a pack full of food shit for Olen that he will later go “oh cool”. The jerky was good. and the trail mix was a good idea. So i get to Tokyo with no problem. The plan over head was cool because I saw alot of Japan from about 20k feet. Nothing but rice pattys with roads on the dykes and islands of homes in the middle of pattys. Very cool, Very different.

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