Asia Trip: Day 150 - Zhangjiajie 张家界 （6/12/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Didn’t sleep much on the train

• Made friends with a real estate broker

• Got out of the bus station, it was raining again, went over to the other bus station to take a one hour bus ride to Wulingyuan

• Finally found my hostel! (5 MIN WALK FROM THE STATION)

• Watched shot caller

• Did one hundred burpees and abs

  • I ate actual food and IT MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

  • I’ve been eating crappy food and not that much in general

• Got lunch

• I got a map and planned out y route for the park

• I practiced Chinese with the old auntie of the hostel

  • She is very excited, helpful, and handsy

  • She was kind of like a small dog (she was 4’11’’) that keeps following me around in and outside of the hostel

  • She is a great saleswoman - she tried to sell me on everything in the hostel from the water to tickets to the dumplings

• I got dinner in the same place as lunch

• I came back and watched birth of the dragon

  • Cheezy, but good

  • Made me really miss San Francisco

Asia Trip: Day 151 - Zhangjiajie 张家界 （6/13/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Woke up at 6:30am to go to the park with Jasper

• Went to get the ten kuai brekkie

• GOT THE STUDENT PRICE FOR THE PARK

• Took the bus directly to Tianzi mountain

  • Actually got dropped off at the base of the elevator

• Took the super tall, super fast elevator

  • All of the old Chinese guys were oohing and awing at all of the views, they were all toothless, gold-toothed and happy

• Walked around for a bit

  • Had dessert for breakfast by seeing Avatar mountain in the AM

  • ABSOLUTELY AMAZING

• Took the train to Tianzi Mounatin

• Got lunch at McDonald’s

• Explored the area - completely filled with tourists

• Went to the western portion of the park

• Met some French people and hiked together

  • Went to Yuanbo Mansion Lookout (not a mansion)

  • Left the French people to catch the bus

  • Took the bus back to the big elevator and cruised down

• Waited for the bus back to the entrance for over an hour

  • THE CROWDS WERE WILD

• Went to the little hole in the wall for dinner

  • Got the exact same thing as yesterday

• Passed out

WHAT A DAY!

This landscape is so foreign and other worldly, however the park is extremely manicured and over developed with security cameras strewn in even the most remote sections of the park.

The way the trees grow vertically out of the rocks is wild. The way the forest gets so vertical from the valley floor all the way up to the pillars is a sight to see. We got lost in the vastness and uniqueness of the scenery.

SO MANY CHINESE TOURISTS!

This place is over run with people, its pretty nuts. Most are in big tour groups with leaders having a flag on a pole and a very loud microphone. They tourists are nannied around and don’t even know where to take pictures if they are not told by the tour guide.

Everyone always tends to go where the large crowds are even if it’s a shitty spot. This is true whether it’s a bad view or a bad restaurant its crazy.

Also everyone goes to the middle lanes in lines, ticket counters and turnstiles even though the ones on either ends are free of people and faster. It blows my mind. It makes no sense.

THERE ARE SO MANY CAMERAS IN THE PARK.

EVERYONE has at least one really nice and expensive camera setup (like about $4,000 USD) complete with big lenses, tripods, and safari gear and they have no idea on how to use any of it haha

USED PAI DUI SO MANY TIMES TODAY :)

Asia Trip: Day 152 - Zhangjiajie 张家界 （6/14/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Woke up at 6:15am and had brekkie at the hole in the wall

• Took cable car up to Tianzi

  • I forgot how much I don’t like cable cars

• Walked down the mountain (took about two hours)

• Hiked two hours throughout the Golden Whip Stream

• Took the cable car up to Huangshi Village

  • Hiked around the entire place in about an hour

  • No one was here, we went to an echo spot, and it was v nice

• Hiked two hours down the mountain

• Took the ten yuan bus back to Wulingyuan station

• Met a bunch of guys in the dorm

  • We all went to go get dinner at the hole in the wall

  • Ran into some other people and they joined us for dinner

  • We had a two hour dinner - some very good talks

Asia Trip: Day 153 - Zhangjiajie 张家界 （6/15/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Woke up at 6:30am and walked about

  • Went to the ten yuan brekkie spot

• Chatted with mom for 45 mins - great talk

• Chatted with dad for an hour - another great talk

• Watched Expendables

• Planned out the rest of my trip

  • I will try to make it home for Grandpa Gil’s 88th Birthday in Massachusetts

  • Not doing Japan - WAY too expensive

• MET UP WITH MARIE AND COCO

  • Great seeing them again

• We all got dinner at the hole in the wall restaurant

• Came back and we all chilled for about two hours

Asia Trip: Day 154 - Zhangjiajie 张家界 => Chengdu 成都（6/16/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Woke up at 6:30am to catch the bus to Zhangjiajie

  • Walked ten minutes to bus station and took the hour long bus ride

• Took the bus ride in the pouring rain - opened my window and stuck my head out to wake me up

• Hopped on my train to Yichang East

  • TALKED ABOUT DATING AND NORMS IN CHINESE WITH TWO MIDDLE AGED PEOPLE

  • One of my proudest accomplishments speaking Chinese

• Had a great hour long chat with Yang, a salty but curious old Chinese guy, about traveling at a train stop

• Watched Rush Hour 3 in the station

• Hopped on the fourteen hour train ride to Chengdu

  • Met a trio of old ladies who pestered me with questions

  • Met a group of young guys and chatted for about an hour

My brain hurts from speaking so much Chinese! It even feels weird writing this down in English now, like it’s somewhat foreign and feels like my brain is stuck in Chinese mode, pretty cool.