Asia Trip: Day 155 - Chengdu 成都 (6/17/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Woke up early and arrived in Chengdu at 8:30am

• Found my hostel and chilled until Ron arrived

  • Finished watching The Nice Guys

• Got lunch at the hostel - I got a VERY spicy lunch

• Did a walking tour at 2:30pm and went all over the city

• Came back, chilled and had a local honey craft beer which was pretty damn good

• Took a bus to Jinli Street

  • SO MANY PEOPLE, got dinner and cigars

• Went to a Buddhist souvenir place

• Took bus back to hostel, got a glass of Chivas and smoked a cigar

Asia Trip: Day 156 - Chengdu 成都 (6/18/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Woke up and went to see THE PANDAS

  • They were cool, but pretty underwhelming

  • They looked poorly treated, sad and uninterested in everything

  • Also Chengdu markets and milks the crap out of these pandas

• Came back to the hostel and chilled

• Went to a local Buddhist temple - pretty damn cool

• Watched YouTube videos and napped

• Workout on roof - 100 burpees and jump knee tucks

• Went to Hot Pot

  • Such an interesting mix of people: mid 30’s Chinese woman from LA, mid 40’s engineer from Wisconsin, 20 y/o British guy teaching English here, girl from DC who could handle all of the spice in the world, and another guy from San Jose.

  • A motley crue but pretty good times

Asia Trip: Day 157 - Chengdu 成都 => Leshan 乐山 (6/19/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Called dad and wished him a happy birthday

• Took the high speed train to Leshan

• SAW THE GIANT BUDDHA

  • Crossed yet another thing off of my 16 y/o bucket list

• Hiked all around and up the mountain

• Tried to do the boat tour, but missed it for today

• Rested for a bit and watched YouTube videos

• Went out for dinner

  • HAD AMAZING DUMPLINGS

  • Beef and greens with a spicy oil sauce made up of chili’s, garlic, fresh herbs, and chives

• Watched Dances with Wolves

  
  

I love walking through cross walks today, almost got hit by a few cars and yelled at them. It’s funny how the children are usually more mature and well behaved than the adults.

In my dorm room, there was a rotund Chinese guy who was sitting at a desk playing video games with the sound on full blast, with a huge lit up keyboard, wearing only his boxers exposing his big belly, sitting around a pile of discarded sunflower seeds. What a sight to behold.

Asia Trip: Day 158 - Leshan 乐山 => Emei 峨眉山 (6/20/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Woke up early to see the Big Buddha - such a big line

  • I went back to the hostel

• I worked out on the playground - all of the old people loved me

  • Pullups 5x8

  • Pushups - 5x20

  • Chinups - 3x6

  • Dips 3x10

• Took bus to Mount Emei

• Walked around the town for a bit and then went back to the hostel and chilled

• Watched Dances with Wolves - INCREDIBLE

• Saw a live fish jump out of an old mans plastic bag in the middle of the hostel

  • The bag had a hole in it, so the fish came out three more times haha

Watching Dances with Wolves made me want to visit truly wild places before they are gone. Seeing the beauty of somewhere untouched and pure. It makes me want to explore the American west on another trip. Soak up all of the nature, run through deserted fields and be in the wild to really be feral.

Asia Trip: Day 159 - Emei 峨眉山 => Chengdu 成都 (6/21/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Woke up at 6:00am to climb Emei Shan

• We got convinced by some Italian guy

• Took a two hour bus ride to the base and it was pouring raining

• Hiked two hours to the top and we were in a cloud

• It was very cool to wander and see the culture

  • The place just felt holy and sacred - we stood by the massive fire pit to warm up

• Finally came back to the hostel - four hours later

• Took a bus to Chengdu

  • It was supposed to take three hours - it took five hours

    • The toll station back backed up with a mile of traffic across six lanes, there were only two windows servicing cars

    • Then two lanes became one because a huge truck ran out of gas on the highway blocking the other available lane

    • It was like everyone cutting line at the ticket counter, but it was cars on the highway

• FINALLY GOT TO THE HOSTEL

  
  

Asia Trip: Day 160 - Chengdu 成都 (6/22/19)

Daily Highlights:

• Slept in until 8:00am

• Woke up for a walk. 早上的时候，我吃了一个牛夹肉，两个香蕉和很多樱桃

• 我看了一个电影，这个是Bullitt跟Steve McQueen

• 我去过人们公园，这个地方又安静又有意思。

• 我晚饭吃了水饺和肉夹馍。我有新的朋友，这个人是两个老人。

• 我学很多新的东西，所以我很累。

Today was a good day to hang out, v relaxing and doing nothing. I’m excited to go to Danba tomorrow and see Tibetan culture, but not stoked for the bus ride. I can feel my Chinese getting better, but I need to practice more during the day.