Thursday, I was going to the Jinsha Site Museum with Abby
and Greg. It was a bit more costly than what Katie wanted, and she’s not an
overall big fan of archaeology so she was going to have her own adventures and
finally go at her own [super fast] pace then.
We were going to get up about 7 and head out, but when Greg
came to wake up Abby for her shower, they were too tired and I was mostly awake
but we ended up hanging out in bed for another hour instead. Thank goodness,
because I don’t know how well I would have even walked out of the room right
then.
All the same, we were functioning by the time we headed out.
Abby got us to the bus and we boarded on for the trip. It was only a few stops,
but they didn’t see it, so we just kept riding the bus- until the end of the
line! Not too cool. We were prepared to get grumpy then because we had no food.
So we walked back a few blocks and finally found some food!
Got some large dumplings, some with meat and a vegetable
[cabbage] one. I personally loved them all, but they said they weren’t the best
ones they’d had. Oh, but we did get what looked like an upside down pointy cone
of brown rice. It was lightly seasoned and had been in beef broth or something-
mild, but pretty tasty!
They found a muffin thing, hoping for egg but it ended up
being full of chives which were pretty tasty as well. After that, we boarded
the same bus going the other way. A few corners later, I was looking out the
opposite street I hadn’t noticed before- and I found it! The one with no
direction TOTALLY found the place. I was spot on! Somehow, because it hasn't happened again... It was just at an intersection a short distance
from the bus stop.
It is 80 RMB, but ½ price if you have a student ID. I really
should have brought one of those but it seemed SO silly at the time, so I
didn’t. But Abby and Greg were generous and ‘spread the wealth’ with me.
Basically no security as you step inside. Large tilted
building just ahead, leading to the site! It’s super cool being inside the
building and seeing the history. You can walk on a bridge a portion right
through it, which is awesome. It’s not really possible to see much, not like
chairs or anything, just squares of dirt and buried antlers and such, but it’s
really fascinating all the time. Most everything still had pieces in English to
make sense and explain everything.
To the side in a corner, you can walk on glass over a… I
can’t remember what kind of tree, but a HUGE one, a trunk of one. It’s
remarkable how big it is and shows how Chengdu used to be covered in forest and
such. It’s really fascinating all that can be learned from simple clues like
that! Super awesome.
We wandered through museums after that. Abby and Greg were
usually done faster than I was, which kinda sucks because I love archaeology!
It’s so fascinating.
There’s a lot to see- a lot more than I expected, but it
does help explain the price after all. And the little tourist shop is more of a
fancy boutique. Looks expensive and some of the things were, but I honestly
wish I had bought a thing or two from there. A lot about the Chinese culture
that was symbolically placed in this museum was about the Eternal Sun and
Phoenix. I don’t think that’s what it was really called, but something just
like it. I just loved it, though, and regretted not getting earrings or a
necklace or even a bookmark with that shape.
Anyways, we wandered out after that, saw some petrified or
something wood. It wasn’t petrified, but something else. I can’t remember the
word. Something like that, though. There was a Jade Path, which was a little
bridge path over stones instead of grass. But it was super cool, I loved that.
Almost like a zen garden! We wandered around the open paths- so much space, I
couldn’t get over it! It was such a beautiful day, with so many green and lush
plants waving to us through the breezes…
There was also a little ‘park’ of more petrified-like tree
logs. Five times the size of myself, stuck in the ground. Weird, but so
awesome! I absolutely loved that as well, I would take a yard like that any
day. Definitely has it’s creepy attributes but at the same time it just adds to
the character and feel of the nature park, and I loved it so much.
Anyways, they were done by then, so we took the bus right
back, and found Katie just barely sitting down with a book. She’d gone to the
People’s Park in town and walked around. She said it was super crowded with a
TON of vendors, but the park was open and pretty, like a tiny version of
Central Park, I think she said. She loved it though, and basically walked
through town the entire way back to enjoy the city. She found some hot spots,
boba to drink, and got to really enjoy the feel of the city, which is always so
much fun to do anywhere in China.
Our plan together then was to pack up and drop everything at
our new hostel for the night, then go catch lunch somewhere in town, and find
something to do for the evening, possibly this tiny monastery in town.
It was supposed to be just down the street, but we couldn’t
find it. So we ended up stopping on these long steps in a nice part of the
street, and Abby started asking people where to find it. We sat on the steps
with our luggage, chatted a bit, and watched her disappear down the street. It
took a few minutes, so Greg wandered off for a drink, then he went to go look
for her- except he couldn’t find her. Katie suggested she try a few corners,
like the shops behind the street and at the end as well.
Greg went off his way, and there was a McDonalds on the
corner so Katie and I took turns getting ice cream cones [which was funny
because when I ordered, there was a manager that understood a bit of English
but when Katie went five minutes later, no one understood what she said for
about ten minutes], and then we started getting worried- Abby was gone for over
an hour!
But eventually, Abby and Greg returned hand in hand. Good
news was that she had been able to find the hostel. Bad news was the internet
wasn’t working right when we booked so they didn’t go through- and they were
overly packed. So we were homeless! Not knowing what to do, we decided to
figure it out after we got food in our bellies so we went into town and Katie
led us to Pizza Hut. Super fancy, a sit down restaurant with a second story. We
ordered two large pizzas for the four of us [ended up being too much, jeez],
and waited. We had to wait quite a long time, but it gave us a few minutes to
talk and start planning things out.
Abby and Greg wanted to return to the last hostel, even
though they were overly packed- things had gone wrong but they still worked it
out and housed a few people in a tent on the porch- but Katie and I didn’t want
to intrude like that.
We stopped to enjoy our pizza when it finally arrived. Not
quite as good as American- not enough sauce or cheese- but it was so tasty!
Katie and I loved it! Pricey, but delicious!
Stuffed with yummy pizza, Katie and I took off and wandered around for a bit, and Abby and Greg left to talk to the last hostel and find a new place for the night.
I don’t know how we found it- Katie might remember, I have
no idea- but we walked down this random street near the center and found a
hidden market of sorts which didn’t have very much but it was still pretty
nice, so we walked through that a bit. We ended up buying 3 scarves together
for a total of 5USD, and then since we had so much [shopping bags hanging off
our camelbacks], and I wanted another carry on to take home to America, we
found me a small suitcase. Bright yellow! Not my top choice, but I needed
something then, and the price wasn’t terrible- just under 30 USD, and it should
last me to America all right. So we sorted our stuff into the suitcase and
wandered around town a little bit. Finally Katie took me back to her boba spot,
where she got a drink with boba and I got something that looked chocolate! And
it was chocolately- with a hint of coffee, because these seem inseparable in
all drinks here in China- and had what almost looked like oatmeal flakes on
top. Something similar to oatmeal, anyways, and that wasn’t too terrible.
We took our drinks over to the Square to wait for the water
show, since Katie had just watched it through McDonalds the first night and I
hadn’t seen it. We snagged the edge of a bench to sit on and enjoyed our drinks
and watched the big crowd- except they eventually began to disperse and nothing
happened! We finally figured the show wasn’t happening and decided to leave.
Except, as fate would have it, the water burst forth just as
we crossed the street. Of course.
We kept heading out all the same. We walked a few blocks to
an open metro station to get to the train station, so we hopped on there [super
packed], and there we arrived. It was only seven or eight, so we sat down in
the crowd outside for a bit with our stuff. You NEVER sit on the bare ground
here. NEVER EVER EVER. It’s risky in America, but here… yikes. Everyone has
plastic bags to sit on, or little stool chairs they carry around. Everyone does
this. Okay, so we sat there for about an hour, got bored and went into the
nearby shop to buy some snacks for the night- yes we were planning to hang out
at the train station all night. Why? We didn’t know what else to do, and it’s
definitely an adventure. That was our logic. Katie’s logic, technically, but I
was okay going along with it.
We got some random snacks, and by then a lot of people had
dispersed so we went to sit against a side gate. There were some weird jelly
snacks which kept us busy for a while, and that was cool. We also had quite the
show to watch: the police are very attentive to the outside area of the train
station. All the same, there are vendors and sellers and the little motor carts
that like to sneak up off the sidewalk and road to try and get business.
It was a game of cat and mouse, watching them all in action.
The motor drivers would come in, and then head out in a group when the police
came around- but sooner or later they would creep back and seem to dare each
other to get closer and closer- super funny!
Oh and they had bathrooms just to the left by the station,
next to the departure gate. You had to pay 5 Jiao to use the bathroom which was
lame, because they were filthy. Very filthy and guess what?
Trench toilets!
I never thought I’d use one. And yet, I almost now prefer
them over basic squatter toilets. Disgusting, I know. You can see other
people’s business hanging there until the water flushes through there. But
these at least had stalls and doors which was nice [Katie’s keeping an eye out
for those without stalls or doors], so there’s a bit of privacy at the least.
But they smelled absolutely terrible. That bathroom was not very fun.
Eventually they began to peter out though, because it was
getting late. It was also about this time there was a homeless-ish man [he had
a cellphone so he probably wasn’t homeless but he sure seemed that way in his
dirty look so that’s what we’re calling him], who creeped over, sat right next
to us, and then tried to talk to Katie. He even put words in his phone, as
though characters would make more sense- but they didn’t. And he was creepy,
really creepy.
This is where it comes in handy with not understanding each
other, we can talk about them and plan out our next move without being
overheard and being considered too rude. So that’s when we decided to head in
and try our luck inside of the station.
The guy there looked at our tickets, talked the nearby guard
for a minute, but stamped us and let us through. Katie began journaling and did
that for another hour or so as I dozed off. However the last train ended at
midnight, and there was no one in there. No one stayed there all night! So
obviously, they weren’t about to let us, which stunk. They had like three
people come over and try to communicate with us, and the message was clear.
The courtyard was basically empty except for people sleeping
and looking homeless, so we moved next door to the 24 hour KFC! Yay!
It had a second floor but it was sectioned off- only a
corner was open and that was full of people. All the same we ordered food so we
could stay, and managed half a table for us to eat the pricy popcorn chicken.
There was a security guard in and out the whole time, who finally opened the
other half of the room, so we hurried over there, to not be so visually there,
wanting to try and stay there for the night.
The place definitely seemed to be a bit used to the idea.
The workers didn’t like it, and the security guard would shake anyone who fell
asleep. But a ton of people came in and just sat down and dozed or talked or
mostly played on their phones.
For the next five hours, Katie and I tried to stay busy! We
played with our food [ordered fries at another time which ended up being a bad
idea because we were still chewing on some of them hours later and that did NOT
go well with our stomachs], Katie went to hunt down another bathroom a few
times. Katie spent some time on her kindle and I fiddled with the spice packets
and made letters out of them. They had a bit of music playing which was kind of
nice, some American songs as well as Chinese.
Around 3:30 Katie poked me awake since I had dozed a bit
[she woke me when the security guard passed by], and we played with our
napkins- a TON. We played MASH which we haven’t done in years- and did every
possible play of that game possible to keep time passing. Then Katie ripped the
other available napkins and turned them into cards so we played Go Fish and War
with napkins for a while.
And finally, it was five in the morning, and we were done
with the place. Four and a half hours had taken it’s time but finally we were
out and ready to do something else with our Friday!
