Oct 3 2013: Sleepovers at KFC

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!