I understand that sometimes the text I send is coming through messed up with strange symbols making it difficult to read. Unfortunately, it cannot be helped from this end because we find the internet cafes so poor. The systems are slow, and even when there is a USB port for Dan to upload pictures, the software bugs block the transaction. (And I've just squashed two real bugs now on my screen which has introduced some punctuation in this text I'm not comfortable with.)

Although the option of $18/hour internet at one of the American five star hotels does exist, we're on quite a fixed budget here, so it's not a realistic option for us. All included, we're trying to stick to our budget each month, including all domestic ground and air transportation, hotels, admissions, food
and small purchases. So far we're on target.

I've read and heard wonderful things about Chengdu, the capital of Sezhuan province. It's known to be laid back, with thousands of teahouses. Travellers we've met have described it as their favourite city. But I'm just not getting it. I understand, of course, that our perspective is limited to the downtown part we're staying in, but given that we've now walked at least 25 km of these streets, you'd think we would have run into some of those famous "thousands of tearooms" the guidebooks talk about. But no, we found only one. On the other hand, we have stumbled on a dozen coffee shops, including three Starbucks.

A stranger approached us on the street this afternoon seeing us looking at our roadmap, and in a bid to be helpful, yelled out in his best English: "What's the matter with you?" Chinese is all about intonation you know.

Friendly people aside, Chengdu is just another drab, smog-choked, big city that requires two shampoos to wash the pollution out of your hair each morning.

Well maybe it's me. Admittedly I was really tired coming in to Chengdu at midnight, without Suling and Xiayou, and I didn't sleep that first night being so wound up over my preparations. We were going to a hotel on the Chinese hotel circuit, not used by westerners, since Suling had booked it through a Chinese travel agent at a super discount. So I would need my notes in pinyin and Chinese characters to deal with the check-in process, including our now standard room pre-inspection routine which inevitably turns up a problem.

In this case, our window overlooked a flashing red neon sign. I'm getting to be pickier now since I've learned how to say in Chinese "I want to change the room. I don't like it". I expect that further study would allow me to add "this flashing red light gives me a migraine".

I was also nervous because we would have to negotiate our own taxi in Chinese at the airport to take us the 20km to the city (at midnight). But it all came off quite well. I realize that I've learned something of the art of negotiation from Suling.

Part of the technique involves stalling and staring and walking away, huddling with Dan, walking back, and shaking my head. I found myself saying yes to one tout and then walking away and telling them I didn't want it and then addressing a different person. All of this is quite contrary to my routine in Canada, where I never play one taxi against another. But here, Dan and I fudged for about 10 minutes indicating we wanted to see the actual car first since many of the touts seemed to belong to some sort of private car cooperative and the cars were kept somewhere else. We finally accepted one severely cheerful driver who said over and over again that he, personally, was the driver (even though he was acting like a tout in trying to drag us to the curb). All my senses were on
alert. I memorized the number on his badge just in case.

Eventually, however, we relaxed (as best as possible knowing you're in a car on a highway in China). The driver was very talkative although I'm unclear as to whom he thought he was talking. One sentence from me started him off in a direction, I don't know where.

So here we are in Chengdu -- coughing. But we've got our bearings and, tonight, I am filled with a
delightful sense of accomplishment. We found a laundry, communicated our requirements and picked it up. And it's all there.

We've bought our plane tickets to Lanzhou, our next city further west and figured out the system of discounts as we compared several agents and times and departure dates. Since I'm always forward-planning, we need to take care of the exit business in the first days of our arrival in a new place.

Then we found the bank I needed to withdraw some more cash because this is a cash society. We need to have a stash on us at all times. Thank goodness, I bought a Tilly belt pocket before I left Toronto. This type of security pouch is so much easier to wear than the usual waist pouch.

Lastly, we found our way to the correct bus station (there are four stations in town) to buy a bus ticket to Emeishan, the holy mountain about 2.5 hours south of the city. We're storing our luggage at the hotel (another successful transaction in Chinese) while we just take a small backpack so we can climb the mountain. There are accommodation options in various monasteries on the mountain that we'll check out. Or maybe we'll just walk back to the town at the base of the mountain and stay in something comfortable. Don't know. We'll see.

And since the air should be cleaner on the mountain, we may actually see.

Carolann