It's Tuesday!

This week has been pretty busy with school and stuff. My Chinese roomy had been trying to get me to go with a couple of her friends to a panda reserve in Chengdu. It's a great place, but I've already been once and I'm didn't think it warrented a second trip. She'd been trying to arrange this trip for a while now. Some of her friends own a car, and so the transportation would be provided for. Besides, she told me, they're rich!

The day before the trip, she came into my room at six in the morning to tell me that plans had changed, but I was to be ready to leave by ten the following day. I woke up several hours later, the entire conversation lost to my dreams except for the words: "Be ready by ten o'clock."

I called my classmate who was going to join us and told him what I knew of the change of plans. I reiterated that he had to arrive at my house no later than ten o'clock, and the trip itself we decided to remain purposfully in the dark about.

That day my roomy, classmate and I all trudged out to the road to meet with the rich people. I knew they were rich, but I'd never guessed the extent of their wealth. In the car, the conversation between my roomy and the rich lady consisted of discussing all the new homes they had acquired and where they were moving this week. I sat in the back and pretended to sleep, but soon the conversation moved to me. They didn't say anything bad, but I couldn't keep the smile off my face. When they saw this, the rich lady yelped "what? You're not asleep!"

We finally pulled off the road and into a gravel parking lot. The mystery trip turned out to be to an ancient city called Huang Long Xi. The place was crowded with tourists and vendors were selling everything from vegetables and cotton candy to hats woven from fresh flowers and shoes. The rich folks treated us to flower hats and we wandered in.

The town itself was pretty cool. I took some pictures which I'll post as soon as I get them uploaded. The roads were just large enough for a cart to be pushed through, definitely not big enough for a car. At the entrance, there were vendors selling rickshaw rides.

After wandering for a bit, the group decided to go on a boat ride. The town overlooks a river and tourist boats float lazily past the town in a bid for more customers. Next to these slow moving tourist traps was a seperate dock where a dozen or so speed boats waited. I could see the speed boats racing up and down another bend in the river. The person in charge of steering each boat was pulling the motor in such a way as to make the boat tip to one side. Then just when the weight began to shift and it felt as though you would capsize, he would ease up or pull the motor hard in the other direction.

After sizing up our options, we decided that we had to take both boat rides. First we would float slowly up the river and appreciate the scenery, and then we would put our lives in danger with the speed boat.

The ride was nice, although being on a malaria river such as we were, I got bit by a ton of mosquitos. Clearly my regimine of Vitamin B isn't working, but that's an issue for another time.

The second boat trip was awesome! I wish I could do it justice, but I'm afraid words fail me. I love rides so this death trap-capsizing boat ride was a good thing.

Later that afternoon, we passed one of those photo stands where the victim is forced to dress in period costume. Well, as the only two foreigners in Huang Long Xi that day, the lot fell to my classmate and I. He dressed up as an emporer while I wore a purple sequin covered dress and posed by him. At first all the pictures were taken inside the studio, but then everyone insisted that we move the party outside. Once outside, we became the star tourist attraction at Huang Long Xi. People gathered around us to stare, laugh, pose, and talk to us. I commented to my classmate that we ought to start a pose-with-foreigner business to make a little more cash on the side.

It was a pretty fun day had by all. I'll be posting some pictures later when I get a chance. Most of the pictures were taken by my roommate's friend, so I'll see if I can get copies to post here.