kjp

Am in Chengdu, Sichuan - ok, fairly tired - just slightly (2hrs) later than expected.

Things started of slightly dodge when in Kashgar, the chick behind the counter crossed out my flight number from Urumqi to Chengdu and put another flight. Fantastic. I also bucked the system at Urumqi, when I had taken off my sticker that apparently told the airline person that I was a transfer passenger (I'm such a rebel... har har). Anyhow, I was told to go to the arrivals area.... (I was worried then), but after a while someone found me and put me in the departure area.... silly westerners.

Anyhow, back to the flight - I think that my second leg was canned for some reason, and was put on the other flight. Anyhow. This meant that I saw most of my fellow group (10 people out of the 13 person group from Beijing to Kashgar) off from Urumqi. It was a *very* weird feeling - 'Crickey, that's it - I'm on my own' sort of thing.

Anyhow. The flights were boring. In keeping of the weird food from airlines - the snack on the Kashgar to Urumqi leg was ---- a roll (the annoyingly sweet fake fairy bread that they have in China) and a cucumber. Anyhow. Ohh, actually, there were some cool scences on the flight to Urumqi - craggy mountains poking through clouds. Urumqi was pretty cold - you could see your breath in the outside air.... Someone heard that apparently a cold front from Siberia had come in.

So Chengdu is: dark (it's night, durr). a bit smokey (probably smog, yuck). The area I'm in seems to have lots of students around. Probably a few schools in the area.

I'm booked to go and see the Pandas first thing tomorrow morning. Have booked 3 nights in the place I'm in. It's basic but fine. I'm going to have to start being more careful with money... ie: get more out from the bank (cheques)... more regularily. Hmmm.

This internet cafe is riduculously expensive (10 Yuan), but is modern computers. But - the settings on the computer mean - I can't reply to messages in Yahoo, or compose or check (ie: any of the buttons). I think it's the security settings. But movabletype works fine, and I can read yahoo messages. I'll find a better cafe tomorrow...... Mum, please pay the Telstra bill. That's fine.

Oh, a word from the wise. If you find yourself in China, Ctrl - Shift typically changes the data entry mode from English to Chinese. Anyhow. OK, so I've explored enough for the day (am tired...), so a bit more time here, so now for a few photos.