JAZZY'S TRAVELS

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*Once again, excuse any typos. Chinese spell check is worthless when you're writing in English*

Right now I'm on a 17 hour train ride from Xian to Chengdu, so I figured it would be a good time to write a new entry.

For the past week or so I've been traveling with two guys from England - Rich and Jon. As a result of all the time I've been spending with them I've decided 2 things:

1) English guys are more mature than American guys
2) The English talk funny

In regards to my first conclusion, well...I don't know how to explain it really, they're just not as immature and they just seem more polite. Although, as I write this I start to wonder if maybe its just the accent. As to my second conclusion, I really feel no reason to explain myself. They do talk funny. Half the time they're talking jibberish and I don't have a clue what they're saying. Fag, nackered, fit, nailed, minging, pulled, bollocks. I need just about everything translated and if they start mumbling, forget about it! I'm definitely happy to be travelling with them inspite of the language barrier ;P Having people around makes the dirt, smog and staring much easier to bear. Also I think I need boy banter. Women just don't banter in an entertaining fashion. Not to mention, some girls just get annoying (ie. worrying all the damn time and complaining about their coffee). They make me feel kicked back! :P

Speaking of the English, it seems like the only travellers I meet are English or from some other random European country. I can't remember the last time I talked to an American! Where the hell are we??...wait...I know exactly where we are. Europe, Australia and maybe a few are partying on the beach in Thailand (which sounds quite nice at the moment if I may say so myself). It's okay though, I'm used to being different, at home it's my color, here its my color, my accent and my nationality. Why should life be any different?

I will say that my color gets a lot of attention. I could be imagining it (long hours of travel do cause a certain level of delirium). The thing is, most travellers are white European, I think I've only seen 1 or 2 dark men my entire trip. Not to mention that the Chinese don't seem to value dark skin...unless of course you look like an NBA star. No matter how confident you are, it's hard to feel comfortable in a country that still openly sells whitening creams.

Okay, enough about what I'm thinking, you probably want to know what I've been doing. Oh, and please excuse me for not having any pictures on my blog yet, I've still got to sort all that stuff out.

After Chengde (pronounced Chengdugh) I headed back to Beijing for a night since I couldn't get a train ticket straight to Datong (unfortunately no one informed me of this because people in China don't seem to like to explain things in depth, especially in regards to train tickets, but I'll tell you about that later).

My 2nd stay in Beijing was much more pleasant. I was in a much nicer part of town, and I even managed to find some cheese!! Okay, let me quickly tell you a little something about Chinese food...

1) There's always mystery meat. I think they like to keep themselves on their toes.
2) Everything is fried, or at least dipped in oil at some point during preparation. One of my dormmates in Beijing decided that they cooked everything in order to kill the parasites. Unfortunately it also kills most of the nutrients, someone should really tell them.
3) It is impossible to find bread that isn't sweet. I know this may seem odd coming from me, a lover of bread and any sweets, especially donuts. But now, all I look for is a good wheat bread. I think my search is futile, but I try.
4) There is no cheese in China. There are no cows in China, therefore, there is no cheese, milk and the yogurt is kept in packages that aren't refridgerated. It's really quite scary.

Anyway, while in Beijing I found a baguette, cheese and some fresh tomatoes. I was a very happy camper.

The next day I caught a train to Datong where I spent one night and met Rich, Jon, Susan and Lucy. Susan and Lucy are two girls both traveling alone like myself which was reassuring. I find I'm starting to meet way more lone travellers now that I'm with people...it's a bit ironic.

After Datong, we went to Pingyao, this is where we entered train ticket hell. Basically in China it's really hard to get a ticket for a train that doesn't start in the city you're in. Also, it doesn't help that they (train station workers, taxi drivers, and random people who like to chime into your conversations) like to tell you there are no tickets when there actually are. So here's the lesson I've learned:

• If you want to buy a train ticket for a train that originates in another city, just buy the ticket from that city and get on in the city you're in.
• You can always get a standing ticket and upgrade.
• Top bunks are nice because no one sits on your bed and your stuff's so high up no one can easily mess with it. But, unfortunately there's too little space to sit up all the way. The bottom bunk is the opposite so it seems to be a bit of a Catch 22.
• Last but not least, the most important thing to remember about getting train tickets in China is that no Chinese person will tell you these things, so you better know before you get there.

(chinese hardsleeper)

After what seemed like weeks, but was in fact only a day we got our tickets and made our way to Xian where we saw the Terracotta Warriors and a whole lot of prostitutes...oh sorry, I mean massuses that stay open really late and have red lights on. Yesturday we went to this mountain 2 hours outside of Xian called Hua Shan. I will say this, and only this: I hate stairmaster workouts, especially workouts which take 3 hours and have 17,000 steps.

So (sigh), today we head to Chengdu where we'll spend 1 night and then move onto Chongqin where we'll catch a riverboat cruise down the Yangtz for 3 nights and 2 days. After that...who knows. The boys head to 'Nam and I head south. Althought I'm enjoying myself more, I'm ready to get on to S.E. Asia with their cocktails, beaches and whitening creamless tans.

...oh yeah, and the Bird Flu.