Fast forward

Two weeks have passed and finally our laptop is working again. It broke after nothing happened…just wouldn’t turn on anymore. Our odyssee to get it fixed in an authorized store is a whole story for itself but there are many much more pleasant things to talk about that have happened in the last couple of days. So we want to get you back on track with what we have been up to and give you the quick overview…

 

Silver, Anna, Rebecca and Jens at the Longmen Grottoes, Louyang

Kaifeng: Got there on the nighttrain from Pingyao. Shared the cabin with a nice couple and their cute little baby girl that turned out not to be that cute anymore at 3 am when nothing could calm her down…in the morning she fell in love with Jens, though, and couldn’t stop laughing and joking with him. Kaifeng was rainy. After Pingyao, this old town wasn’t really that impressive. The nightmarket was deserted. The scenic lake was grey and non-scenic. The ancient buildings were from '05. And Kaifeng made our computer break. Somehow. So we left. 

At the white horse temple, Luoyang

At the night market, Luoyang

Luoyang: So far my favorite city, maybe due to the beautiful young ladies that we met there: Silver and Rebecca, two students from Canton, that we spent our time with. Saw the Longmen grottoes and were impressed once more, tried out all the awesome food at the great night market (thanks to the girls who tried to introduce us to all the good Chinese treats in just one night…couldn’t make it, had to come back the next night), went to the oldest Buddhist temple on Chinese soil (White Horse Temple) and had the great “water banquet”, a local specialty with 24 courses that we shared with 8 people. You wouldn't believe what all was in there... there will be a post dedicated to all the Chinese food we had, you'll love it just as much as we do (most of the time...)!

Xi'an's Bell-Tower at night

Xi’an: Were picked up from the bus by a local who thought he’d know the way to our hostel but didn’t and gave us tons of fresh fruit from his father's farm to make up for his leading us somewhere wrong. Met great people at a great hostel, had a very tasty dumpling party, went to see the breathtaking terracotta warriors,

The terracotta warriors

wandered the streets of the muslim quarter where good food and hard bargaining awaited, did a tandem-tour on the massive old city wall, saw the pagodas and temples, got haircuts at a place with no English but a real hair-artist, ran around this huge city to get the computer fixed. Spend some wonderful days! 
 

Muslim quarter, Xi'an

Chengdu: Just got here, by the nightbus that took 20 hours instead of the usual 8 because of an accident that happened right in front of us and took forever to get taken care of. Of course it was pouring outside so we couldn’t even get off the bus… More and happier things about Chengdu, where it is still raining and finally a little cooler as well, will follow!