Last of Chengdu...for now

Today is my last day in Chengdu. I leave in a couple hours for Beijing, but I wish I could stay longer! At least I know I'll be back here during the summer.

Thursday I finally managed the catch up with DT. I got a little turned around in trying to find him, but it worked out in the end. We had tea together, and then went to get dumplings at a Tibetan restaurant. For any SIT readers, Dakpa is doing great, crazy busy as always with a ton of different projects and a business course. He said he misses everyone very much!

We were going to go to a nearby pedestrian-only street with bars, but they were charging people to enter (for New Years) and it was way over crowded (like pretty much everything the last few days). So we went to a hostel instead where DT had some friends and they talked in Chinese mostly. There was a nice little fire. I liked that. And a very beautiful woman in a minority costume walked by - "A man," said the girl sitting next to me. No. Way. She was too pretty!

I took the bus back to the hostel - I'm very proud of the fact that I have not used a taxi once so far. (oh wait, there was that one time...but Jin Rong instigated the taxi usage and so it Does Not Count).

Friday morning I overslept awfully...ugh. I think I was catching up all the sleep I'd missed the pass few days. I ate street food for lunch, walked through a gigantic shopping mall, relaxed in the people's park (which was awesome by the way - thanks Jake!), and then started the long walk to Peter's Tex Mex.

During most of this period of time, I had also been trying to text DT about when to meet to up to buy prayer beads (I'd bought some in Zhongdian but lost them...). DT always has new (and expensive) prayer beads and knows where to get the "good" ones. When I saw him, he showed me some that he'd bought for...what was it? 6000 yuan? (about US $1000) A LOT. And then he almost dropped them in the fire, haha...thankfully not.

Anyways, my phone would not work and I did not understand why. I had just put about 100 yuan on the phone, so that couldn't be the problem. But is was. Because apparently using my phone outside of the area that I bought it in (Yunnan) makes using it very expensive. And the China Mobile shops closed before I realized this. So no prayer beads. And no Peter's Tex Mex, because I still haven't had my fill of Chinese food (it's only been a week - I'm not sick of it yet). I can always try Peter's Tex Mex some other time, whether in Chengdu or Beijing.

And now I really, really need to pack. And put some more money on my stupid phone. Hmm, does anyone know if I can keep the phone and just get a different number in Xi'an? I don't want to keep paying this much...a 100 yuan per week is a little pricey.

Photos...tomorrow?