tumbling after You

Sichuan/Tibet.

• Flew into Chengdu.
• PANDAS.
• PANDA BEBES.
• 1000RMB (~158USD) just to pet a panda and snap a pics. Even more for the panda cubs… :((
• Super legit Sichuan hotpot. Sat with the other Chinese/ABCs who actually knew how to enjoy it. By the end of the meal, we were the last ones left eating, with four carts of food (leftovers from the other tables) parked beside our table.
• Early morning lecture on Tibetan culture. Was a bit too early, I’m afraid… :X
• Chilled at a tea parlor. Played mahjong and Monopoly Deal.
• Off to Tibet!
• Crazy mountain roads. On one particularly infamous path, the drivers actually called their families beforehand, and again afterwards if they made it. Eek.
• More hotpot. Played Assassins while eating. I am a very bad/non-discreet winker.
• Visited one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. A lake in the middle of a mountain.
• Stayed at one of the worst hotels I’ve ever been in. No heat, and the shower and squatting toilet share a drain… ???
• Spent the night 3300 meters above sea level, in the middle of Nowhere, Tibet. Literally, a single-road town, with yaks, cows, donkeys, and dogs perusing the streets. Feces of every species littered the ground like a minefield.
• Altitude sickness. Or food poisoning. Not sure.
• Threw up in a squatting toilet for the first time. And the second time. And the third… A total of 12 times in one night. 
• Threw up a few more times the next day. Spent a good part of the busride with my head out the window, plastic bag in hand. 
• Also used a public squatting toilet in the squatting position (ahem) for the first time ever. 
• Visited an 800-year-old Tibetan temple. Spent most of the time there in the bathroom… :(
• Finally reached a larger city at a lower elevation. Finally started to feel much better :). 
• Found a tea parlor and chilled/played mahjong.
• Ate something and held it down for the first time in two days.
• Visited a traditional Tibetan village. Enjoyed yak butter tea (yuk), Tibetan wine (not bad), and corn cakes (yum!).
• Tibetan babies are just bundles of swaddle cloths with tapioca eyes peering out from the crack.
• Finished reading Life of Pi on the bus ride.
• A very touristy Tibetan tribal dinner and performance at night. But all of us 老外 got a private dance/afterparty with the hosts, hahah.
• Cuddled a stray dog with a serious case of underbite.
• Had the best 水煮鱼 ever.
• Took a cable car up a mountain to see a glacier.
• Climbed up/stood on a glacier. Yeah kids, your 爸爸 WAS there, back when glaciers actually existed.
• Took a dip in the hotsprings.
• Monkey sighting.
• 烧烤 for dinner. Along with this awesome Tibetan beer that tasted like Mike’s Hard.
• MOAR PANDAS.
• Started reading The Kite Runner.
• Back to Chengdu.
• Satisfied my craving for western food with a DQ Oreo Blizzard.
• 回家啦！Back to Nanjing! Felt so much like home :)).