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We arrived at our hostel in Chengdu around 9:30 am. Not wanting to lose a day I signed us up to make the two hour trip to Leshan to visit the world’s largest Buddha. Our new friends Chris and Helia joined us as did a British couple, Noah and Elaine, who are on a 9-month RTW journey of their own. There was also another guy from LA (there’s always a guy from LA), but since I was three rows back in the bowels of the van, I never got his name. After a 2 1/2-hour jaunt through southern Sichuan, we arrived at the Big Buddha’s park, which is actually an extensive complex of temples, gardens, museums, and even a small fishing village. We weren’t sure which ticket we should buy, a complete or partial or something involving a boat ride, since the English explanations provided for each only served to confuse rather than clarify. We visited the information booth, which the signs promised would have English speaking guides, but when I asked the only question I know in Mandarin, “Do you speak English?” all I got was shoulder shrugs. No matter. We bought the cheaper tickets and walked the promenade along the river until we reached the park gates.

The site is popular with Chinese tourists, but thankfully their numbers were low on this particular October day. Taking time for the now obligatory Asher photo shoots, we gradually worked our way through the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon pool and fountain toward the Buddha. At 233 feet high, he’s one big boy. You reach him at ear level and peer over the fence toward his feet which touch the riverbed below. Though he may be sacred to some, the majority of Chinese pay their respects by pointing their fingers in the air so it looks like they are poking his ear or picking his nose while their friends snap pictures. We opted to defer our descent to his toes and spent an hour or so meandering the grounds.

Playing the “we’re foreigners, we don’t know what we’re doing” card, we finally went down the up staircase (much like going in the out door) and arrived at the Buddha’s feet. Wow! What an amazing view. The pyramid photo we snapped conveys the scale well. Even Tom is only as tall as a toe. By the end of the day even Kieran who had spent much of the time asking, “But what’s a Buddha?” had a perfunctory knowledge of Buddhism and an appreciation of the years and dedication required to carve this gentle giant.

Technorati Tags: Buddha, Lashon, Chengdu, puppy

When I first heard that we would be staying in hostels during our journey I was extremely distraught. I would much rather be staying at a hotel than an old run down hostel with people partying all around. But there was no way of convincing my dad not to. I knew that eventually I’d have to face my fear and sleep in a hostel. When me and my dad stayed at our first hostel in Beijing, I was expecting the worst. My dad assured me that it was not going to be full of parties or anything like that, but I still didn’t believe him. When we walked in, it was quite dirty, looked run down, and smelled terribly of smoke. The only perk was that there was internet in the lobby, which would provide me with a much needed chance to talk to some friends from back home. Everything so far was what I had thought it would be. We got up to the room and I expected the worst. It wasn’t far from my expectations. The floor was dirty and stained, the beds were solid as rocks and it smelt of mildew. I sighed, decided that it was better than the floor, crawled into my sleep sack, and went to sleep. I awoke not any more refreshed than when I had gone to sleep. My dad and I had no desire to stay in that room any longer than necessary, so we headed off for the Sheraton where the luckier (or so I thought) portion of our family was staying. We arrived and saw it was no better for them than it was for us. Due to the fact that we were trying to fit four people into a room designated for two we had to move like ghosts, and talk like we were at a funeral. It seemed there was no way out. I rode out the next couple of days until my family decided it was time for a change. We moved everyone into a six person dorm room in the hostel. I had expected that this too would be a terrible experience, but it turned out much nicer than anything I could have possibly have hoped for. The room was far better, no musty smell, cleaner floors, and better beds. But best of all was the fact that there was no pressure. We didn’t have to be silent any longer. The little kids could run and yell and have all the fun they wanted (which included shining laser lights at the feet of passersby from a window). We met a few new people and I got to liking hostels. We had a good time for the few nights we stayed in the hostel. It had entirely changed our minds. We now wanted to stay in hostels everywhere! We bid goodbye to ours friends at the Zhaolong Hostel in Beijing and left for Xi’an which was a twelve hour train ride away. We stayed at another hostel which was also quite pleasant.

Aside from the fact of a dirty room with mosquitos hanging around in it, it was all right. They had a restaurant in the center of the hostel which had some very good food, well, as far as hostel food goes. They also had a TV with forty DVDs to choose from and three computers all hooked up with internet. The little ones loved this hostel, watching loads of movies from Me, You and Dupree to The Fantastic Four (which we watched with subtitles, which were actually for some unrated movie involving the take over of a high-school in the U.S. by Hungarian and Serbian drug lords.

We didn’t know how this could possibly be topped, but we had heard great things about the ‘Mix’ hostel in Chengdu where we would be headed next so we decided to check it out. It was great, they offered free wireless internet, loads of free mp3 downloads, a non-smoking dvd room with a lot of DVDs and mosquito repelling incense! What more could you want from a $3.00 per person hostel? The staff all spoke great English and even threw a Halloween party in which the kids participated and had great fun. Another advantage of the hostels are the fact that they can schedule trips to tourist attractions for a good rate. From Mix we went to the Leshan Great Buddha and the Chengdu Panda Reserve. As I’m writing this post from a Sheraton, I have to say it’s nice to have a break from staying at hostels, but there’s no better way to make friends (some of whom may read your blog, or our blog for instance) and have a good time than by staying at a hostel.

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Technorati Tags: Beijing, China, hostels, xi’an