March 13, 2007
Rest Day in Zhenyuan: finding internet not so easy
"I guess getting up at 8 means we slept in..." Rachel says.
We get another thermos of hot water from the desk downstairs and we have cornflakes and oatmeal and cups of coffee. Rachel does laundry in the sink, Patrick finds a place on the roof to hang the clothes...he says he was first given pegs to hang the clothes then "told" he should use more because of the wind.
About 10am we decide to go out. We ask downstairs where an internet cafe is, Patrick uses the Mandarin Phrase book we've been carrying. The girl behind the desk and a man that came downstairs have a discussion. The man then shows us to the cafe. We walk out and down a few blocks from the hotel. The streets for cars are divided by trees and shrubs from a section of road for bikes and parking, that is separated by trees and shrubs from the sidewalk.
Once we reach the corner, the man stops and asks where the internet place is and we are walking again, he again stops and asks for directions, and we walk back toward the hotel and down a side street and into the local market. Patrick says, "It's difficult to find even if you speak Chinese". We go upstairs, around a corner and into a room with 2-3 dozen computers. We never would have found it so "easily" on our own.
Patrick does research on overland trips to Lhasa and Rachel answers emails. We wander around the market, Patrick takes lots of people pictures, we buy pineapple and watermelon, apples, carrots and cucumber and then select dishes for lunch in take away containers and return to the room to eat. Laundry is dry, we read, and about 4pm go out for beer and chips, return to the internet place, another take-away meal for dinner and pick up beer.
Tomorrow back on the road to Dali.
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