internet

I am writing you all from a hostel in Chengdu. My mattress is on the floor, and there is a cat right next to me. We can't get it to leave our room. Luckily it is the cleanest cat I have seen in China so far. We arrived to this captial city of Sichuan province late last night, and after having a bad experience at the so called "Backpackers heaven" Dragon Town Youth Hostel. To briefly illuminate one of the problems, below is a picture of a typical toilet in China, we call them "squatters" :

[ok, scatch that, the internet will not let me. essentially imagine a hole in the ground.]

Aiming is difficult, and the floor is always wet. Also, toilet paper can not be flushed, so instead all paper is placed in a small trash can. I'm sure you can understand how this might be problematic. But don't worry, each stall is equipped with an ashtray--something apparently more important than toilet paper, which you must bring on your own.

But enough whining! This is quite an experience, to say the least. Tomorrow we will ride a 9 hour bus to Jiuzhaigou, a nature preserve in China. They say this is one of the only places not contaminated by the Pollution Problem of China, but then again there is an airport there so I highly doubt it.

Today we went to a 三星堆 Sanxingdui, an excavation site of one of the world's earliest civilizations, the Shu Civilization. It is really striking how their art (they lived from 4800- 3000 BCE, if I remember correctly) so closely resembled that of Latin America. I wish I could attach pictures, but it looks like the internet won't let me :( Rats.


Well, as tired as I am, describing the Shu civilization without pictures appears to be a large endeavor, so I am going to cut this blog short. Hope everything is well wherever you are! I will write when I'm back in Chengdu.