Nonetheless, here are some random notes from Chengdu:
1. The hotel I'm in is the same hotel we used last year EXCEPT that it has been upgraded to a 4-Star hotel! It's pretty impressive how they took only 5 months or so of gutting this entire 30-floor hotel to turn it into a completely different hotel!
2. We (Bill & Meg Gorvine and I) went to KFC for dinner last night (some of you know of my not-so-secret love-affair with fried chicken)followed by enjoying ice-cream at this real fancy Haagen-Dazs ice-cream place. Ice-cream selections were between RMB65-75 (about US$10).
3. We're meeting up with Jongbok - a UVA graduate student who is here in Chengdu, on his way to Lhasa. Ying told me about Jongbok being here right now and gave me his email. Again, (good) colliding-karma. Jongbok is going to find a good Korean restaurant for lunch. Delicious.
4. I know my checked baggage it already way over-weight.... but I think I'll go try to find a nice tea-set. Chengdu is FAMOUS for its tea-culture. When in Chengdu....
5. Finally (drum roll)... I took a couple of pictures of some sort of "hygiene-wash" sachets found in the bathroom (marked: "Non-complimentary, 10yuan"). To read the words on the sachet you might have to click the pics and open a separate and larger window.
I guess people here are very concerned about keeping their bodies free of "germs and pathogens." But this reminds me of what Ryan McL. said about how on any given day we should probably be more concerned about washing our hands rather than other more hidden body-parts since our hands are way more exposed to all kinds of germs, pathogens and yuck. I'd have to agree. But at the same time... different folks, different strokes. So, stay healthy and clean - however you do it!
