Chinese TV

Yesterday was our "Unemployed Day". We spent the day wandering aimlessly around Chengdu. Now I appreciate the fact that we met Monica in Guilin... having a local on your team is a definite plus, because without one to guide you around, show you where to eat, take you places etc, we're basically the equivalent of a bunch of Chinese people going to NYC and looking at Ground Zero, taking pictures at the Statue of Liberty, and eating at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

In Chengdu our BFF is the Fromer's travel book we have, which has on more than one occasion made us the target of clowning. All the locals and cab drivers were snickering at us so we beat a hasty retreat to the internet cafe where we can, duh, blog more!

On our day off yesterday we went to eat Tibetan food for lunch. Not to hate on the cuisine, but our dining experience was less than stellar. For one thing, it was like 90 degrees outside and the A/C wasn't on in our part of the restaurant, and all the food we ordered was steaming hot. So already we're mega lethargic. Then we look over across the table and there's this monk and a bunch of hangers-on eating so we figure, hey these guys know what's going on, and we order the same tea they have. WRONG. Note for the future, "Butter Tea" tastes exactly as "Hmmm... that sounds interesting, I'll order it and expand my horizons, here it is, MMMMM looks good, now to taste it YEEEARRRARRTGHHH! Christ what is this!" as it sounds. Also there were homeless people constantly coming up to the window and literally just standing there for 5 minutes at a time staring at you to give them money. Grimsville.

That was pretty much it. We watched TV in the hotel (see some channel surfing examples below), and generally just slept and wandered in a daze. Today we VOW to not stay in an internet cafe all day!