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my bus out of daocheng was 6:30 in the morning. it was a minibus, where our luggage had to be put on the roof of the vehicle because there wasn't enough room inside the bus. right away i got off to a rocky start when the girl sitting next to me demanded that we switch seats so she can get the window. "i get carsick," she said. "me too," i replied. that was the last time we talked. she was also quite the princess: apparently you can smoke on the bus and whenever somebody lit up she would start coughing dramatically, asking her friends to open the window. i say the cigarette smoke just adds to the ambience, just like when the tibetan men start singing in unison (they got a lot of energy, those guys). i'm surprised she wasn't complaining about the smell of yak butter. the bus trip took 12 hours, with a rest stop every 2 hours, which basically meant you got out the bus and pee off the side of the road.

i slept through most of the trip, figuring whatever mountain landscape i was missing i'd already seen on bus trips from the past few weeks. i dreamed i was either still in daocheng (like some twilight zone episode) or back in the US. the princess eventually did get her way, switching seats with one of the korean guys sitting behind us. for final 2 hours, i watched the korean clutching a roll of toilet paper, desperately waiting for the bus to stop so he can go to the bathroom. the tension was so high, i could barely fall asleep(but i was tired, so i slept despite such close proximity to a traveling tragedy).

when we finally arrived in zhongdian around 7pm, i was luckily to find a place to stay the second hotel i visited: RMB$100/night (about US$12.50/night) with my own bathroom and western style toilet! not having to squat has become a real luxury.

the hotel asked if i wanted to visit a real tibetan home and have roasted mutton for dinner while watching a tibetan performance. what i thought would be an intimate affair ended up with me and 120 other chinese in a restaurant designed vaguely in the tibetan style. there was singing and dancing - nothing which i haven't already seen before in kangding, in litang, in daocheng. it was basically tibetan for the lowest common denominator. most of the chinese arrived already drunk, and were shouting and cheering. i sat in the back, eating my mutton with my bare hands, constantly looking at my watch to see when this travesty would be over.