Going to Meet the Buddha

Ok, so Lanzhao didn't have much to see for me. Pretty much a large, industrial city in the middle of China, with some of the worst pollution anywhere. I spent the day running errands, getting some snacks and hit a few shops. We went to an AMAZING Korean BBQ joint in town, the food was probably the best meal I've had here so far, and that's saying alot.

After dinner, the entire group went to do KTV. What is that you may ask? I did as well... It's karaoke. And it's the national passion of the Chinese. They f-ing love it. Now I've done karaoke before, but this place was hands down the shit. Tons of individual rooms, plush sofas and large tvs. Having someone continually bring you drinks isn't that bad either. The staff loved us - you know, the westerner thing again - and a few even came in and sang a traditional Tibetian song for us and danced. It was awesome. Of course, debauchery ensued... this, I've found, is what happens when you add twenty travellers, two bottles of vodka, and about 30 gigantic econo-size beers. Ummm...yeah...I sang FAME. "I'm gonna live forever...". We were all pretty much trashed when we left, and found our way back to the hotel around 2:30AM. Not so much fun when you have to get up at 6:30am to pack and get on the truck. Uggh.

Sidenote: The Chinese are wonderful cooks, and honestly I haven't had one bad meal yet. (Knock on wood, I don't need any *stomach* issues). I've tried to stick to little mom and pop type establishments, they seem to be the best bet and are super cheap. Today at lunch a few of us walked around the little city we're currently stopping in called Liujiaxia. Went for it with an all Chinese menu (no pictures) and just a few words of Chinese to say chicken, beef, noodles, etc. The waitress, who I must admit was probably the most patient person on the planet not speaking any English herself, brought us four amazing dishes from our Chinglish attempts at communication. So tasty, and, cost us $5 to feed all of us.