My fellow travelers

Finally, I am free. I'm glad they left, I'm glad I'm alone again. And I can fully enjoy the rest of my trip-- on my own.

I met three travelers from Anhui at DunHuang Train Station, my first stop. There were two guys and one girl in their group. Coincidentally, our travel plans were exactly the same: the next two weeks, we'd follow the same route, visiting the same places, even spend the same time on each spot. They asked me to join them: the girl there needed a companion, and four people would be a perfect group. I was a little bit reluctant because I didn't want to stay with a group the whole trip, but I said yes. As there'd be no buses taking me to the places I wanted to go. I had to find fellow travelers to share cars with me as I couldn't afford renting cars by myself. If I said no to them, I still needed to find new people.

So right on the first day of my trip, I had three partners. Though I was trying to leave them the rest of the days, I wouldn't say it was a wrong decision, as at that point, there were no better decisions I could make. The next few days, I didn't see any backpacking travelers around. If I was not with them, I'd probably end up with stuck in small towns, doing nothing. But untill today, I've visited all the spots I'd plan to visit in Gansu, and I've seen what I'd expect to see: desert, oasis, Gobi, snow mountain... They were all amazing, I was totally satisfied with these parts of the trip. But something was missing -- freedom. I was restricted, and it was not the type of the trip I wanted.

Let me tell you something about my fellows.

Yang, 27, was the leader of the group, a decision maker. He'd organized this trip and already made a perfect plan. Every day was well scheduled-- in the morning, he decided what time to get up and where we'd go on that day. During the day, he controlled everything also: how much time we spent on each spot, which hotels we stayed in, where and what to eat... At first I thought Yang was all right, but after two days, I was getting bored by his plans and tired of this guy. He always kept reminding us, " Hurry up, hurry up, time to go to the next destination." I just couldn't stand being told what to do and where to go.

It seems Yang has traveled to many places, but his experience makes him monotonous. To him, the whole trip is like a big task to accomplish. Each move he makes has to follow the plan. Moving from spot to spot isn't fun but giving him a sense of achievement.

Bai, 23, was the only girl in their group. She's the type of person you'd feel comfortable to be with, but she wouldn't give you too much surprise or excitement, and you wouldn't learn much from her. It was her first backpacking trip, and she was kinda nervous about it. She listened to everything Yang said, even when she didn't feel like doing certain things, she wouldn't say no. From Bai, I see many parts of the former me. Like she's been living in her hometown all her life, she'd never been to anywhere far away as she couldn't find any friends traveling with her. She told me the first few days trip made her much more confident of herself. She was happy to find out that she could stand tough trip, and she planed to do more-- making a trip to Tibet was her biggest dream.

Bai is two years older than me; from her, I also see the type of future I don't want to see. After graduating from the college, Bai found a regular job in her hometown because her family wanted their dear daughter to stay with them. Now, 23, she still lives with her family. She doesn't like her job, but changing isn't easy-- she didn't think she could do anything else well. Bai has week long vacations only twice a year, so she doesn't have much time to make long trips.

Comparing to her, my current life is so good. I've got plenty of free time to do whatever I want. But I can't help thinking, two years later, when I reach her age, what my life would be like. Will I still be so free or end up like her? I know life won't always be exciting and adventurous, but I want my life uncommon.

The last fellow was Liu, a total dork. He talked a lot, telling us stupid stories full of holes. Though already 36, he seemed like a baby who needed to be taken care of. He always asked us to carry his stuff for him. He couldn't stand cheap hotels, and formal meals were extremely important to him. "I'm hungry, stop the car! I need to eat!", "It's time for lunch, let's go to restaurant to have a big meal." " The trip is hard, we need to eat well!"... Eating was the only thing he really cared about. Yesterday we planned to climb a snow mountain. At the height of 4500m, he got sick. It was not that high, but his sickness screwed up our plan to reach the top of the mountain. He didn't feel a bit sorry about it and he considered going to somewhere over 4000m was something. Liu said getting sick was normal, we should thank him because if we kept going higher, we'd probably die of coldness. Come on loser, it was only -10C, and the top was 5100m; nobody but you would die in that condition.

I've stayed with these three travelers past four days. Enough. And I'm bored. If I kept staying with them, my whole trip would be ruined. So this morning, I told them I wanted to spend one more day in JiuQiuan, where I am now. They'd head to Inner Mongolia one day ahead of me, so I'm totally on my own again, great!

I think I don't like the way they travel-- well planned and always so hurry. Sometimes I just want to slow down, like lying on the desert watching sunset, running in an empty road till I'm exhausted, staying in a hotel room wring my travel stories... I want to explore new towns by wandering through their streets and talking to local people rather than simply visiting some most famous tourist spots there. I want to be left alone on the trains or buses, reading my books, listening to my music, and watching the views outside the window rather than feeling obliged to talk with my travel partners, guilt about I've got nothing to say.

Meeting fellow travelers on the way is cool. But like meeting people in our lives, some travelers are interesting, some are not, some even annoying. I'd like traveling with people I feel like being with. They have something to offer for their personalities and unique life experience, they have a good sense of humor, they know how to have fun and how to relax, and they respect each group member's opinions. But this time, I'm just not that lucky. Glad I've said goodbye to them; I'm free again, and I have opportunity to make new friends on the road. I'm still traveling, and I'll be moving on.

Run out of the space

I've got a problem with my site--leylop.com has run out of the space. I couldn't upload anything new to the hosting server, so my photolog hasn't been updated for a couple of weeks and some new photo albums couldn't be added in.

My site has 100MB space. Before I thought that's enough for a personal site, but after having been putting in more and more travel photo albums, 100MB space seems not enough. Now, it's finally full. That's a dilemma--should I delete some photos or try to get more space? I really want to keep all the pictures and make the site bigger, since I still travel a lot, and more pictures will be taken, I'd like to share them with you. But as for the cost, for now I couldn't afford to buy more space.

A few months ago, when I told my mom I was gonna set up a website, she was curious-- "So you can make a living by your site?" She didn't know much about the Internet, but she'd heard many Internet myth stories. It took me a while explaining to her that my site was nothing like those, there'd be no profit in making a website at all, plus I had to pay for the cyber space. "Then why do you want to have a website?" My mom didn't get it. "Why?...hmmm..." She got me; at that time, I couldn't give her a good answer.

It's been four months since I moved my blog from free hosting server to leylop.com, and what I realize now is --- making a site is rewarding; a website itself is not a big deal, but this little site sorta helps me find out what my real interests are and inspires me to travel around. One year ago, I was just a student who was bored with school, who wasn't good at anything and had little to offer, who had only been to very few places besides her hometown and never achieved anything in her life... But today, I've changed. Though I'm still a lousy student in school, it's probably the education system that fails me, not the other way around. I spend time on learning what I'm really interested in, and happily find out I'm good at nothing is the past. English, photography, computer... I can do some things well too. I've been going around, no longer depressed by I've never been to anywhere, I even become the one to be envious of sometimes. Because of this site, I've got chances to communicate with people from all over the places who make me know more about the world. I've been getting help from many of you, even get some future job opportunities. Today, I'm more confident, and my life is a little different.

About the national day holiday trip I mentioned last time, I'm gonna leave tomorrow. Just finished the packing work, my oversized backpack weighs almost 20kg. I'll try to update this blog on the way. And like always, I'll probably take many pictures back. For now my site won't be able to hold more files, but I'll figure out how to deal with the new pictures when I get back. Also I'm thinking about setting up some China travel pages, like putting my pictures and travel stories together, collecting more travel information, writing some travel guides... That'd be fun.

National Day Holiday Plan

I just got a phone call from the manager of Kana Bar, where I was interviewed the other night. He said I got the job, and I could (and have to) start to work from tonight.

Did I take the job? Nope. Not that the job is bad, I just don't feel like starting the work from today. The seven-day National Day Holiday is coming, I've already made my travel plan; if I took that job, I'd have no time to do anything fun. Nah, not worth it. I told the manager I wouldn't have time until October. He's a little bit disappointed, but I'd probably still have a chance. He said I could call them after the national holiday to see if they need more people. Good, I'll do it. After this trip, I'll be broke.

I'm looking forward to upcoming holiday. National Day (October 1) it's supposed to be the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but today, people seem not that into the celebration for PRC, we care more about ourselves—travel, shopping, visiting friends... it's a long holiday, good time for relaxing or getting around.

As for me, my IELTS course is almost finished, and at school I don't have any class for 15 days from next week. So, I'll have enough time to do another long trip. Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia are my destinations this time. Here's my plan (picture) : I'll start my trip from Shanghai, then take 41 hours train to Dunhuang, Gansu province. Next few days, I'll visit Jiayuguan and Qiuquan. And then head to western Inner Mongolia. This part of trip would be more adventruous since there're many high mountains, desert and Gobi in that area, and few people live there. At the end of the trip, I'll go home from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. I've never seen a real desert, that's why I want to make this trip-- and still by train, still alone.

(This is the map of Western China, where I'd never been to before this summer, where I travel a lot lately. I love West!)

Job

I've been looking for a job lately. Since I have plenty of free time this semester, I'm seriously thinking about getting a full-time job.

Job opportunities are everywhere, that's what I didn't notice before. Like walking in some random street, you'll find out that waitresses are always needed everywhere-- restaurants, bars, clubs, coffee houses... I don't get why so many places all need waitresses (and waiters), but there're still many people unemployed. Do they consider waiter a bad job, or just because it's not well paid?

Speaking of the pay, I remember during my freshman year, I was happily taking a waitress job paid 3.5RMB per hour in Pizza Hut. At that time, I didn't really care about the money, I just wanted to have some fun. I didn't bother to figure that it'd actually take me 25 hours work to buy myself a pizza. I didn't ask why they paid us so little, but the pizza prices were the same as Pizza Hut in US... But today, three years later, I realize I can't go back anymore; working in the place like Pizza Hut, Mcdonald's... is like being exploited, and 3RMB per hour is way too little.

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect to get much money. And being a waitress is still the only thing I could think of. What else I can do? Many college students do tutoring work (20-25RMB per hour), but for me, a history major student, it's very difficult to get such job. Most parents need English major students to tutor their kids English, math major to tutor math... I've never ever heard anyone needs a history teacher. (I can't do it anyway). I'd like to teach kids English or Chinese learners Chinese, but few people trust my ability in the first place; when they know my major is history, I don't even get a chance to have a try.

And that's why I like waitress job that much. No one would look down on my major, no one would doubt my ability from the very beginning, and no one would directly say no to me-- at least I have a chance to show what I can offer: I'm good at dealing with people, I've got a unique personality, my English is not bad... Sometimes I feel like waitress is one of the best jobs for me as I'm very confident to be a waitress and I can really do it well.

I just went to an interview in some bar. It seems I could get that job, but I'm not sure if I should take it. The work is from 3 in the afternoon to 11 in the evening, 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. Besides 1 day off each week, they don't give employees any holiday, so if I worked there, I'd lose all the freedom I have right now. But there're two attractions, the first one is they say half of their guests are foreigners living in Hangzhou, it might be fun to work in some place which is not so Chinese. And the salary --1200RMB per month (about 6RMB per hour), not bad for working in a bar. If I kept working in such job for about 4 months, I could probably get $500 or so, then I'd have enough money to take a trip to Vietnam (where I want to visit) by train during my winter vacation.

Apart from working in the bar, another job also interests me-- working in an outdoor store. If I worked there, I'd learn more about things like mountain gear, camping equipments, outdoor clothing... That'd be cool. But I can only get 800RMB per month, and I have to work from 9am to 9pm every day, only 2-4 days off every month. Too much time, too little money, I've decided to leave it.

Still searching...

Chinese Tutor

Anyone in Hangzhou need a Chinese tutor? I'm looking for a part time job, Chinese tutor is the best work I can think of. It's fun, and I think I could be good at it. it. There's not much chance though. I guess most Chinese learners here are either studying in schools or already having lots of Chinese friends, it won't be easy to find anyone who still needs a tutor. So if you or your friends happen to be interested in this idea, please let me know, leylop is here for you.

My email address: leylop@gmail.com

The new semester

I'm taking an IELTS training course. This month, I've got classes every Monday to Friday evening and Sunday all day. The first ten days has gone, and the course is as boring as I thought it would be.

The writing class is the worst. The teacher never talks about the language; he thinks the structure of the essay is the most important key-- every essay should start with a topic sentence, then add a supporting part to develop the topic, and then make a final conclusion. He's proud that he's helping us change the way we think by making perfect and logical points in Chinese, then put Chinese into English. He lets us read many badly written essays in class and asks us why these essays are that bad. Completely useless. I hate people trying to change the way we think by putting us into a formal structure, and I don't like learning from others' mistakes (I like my own mistakes).

About listening, the teacher is so sure that it's impossible for us to follow the tape, all we need is the strategy to answer the questions. When we can't follow some dialogue, he seems happy, "So you don�t understand?? I know that!" How to get the right questions without even listening to the content of the tape is what he focuses on.

Speaking class is kinda entertaining. The teacher teaches us nothing but how to become a liar-- "You don't need to be who you really are and you don't need to say what you really want to say. Talking about what laowai might be interested in and choosing serious and smart topics can help you get a high score!"

...

Boring classes, I'm not disappointed though. Before I came to class, I had a very low expectation on such test training course. I don't think one month study could help me improve my English in any way, and I'm even not sure if I really need to take IELTS. I've been taking tons of English tests past few years, what I finally realize is simply high scores don't mean anything, but if my English is really good, I don't need to worry about any exam.

...

My new semester has started from 1st, Sep. What really surprises me is that we only need to take two course the whole semester, which means I only need to go to school once a week, so I'll have six free days each week! I didn't know the last year in university would be so easy! Past few days was busy since I took many courses in order to decide which two I'd choose, also that IELTS training course took time. But from next week, especially after I finish that IELTS course next month, I'll have plenty of free time. Amazing, isn't it?

...

I've spent (and wasted) lots of time on making future plans lately. For the first time of my life, I get the feeling that I can take control of my own life, and tomorrow is kinda worth looking forward to. I made the decision to take that IELTS course as it might help me figure out what I wanted to do after my gradation (next July), and I might need an IELTS score someday.

Past three years, I've been thinking a lot about studying abroad (some English speaking country) to get a master degree. But now I'm not that into this idea any more. Since my grades in school are really bad, and the grad school costs a lot, also getting the visa isn't easy. What's more, I don't really care about master degree stuff. Many Chinese are desperate looking for good schools overseas, and consider master degree a big deal. They expect to find good jobs in the future, they want to make more money, they want better lives... But as for me, I don't care about all these. I just want to go somewhere different, and see more of the world. Do I need more education on some specific area? Like history, my major? Hell no, four years is enough, I've been bored, and I don't really like learning history. Then how about something like journalism, photojournalism, media... which I'm kinda interested in? But I've never studied any related subject before, how possibly would a school accept a student like me? I'm definitely not confident enough to take a postgraduate program on any of these. Plus, even if I did go to a graduate School, the study wouldn't be easy. Spending one or two years on text books, exams, assignments... are not what I really want.

...

And then what? What's the best for me? I haven't figured it out yet, but I've got more ideas--

1. China
I'm getting tired of Hangzhou, but I haven't gotten tired of China yet. The southwestern China is a little boring to me, but China is big, I can move anywhere I want. For instance, Western China, where I traveled a lot recently. It's still new to me, like it'd be cool to find a job in Tibet or Xinjiang. Also there're many poor and remote areas in China; most of these places don't have enough schools, and teachers are always badly needed. If I stayed in big cities, being a teacher would be the last thing I'd ever think of, but I'm willing to go to these poor areas to teach young children.

2. Europe.
Comparing to US/Canada, Australia/New Zealand, Europe (central and western Europe) interests me much more. As I mentioned attending a grad school might not be the best for me, I think I have more passion for learning languages. And learning one more language would be more interesting than getting a master degree. Something like going to Spain to learn Spanish or going to France to learn French might be fun. Especially Spain, now the policy is still good for Chinese students, it's easy for us to go to Spain, and the tuition fee is acceptable.

3. Afria
Some people consider Asia a mysterious place. But for me, a Chinese, Asian is nothing, but Africa takes that place--a mysterious and fascinating land. I really want to go to Afria, travel or work or study, anything. I checked on the Internet, South Africa seemed to be the NO.1 choice: there're many schools, most courses are taught in English, the cost of living is cheap... I guess it won't be difficult for me to apply for a postgraduate program and get the visa, and English works there.

These are my plans. I never enjoyed making any plan before, but this time, I do-- thinking of these dreams makes me happy. I'm also glad I have so much free time this semester, I want to-- travel all over China.

This Summer

September, Hangzhou is still hot. Yesterday, the temperature got to almost 39C. Though already autumn, the summer scenes are still here: heat ruling, air conditioners running, and people complaining. The summer of Hangzhou is very hot this year-- more than 50 days, the temperature is around 35-40C.

And not only the heat, we have power cuts once or twice during the day each week. Such thing never happened before. But this year is too hot, more people are using air-conditioners, so the electricity supply becomes a problem. In the past, there were very few power cuts in Hangzhou, but some suburban areas and small villages suffered from lack of electricity-- the power goes off every now and then. Early this summer, many suburban residents protested about such unfair situation, they held some marches in the street, and they succeeded. Now, people in different areas take turns to cut the power.

Though once or twice a week, there's no electricity power running in my apartment, I'm totally on these protestors' side. It's not fair the people living in cities have priority to get all the good things. They take everything for granted, and they still complain a lot. People living in rural areas are not only poorer, but they're not being treated equally, and they don't get enough rights they're supposed to have. It's good to see some people go to the street to protest this year.

The world is getting warmer, but we're not getting used to the hot weather. My grandparents are frugal. They used to think that running air-conditioner cost too much money, so they tried not to use it unless the heat was unbearable. But this year, they can't live without air-conditioner. Their air-conditioner runs almost 24 hours a day. They decide to live more comfortably rather than saving money. Good for them. I guess many people think the same way, and more people are depending on air conditioners in summer. I'm not one of them though, I don't need air-conditioner, and I don't even need fan, I can stand hot weather pretty well.

On TV news, I often see something like how many people have died as a result of heat wave in France, Spain, India... or somewhere. Died from the heat?? Weird. I've never heard of such a thing happening in China, and never seen such news reported on TV. China is as hot as anywhere else, and I believe many sick people can't bear such heat. But it seems we always ignore and never count the number of people who died because of the heat wave, we never consider the heat wave itself can cause death, and the heat-related deaths seem never to be recorded. (I might be wrong, but at least I've never heard such number open to the public).

The weather report says it will be getting cooler in a few days. Cool weather isn't bad, but I wish the summer could stay. I love summer, it's my favourite season. And this year, I've got lots of fun from travel. I think that's my best summer ever. But now, it's time to go back to school, the new semester has begun. I will miss my summer of 2003 a lot.

Words and Pictures

(1) Xi'an -- Pictures

It must be depressing living in a city like this, at least it would be for me--Xi'an would be one of the last cities I want to move to. It seems the environment of Xi'an has been badly polluted, and the climate isn't that good. Most of the time, the sky is grey, and the pollution is causing poor visibility, the city looks foggy.

Xi'an is an old city. During past 3100 years of development, 12 dynasties held it as their capitals. But Xi'an doesn't look as old as Beijing. Since Beijing was the capital of Ming and Qing Dynasty, only a couple of hundred years away from today, many old stuff like some palaces, imperial parks, temples, The Great Wall... are still kept well. But Xi'an was the capital of Western Zhou, the Qin, the Han, the Sui and the Tang, between 1000-3000 years ago, most ancient stuff was already destroyed and gone over time.

And the modern side of Xi'an is a little boring to me. Xi'an is pretty much like many other cities of China. Walking in the streets, I forgot where I was sometimes. Xi'an makes me realize that I'm not just getting tired of Hangzhou, but also big cities of China.

"One can't claim to have visited China unless one has seen these terracotta warriors." That's what Jacques Chirac, the president of France once said. Are famous Qin Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses really that impressive? I don't think so. I guess to him, saying something complimentary was just a diplomatic strategy, and it worked-- today Xi'an people and Chinese people all happily remember his words and consider that's a big deal. If Shirac told the world what he really thought of terracotta warriors, he might be in trouble. Also, another guy-- Bill Clinton is being remembered there as well. Because when he visited Xi'an 1997, he once took a picture with these terracotta warriors. This memorable picture is hanging on the wall of the museum there, and must be helping Xi'an get many tourists overseas. I think terracotta warriors is an overrated spot. The work Qing people have done 2200 years ago is awesome, but the problem is what we could see today is only a small part of the whole work, most Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses are still underground and intact. There�re three pits opening to tourists. Only the Pit No. 1 looks all right. But what we see is not the original works, many warriors and horses have been fixed by workers today. That nothing, because today, a farmer living near by could make better looking terra-cotta warriors. I believe ancient Chinese people have done many incredible things, but I'm not surprised to see what we discovered. We're all human beings, they must be not as stupid as we think. The more we underestimate their intelligence and abilities, the more we'd be impressed by what they've accomplished. A few hundred years later, will the smarter future people put computer in the museum, and go like, "see, ancient people invented computers and the Internet! That's not easy for those retards! " We're not retards, of course. The technology is getting developed, I don't think human beings are getting that smarter though.

Back to Xi'an. What I like Xi'an most about is The Xian City Wall, and I really miss it. The city wall is in an oblong shape, it took me four hours to finish the whole trip (13.75km). There're four watchtowers and four city gates at each corner, they're all preserved well. The wall is 12 meters high, 15-18 wide. Outside the wall are moats, today they build parks along the moats. The first two hours of my trip, I didn't see any other tourist passing by. The road seemed to belong to me. I was walking in the middle of the open road, the whole city was below me, and the real Xi'an was in front of my eyes. I enjoyed the trip a lot that day. Stealing their words, I think one can't claim to have visited Xian unless one has seen Xian City Wall.





(2) Yan'an & Hukou Waterfalls -- Pictures

Yan'an is a sacred place in the Chinese revolution, it was there that the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee led the Chinese people in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression during 1940's. Visiting some historic spots didn't interest me too much though, what I found more interesting was-- caves! Even in suburbs of Yan'an today, many people still live in caves. I talked to some local people and visited their home, they told me that about one third people live in caves; a regular family owns 4-5 caves, and a rich family owns more than 10. Not that they couldn't afford living in regular houses, but they just get used to living in caves which are warm in winter and cool in summer. It's comfortable to live in these cozy caves.

The Hukou Waterfalls (Kettle Spout Falls) lies along the Yellow River, about 240 km from Yan'an city. It took me almost 6 hours s to get there by bus from Yan'an, staying there less than one hour, and another 5 hours to get back. It was the first time I saw Yellow River. Check out the pictures, it's amazing!



(3) Yu Lin -- Pictures

"Why do you come here?" Many local people seemed surprised to see a traveler come to their town.
"Hmm...this place is in my travel book, so I'm here."
I'd never head of Yu Lin before, but a picture in my travel book drew my attention-- the view was fascinating, so I decided to check this town out.

Yu Lin trip turned out to be great, and I kinda became the type of the traveler I always wanted to be. There were no buses taking me to the places I wanted to see, I had to get there by hours' walk or look for free rides from strangers. There were no such thing as public bathrooms; picking a good hidden spot, I didn't need to worry about anything. There were very few tourists around, tourist business was stagnant on late August. There were open and empty roads (which I like) everywhere; sometimes I didn't see anyone passing by for a couple of hours.

The scenery there didn't disappoint me either. Trees are sparse, and the landscapes are totally different from where I live. Here're the pictures of Yu Lin--


more to come...

It's a safe world

There was a knock at the door.
"Who's this?" I asked.
"I live right in your next room." A guy answered.
"What's up?" It was almost twelve in the evening, and I was about to sleep.
"Hey, can you come to my room to help me repair my TV set?"
"What? Repair you TV set? " I was surprised, "You are kidding?"
"No, I'm serious. My TV is broken. I heard you watching TV just now. Your TV works!"
"Right, but just because my TV works doesn't mean I'm able to repair a TV. There's no nothing wrong with my TV, that�s why it works--"
"You don't trust me, do you? I simply ask you to check my TV, it doesn't matter if you could get it working or not. I won't blame you."
"The problem is not I don't believe you...well, the problem is I know nothing about how to repair a TV set..."
"Quit looking for excuses" He seemed unhappy, "Where are you from?"
"Hangzhou".
"Are Hangzhou people always that cautious. You're a coward!!"
"Well...Ok, whatever you say. " I didn't feel like continuing the conversation. I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do for your TV. Sorry. Why don't you ask the hostel staff for help? I gotta get up early tomorrow morning, really need to get some sleep now." I turned off the lights after finished these words.
"Coward, coward!" He mumbled and left.

A few minutes later, I heard a hostel staff come upstairs with him, and after another 30 seconds, his TV worked. That guy probably didn't know how to use that type of TV rather than the TV was broken. If he had asked me how to turn on a TV, I might say yes to him. But as for repairing a TV set, that sounded too ridiculous.

That story happened in Xi'an, a small hostel. I don't even know what that guy looked like, but every time I think of him, I'd have a good laugh. I don't think he was dangerous or anything, he was even kinda funny in a ridiculous way, and I guess probably he was just getting lonely that night.

I was all alone on the road, and I enjoyed my lonely trips. I don't remember how many times I've been asked the questions like-- "What? You travel alone? Why not find some friends travel with you?? Traveling alone isn't fun. � I didn't usually argue with other people on that, I simply told them I couldn't find any travel partner, so I had to do it on my own. But the truth is, I do it alone because I really like it. I enjoy the freedom I have. Every day I could make my own decisions and go anywhere I wanna go. And without travel partners, I'm free to hang out with anyone I come across one the way.

It's interesting to come across different types of people. I like talking with strangers, and I'm very good at that. That helped me a lot during my trips this summer. People always say we should be careful when meeting strangers. Before I left home, my mom told me many times that I should never accept any food other people give me (they might put poison in ), never believe the words strangers say (they might cheat on me), never leave my backpack at my hotel room ( some roommate might take it and leave), never... I promised my mom I would keep everything in mind, but actually I forgot all of them on the way. I ate anything people gave me, I even asked people for food when I was starving. When someone came up to me, asking if I need to take a picture for myself, I'd happily hand him my camera and say thanks, thinking even if he grabbed my camera and run, I could run faster than him and get my camera back. Lying on the bed of cheap hostels at night, I wouldn't feel insecure anymore. The chance of being mugged was slim. I believed bad guys were smart people, targeting me was just not a smart idea; if I got money, I wouldn't end up living in such cheap hostel costing10 RMB per day� I felt pretty safe anywhere I went. After this summer, I don't think I trust people more, but what I realize is that the world is much safer than I thought. From TV news, we see airplane crashes, car accidents, nature disasters, crime... every now and then, but the outside world is not that dangerous at all. Though some people might overcharge me, some people might be rude to me, some people might laugh at me...they are not dangerous. It's perfect OK walking in the empty streets in the middle of the night, or wandering through villigae roads, or sleeing at the train station, or talking with strangers... I'd like to believe that basically, it's a safe world, and the outside world is no more dangerous than my home.