Following Buddha

I am complaining about over packing. (refer to the highlighted area)

Interestingly... I don't have any toothpaste in my overload. So, I packed up everything in the morning and left my hotel to brush my teeth. I don't have a word for toothpaste in Chinese.
For some reason all the shopkeepers are unable to understand my brilliant acting of brushing teeth and applying paste. All of them are pointing towards a bucket of water in front of the shops and inviting me to brush there. Finally i find the toothpaste in a small shop. The restaurant owner who has agreed to give me a vegetarian diet asked me to brush in front the shop. So here I was brushing my teeth in Xining's busiest road. Suddenly people are looking at me. Almost all of them. A few more moments there and there would have been a traffic jam. But Xining went on smoothly. I am now sitting inside the restaurant.

Yesterday when the train arrived in Xining, {X pronounced as the 'su' in measure} I was surprised. The image of Xining was a small beat-up town where people just come to goto lhasa. I am glad I was wrong. A beautiful looking highway connects Xining to Lanzhou, another important city. Then the city has a very wide canal-like-looking-yellow-water river that runs fast. There are several tall buildings. The people do not look like the way they did in Beijing. There was a small laughable-western-standards fashion show going on where Tibetan models are walking promoting clothes from a nearby store.

My friend had told me that Xining was a Xit city. I am enjoying this place probably because I had no to low expectations. The most incredible thing was the pool arena. Between the river and the bus there was a place of the size of a basketball court, where laid about 40 pool tables. All occupied. And did I mention it was open air.



I took a motorcylce taxi, and the guy zoomed and swooped through the busy traffic to the halal restaurant that I heard about. On the way there I saw millions of muslim men and women in their peculiar white hats and black scarves respectively.

The restaurant is in front of a huge mosque and a muslim community center. All the businesses on the road are operated by the white capped men and black scarved women. AM I IN CHINA? I tried to go in the mosque and am asked 10 yuans being a foreigner. I quickly refuse, being cheap.



There are also many poorer bhuddhist monks. Many of them with the revolving stick things. I had not seen any monks in Beijing. Since now I'm in a more remote area I am seeing a different China. Aa per my researchless analysis, muslims were the fastest to shoot up after religion was legalised. Bhuddists never could live without their buddhist lifestyles, so they always were there.

Later in the night I met with half a dozen roaches in my room. Because there was no English involved in the conversation I was having with the hotel manager, things got frustrating. A group of local kids who were staying in the hotel for some sorta party {15 of them in one room} jumped in one by one in the argument. All took my side out of sympathy. The hotel was forced to pay me 5 yuans back [score] they invited me to their rooms and treated me very well. only one girl could speak a little english. I had an amazing time with them playing cards. After a game of their choice, I taught them poker. They picked it up very well.



In a few hours I will be on a long ride to Yushu on bus. I will finish my breakfast and head out.