227 - Sat around the hostel, ate more buuz, reaching almost the limit of buuz, then got on the train with Julie (France) and the American and Scottish

228 - Train stopped in Erlian, got a taxi to the bus station, got some fried rice lunch, waited a long time for the bus, finally bus left, watched sunset slowly drag out the shadow of the bus, got dinner, sleep

229 - 3 am got to beijing, walked north with Julie to Tianenmen Square, flag raising ceremony with thousands of people at 6, got KFC coffee in Wangfujian, guy talked to us about stuff, Went to Beida to meet Fanny, went to hospital with Alex's tooth incident, had great soup dumplings for dinner, went to a boat made into a club for some drinks

230 - Met with Weeble and other people at the Leo Hostel, had Muslim lunch together, then drinking at the Sakura bar with weird 67 year old hippie drug smuggler who was annoying and insulting, then went around hostels asking about Tibet, and then I was tired so went to sleep

231 - Heyuan hostel in the morning for tibet people, walked to Jinshan Park, lunch, bookstore stop, Financial street, went to see movie at French cultural center with Fanny but went wrong direction so missed the first part, watched tom and jerry back at the university

232 - Lufthanza store for gnutella as gift, then to the apple store to get headphones replaced, had lunch with fanny, eva and alex, then took a nap

233 - Spring erupted in the form of flowers on trees, I went to Yashow for new sandals and got some for 100, took a nap and relaxed at Fanny's, read at the university pond

234 - Went to the old summer palace, met a shanghai girl travelling alone, it was a very large park and took a long time to walk around, disappointing ruins, and in the evening had pizza with pierre

235 - April 2 - Took the bus to the Fragrant hills, only thing fragrant about it was myself, fried rice, hiked up, went down, relaxed at fanny's

236 - Took the morning train to Chengde, everyone but me sleeping on the train, went to the hotel to check in, then went to the palace, through the palace to the park, all was not very exciting, waterwheel, "gers" fake and made of cement, some deer, then in the evening spent a long time trying to find dinner and then went to a bar with an alright atmosphere, very quiet

237 - Chengde - Temple like Potala palace (a lot smaller), hiked to thumbs up rock, took the cableway down, bus station and really delicious dinner, jelly beans

238 - Relaxed with fanny, coffee and philosophical conversations about freedom, walked around the university, raining, went to 3.3 to talk with alexa about Tibet, found out she grew up near the Lucky's in Los Altos

239 - Slept in, then went to Jinshan Park, worked a bit on the bag, watched Tom and Jerry

240 - Went with fanny for coffee, relaxed in the university park, made a bug house on the lawn, went to the quiet bohemian coffee shop, watched south park, had a large kaoya dinner, went to D-22, went to sleep

241 - Coffee for breakfast and talked to journalist friend about Mongolia, Said goodbye to Fanny, barely made it to the train station by rickshaw, train was luckily delayed, hit head very hard on the luggage rack in the train, and had an expensive dinner because I didn't bring food, then I couldn't get to sleep because a guy was snoring very loudly next to me

242 - Got to Xining, found hostel but with a tiny bit of difficulty like usual, planned stay in Xining, watched Waterworld, napped, other guy snoring like a cartoon, very amusing but took a while to get to sleep again

243 - Found a German, Simon, to go on the trip with me, and could leave in a few days instead of a week, arranged trip

244 - In the morning found out that Simon cancelled his part of the trip, but paid my part so it was still the two person price, went to the monastery in BeiShan, it was into the cliff, but it was closed, hiked up and down the mountain, and in the evening went to the "night market", no bar, not so fun, returned to the hostel

245 - Went to the Mosque in the morning, not so interesting, bought 12 yuan shoes, went to the night market again in the evening with no success

246 - Waited in the hostel, listened to podcasts, cleaned out emails, took the wrong bus, train was 2 hours late, beggars approached me in the station but I didn't understand them, some argument broke out between a guy and a cleaner, police searched train with flashlights, girl traded seats with me on the train

247 - beatiful mountains in the morning, spilled my instant noodles onto a guy, met guy named Tserin and asked him about Tibet, played war, got new cards, read, podcasts, arrived in Lhasa, no one checked permit, guide took me to hotel, I got some dinner, saw earthquake news, went to sleep

248 - Coffee, Tea in hotel, Got breakfast with Happy, tea with breakfast, met two other tourists we were joining, went to the Jokhang Temple, Happy explained statues and paintings, Roof workers singing, walked around Barkhor square, Sichuan lunch, walked to a "river" dried up, past a stadium with military people, went to the Sera Monastery and watched the monks debating, then in the evening went to an expensive bar

249 - Potala palace in the morning, lunch with Happy's friend, went to park in front of Palace, people looking at me, went to park in the back of the palace, ten went to Norbulinka, 4 animals story, relaxed at park, conversations with Happy, met his wife

250 - In the morning went to the Ani something nunnery, got breakfast there, then went to large shops in Barkhor for a commission we shared, met with another guide to go up a hill, couldn't get very far, candles layed out in room, got some barley wine, went back to the hotel, went drinking with Wei

251 - Went back to Jokhang with Wei, relaxed with people at his hostel, then went to the park with Happy after a short stop at a school, "lake", swimming pool, returned and said bye to Happy, went drinking with Wei again

252 - Had breakfast with a writer/poet/singer/painter Scott, took the bus to the train, nothing eventful on the train

253 - Music war in the morning, got food gifts from the tibetans on the train, relaxed the whole day, and read, ipod ran out of batteries

254 - went to buy bus tickets, walked back, drank with swedes and girl from tacoma

255 - spent day at hostel, went out for food, got some things done

256 - went to the bus station, almost missed bus to lijiang, swervy road, stopped several times, hard to sleep, watched movies on bus

257 - Arrived in Lijiang, walked to hotel to check in, beautiful old town but touristy, family dinner

258 - At breakfast I was overfed by eating other peoples breakfasts, Lion hill park, view from pavilion, snuck into Mu's Palace, went back to the hostel, had a cheap inner

259 - Rented bike, rode to the Black Dragon Pools, banjo and accordian players, monk tried to scam me into paying at temple, 4 person minimum up mountain but hiked up anyway, started raining, stopped for lunch, biked through the rain, touristy Shuhe village, road of lost soles, Baisha village, cool brick houses, old town

260 - Since I was tired I spent most of the day at the hostel, walked around town, nature exhibit with before and after pictures, went out dancing with swedish guy and denmark

261 - Got on bus to the train, said bye to John the english guy who worked at the hostel, just made the train to Kunming, very long train 12 hours, only had a banana and 2 cups of water, guy with muffled voice, kids yelling, no room to move around, got to hostel and checked in, had weird tasting beef noodles (pasta?)

262 - Big headache, took half the day to find a bookstore, Chinese restaurant with real beef noodles, met some bikers, relaxed and slept at the hostel, tiger balloon floating away, had some shepherds pie.

263 - Got up early to get to Shilin, couldn't find bus to East bus station, got minibus, met italian girl, shilin, eternal mushroom rock, kind of like that age in riven, felt terrible, went back, didn't buy 2 yuan oranges, didn't buy 15 yuan oranges at hostel, Park N Shop was amazing, and 3 oranges for 1.8 yuan. relaxed at the hostel.

264 - Park N Shop again, saw a small parade, got bus ticket and left early at 16:15 for my bus at 18:30, bus to train station took long, then the bus 154 to the south bus station took 2 hours so barely made the bus to Laos
265 - headache was bad again, and the bus ride was long and bumpy, exited China and entered laos, forgot the photo for the visa in the bus, $38 for the visa, guy with smelly feet made trip difficult, saw a motorcycle accident, got to Luang Prabang, couldn't find hostel, took the tuk tuk to another hostel, stayed there and got free noodles, drank a bit too