Last day in China

My original plan was to travel by train all the way from St Petersburg, Russia, to Lhasa, Tibet, and then overland to Nepal. But because I was only granted a 15-day Chinese visa that plan had to be scrapped.

I was considering skipping Nepal altogether because I'd have to pay an additional $1500 or so for airfare that I wasn't planning on. I thought I'd continue south through China and then overland into Southeast Asia. But ultimately I saved a lot of money by not going to Tibet, so the money issue isn't such a big deal after all.

Trekking the Himalayas was one of the main reasons I took this trip in the first place, so I'm going to Nepal.

In the meantime I planned on going to Guilin, in the southeast corner of China. I booked a "hard sleeper" ticket, which means I'd be in a cabin with six beds, with three bunks on each side. I got the middle bunk.

Then I realized there were further complications with my visa (which I won't go into). As a result I would travel 27+ hours by train to spend about a day and a half in Guilin. It just didn't seem worth the travel. I took a hard sleeper from Beijing. The bunks were like coffins.

I saw everything I hoped to see in my shortened China trip: The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army and Hua Shan. To quote Butt-head of "Beavis & Butt-head" fame: "I have seen the top of the mountain. And it is good."

Tomorrow I'm going to refund my ticket and move on.

So not only am I going to Nepal, I'm going two days early! Part of the reason I booked this particular flight is that it connects in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, at 9:45 a.m. I'm going to try to get a ticket on the right-hand side of the plane so, hopefully, I'll be able to view the Himalayas from air into Tibet and from Tibet into Nepal!

It means I've got an 8-hour layover in Chengdu, so my main goal tomorrow will be to find some reading material...