Today we left the Shaolin Temple to return to the hotel in Luoyang and pick up our main luggage. Tomic reserved more two rooms for a half day: one for the guys and one for the girls, which was odd because there were only 4 guys on the tour and 9 girls...

Few of us took showers, the rest went off to Luoyang's pedestrian street to find food. There was a local Carrefour and a big McDonalds right across. We ordered frozen yogurts and burgers because we were getting tired of Chinese food and needed a break. China's McDonalds essentially tastes the same as back at home so no surprises there.

However, below the restaurant was another thing: a huge supermarket called Wangfujing with a large produce and prepared foods section, a bakery, a pharmacy, and home appliances and electronics section. Their prepared foods section included a variety of fried meats, tofu, onion pancakes, and pickled vegetables. There were rows upon rows of packaged nuts and seeds, candies, and gelatin cups. I bought some cookies and preserved waxberries and Emery bought gummies and some new CDs.

We boarded the sleeper train to Suzhou around 6 or 7ish. Some of us purchased LED hippo-shaped flashlights to read and play cards in the dark (Martin named his Heinrich the hippo and Emery named his Huang He-poo) but many of us were fast asleep after the nights went out at 10.


* Sorry about a lot of grainy pictures. I wasn't used to Emery's camera.

Shared Expenses
breakfast from the convenience store 9Y
Wangfujing grocery section 28Y
music CDs 65Y
McDonald's 41Y (Emery + me)
fruits on the sleeper train 20Y
hippo flashlight 10Y

total = 173Y approx. $25US

* Sunday, May, 10, 2009