I don't even remember who found this place, but after doing a little bit of research on it, "discussing it" with our husbands (some husbands said, "just take care of it" and my husband said, "well if our friends are going we have to go too"), we booked some flights and tonight we landed in Chongqing, China!
Yes, it is pronounched "chong-ching", and I won't blame you if you laugh a little bit at that name. But I'll bet you've never heard of it - none of us had! How many people get to say that they've been to Chongqing, China?
We landed last night after an ultra sketchy flight. It wasn't my first domestic Chinese flight, and unfortunately it isn't my last. I much prefer trains because I don't have to fear for my life every 15 seconds when the plane freefalls several feet. And I can't even begin to describe the turbulance! It felt like a pretty hardcore earthquake the whole time, and I had to close my window cover because watching the wings shake like crazy made me want to cry.
But, the plane did get us to our destination alive, and pretty quickly too. We gave the address of our hostel to a taxi driver who ended up just dropping us off on the side of the road after a couple of miles. He said we were there and we just trusted him! We wandered around a little bit, like through some dark alleys and in little nooks that I think are equivalent to backyards in China. It was super sketchy, but we ended up finding the place after walking through a parking lot, up 4 flights of stairs, and finding a hotel that gave us directions. 3 minutes later we were at our hostel!
I don't know about hostels, guys. First of all the name freaks me out, because it sounds a lot like "hostile" and that is exactly the adjective I would use to describe my feelings for the place that first night. We got there past midnight, and walked into our room where a whole bunch of young Chinese men were still up chatting. Our room smelled like salami, my locker was full of beer, the whole building shared just a couple of bathroom stalls, and I'm pretty sure the 4 of us girls were the only women in the area. I was kind of freaked out, but I wasn't the only one. I went to bed on my top bunk, and every 20 minutes Bailey's head would pop up and he would try to convince me to come down to his bunk with him. He did that about 4 times but I was so comfy (it is kind of sad when hostel beds are more comfortable than your apartment beds) I didn't want to move! Eventually he gave up and just climbed up into my bed with me. I'm sure I would have been fine alone, but it did make me feel better to have my guy to snuggle!
This morning we got a bit of a late start. It is a bad habit of ours, and having a large group of 8 people makes it even harder. No problem though - we headed to the Porcelain Village and had plenty of time to wander around! It was so cool!
Asians are so weird. And I can say that because I'm Asian and I also have this weird tendancy to be obsessed with cute things. Everywhere in this town they were selling little pig ear clips, cat ears, and these little chickies on springs that people would wear right on top of their heads. It was actually Bailey who couldn't resist the chickies - he just had to buy one! We loved that little chickie as our own for the 10 minutes it stayed together. I had it on my camera strap, though, and crowds of people who don't have the concept of personal space are not good for the health of chickies. Don't worry, I have plans to fix the little guy!
We had tons of fun walking through this street, visiting shops and smelling the smells.
We bought some deep fried taro wonton things which were delicious, ice cream, and this mystery thing which ended up being fried flat mochi filled with melted sugar. It was insanely delicious! I'm going to have to start frying some of the mochi I make at home!
We bought a lot of souvenirs . We are suckers for good souvenirs, and even more so for good prices. I bought a scroll, a cotton Chinese shirt, and some more postcards. Bailey bought some cool money that isn't in use anymore, some communist propaganda posters, and some tin mugs. Oh, and while I was in the bathroom he bought some blue slime which I'm really confused about.
We were very hungry by that point, having spent most of the day in the Porcelain Village. We walked around for a while to find some food, and eventually a really nice girl stopped to help us. We told her we wanted noodles, and she took us to a restaurant and even stayed long enough to help us order! All while her friends waited outside, haha. She was so cute and nice, and helped us order some "medium spicy" soup.
But here's the thing about Chongqing - they are known for their spicy food. We probably should have ordered mildly spicy soup, because medium spicy soup was INSANE. It was seriously a painful experience. I can't say it was the hottest thing I've ever tried, but it was definitely the hottest thing I have eaten for an entire meal. It was a struggle, but I was determined to eat my whole bowl. It hurt, but it was delicious! Our stomachs are now paying for it though!
We were off to our next location when we passed some street food vendors. We can really never say no to street vendors. We had to buy some fried quail eggs. Quail eggs are my favorite!
The rest of the evening was spent buying cheesecake (it tasted American!) and checking out this cool bridge. We even walked on part of the bridge!
After that it was back to our hostel. We met the middle aged man from Thailand who was staying in our room with us. We all headed to bed... and yes, I bunked with Bailey!
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