At this point we are getting pretty good at packing our backpacks although we had to get rid of a few things to make packing a bit easier. As carrying these 50lb or so bags around can be a challenge at times but non the less a great workout.

We are now en route to chengdu via this lovely train for 32 hours. So far we have our own "room" to just us two on the bottom bunks but 2 more may come in at any time. As you can see from the picture it's quite cozy and bed is equally as hard as the last few hostels (were definitely going to need some back massages soon haha).

We are like usual the only white people and no one speaks English so our lunch consisted of Tyler acting out words such as chicken flapping his arms and bocking which caused a few laughs and we still did not end up with a chicken plate but beef and it was good thankfully.

To further describe the train ride it can be very beautiful views as we both look out our window, some very old houses with people working in the fields, random chickens,donkeys and lots of huge hills. We're starting to get restless already and we've still got about 24hours to go. Oh and we're not enjoying the smoke smell as people can smoke anywhere as well as of course the squat toilet ...it just doesn't get any easier and it's not very clean to say the least.

So we made it through the night on our nice rock hard beds and woke up with sore throats from all the smoke on here. We also ended up sharing our "room" with another guy. No big deal I guess he slept on one of the top bunks and kept to himself (which is pretty much what everyone does as no one speaks english and stares at us amused or curious or something. Aside from our awful sleep we woke up to breathtaking views of mountains and large rolling hills peaking up from early morning fog (sometimes all day fog due to bad air quality ) but so beautiful. Little houses with people working in the fields. Chickens roaming about. Tons of character. Oh and we thought we would try what they were serving for breakfast which was only .75 thankfully because it was pretty much mushy rice in water and some kind of bun but did not taste like any bread ive ever had. 8 more hours to go....

So we made it!! After a restless 32 hours we arrived in chengdu. After going through some more crazy traffic we got to our hostel and it's in a great location right downtown and the nicest hostel we've stayed at thus far with a pretty large room, a tv that works AND has an english channel ( just one though) , and an actually really nice bathroom. We're quite happy. We just met a very nice Australian couple and are planning our trips for the next few days, there is lots to do here! We are planning to see pandas of course!