how many weeks does it take to post pictures aaron?

Too many, I know. But sometimes I try and pretend I have a life, ya know? Anyway, let me continue. I left off in Xi'an right? After 3 nights there we took a morning train to Lanzhou, a city out West that ended up being about a 6 hour train ride away. It was somehow surreal, comfortable, and annoying all at once. surreal because the landscape was made up of almost completely arid mountains dotted with little caves, some of which were obviously inhabited. I guess this was the central/western Chinese version of crappy train track towns. Comfortable because I splashed out on the 1st class sleeper train, for the 1st class price of about 30 dollars. the cattle car class is only a few dollars, but it really did look like a cattle car. But the ride was annoying because our train car was filled with old Japanese tourists who were with a fairly large group. Generally Japanese people are too polite and quiet to be that annoying, but something about being out of Japan must have made these people feel like no manners at all were necessary; they were loud and pushy and unwilling to stop taking pictures for 2 seconds to let us through with our big bags or when we had to go to the bathroom. A bit mind-blowing as surely these people would have spent most of their lives trying as hard as possible NOT to be in peoples way.
After hours going through fierce looking desert landscapes, we heard over the loudspeaker that we were approaching Lanzhou, a city of about 3 million people. But out the window was still nothing but desert mountains. Then we went through a mountain, and came out into some factories, and then a minute later into a bustling city center with a fairly modern looking train station. It was pretty unbelievable how sudden the transformation took place. Unfortunately Sigma missed her flight to Lanzhou, so we had a bit of the day to kill before she would arrive on the next flight, so we went to find our hotel. Even though it was twice the price as the backpackers' we stayed at before, it was about half as good. So note to china travelers on a budget: all the private rooms at the youth hostels I stayed at were quite nice, and the one "nice" hotel I booked a room in was smelly and moldy.
Anyway, we were in Lanzhou to celebrate New Years, and celebrate we did! After eating dinner with some of Sigma's peace-corp volunteer friends (whom we didn't know, but were ridiculously friendly) we went to a club that looked like it was in the middle of Times Square. It was still doing my head in that 5 minutes outside the city was nothing but desert and mountain huts, but here I was surrounded by cars, neon, lights, fashion, and all those other city things. Weird.
Below is stuff from Amber's camera, which I just stole off of her:

Here's us with some clappers at a Tibetan Bar.

Amber took this vid from the train between Xi'an and Lanzhou. It was like this pretty much the whole 6 hours.
This is Amber asleep on Sigma's couch (way back in Taiyuan.) I couldn't resist though, because Amber hates cats so much but there we are sleeping like a happy family. Sigma obviously enjoyed it too and happily took our photo.Here's an example of some Chinese Muslim food vendors that gave me so many yummy things. I rarely had any idea what I was eating, and I was constantly anticipating terrible gastrointestinal problems, but I was and still am fine. Incredible.

The last two photos are me showing off a fake Vivienne Westwood Jacket I bought. Real Vivienne Westwood Jackets apparently go for well over a thousand dollars, but I fetched this baby for about 13 bucks. Amber thought it was just the right amount of gay, though sometimes I look at these photos and think maybe it is a bit much. But I really liked it after a food vendor we were buying from pointed at my jacket and starting singing "Beat It" by Michael Jackson. I now refer to it as my Michael Jackson jacket.
This is me and Sigma and a big ant! This is at a bird "sanctuary" in Taiyuan. I think I talked earlier about how gross it was though... But Sigma looks so happy on the ant, and that's all that matters.
Here's a picture of a dead weasel or some such animal from that sanctuary that Amber took. Must've been there a while.

Amber has more pictures on Facebook if you're so inclined and happen to use that website too.

Our last two nights were in Beijing, but were mostly unremarkable. Amber succumbed to some horrible but brief feverish haze the day before we left unfortunately. I took care of her for a bit, but while she was sleeping I snuck off to go stand in line to see Mao's corpse in the middle of Tienanmen Square. It took quite a while, but eventually I got to shuffle pass the enormously (in)famous man, who didn't look particularly real. Though I guess who could after being dead for about 30 years? I was gipped of my chance to see Lenin when I was in Moscow because of body renovation, but at least I got Mao in. Next is to Vietnam to gander at Ho Chi Minh! I wonder why Communists like preserving their dead heroes. Has anyone else in recent history kept preserved dead people out for extended periods of time in order to be honored?
After Amber recovered from her disease, we did what all Westerners must do in China; shop. We both planned on picking up a bunch of stuff before heading back to expensive Japan, but in the end only Amber ended up with stuff. I certainly had plenty of opportunities, but I just wasn't interested in the kind of fashion stuff they had for guys. Similar to Japan, the guys tend to pick either a more gangsterish bent, or a very metrosexual bent. While China isn't nearly as all-out as Japan, it had the same basic feeling. And besides my hot new Michael Jackson jacket, it's not quite my thing. But for girls, also similar to the Japanese, Chinese girls want to look super cute. Thankfully Amber also wants to look super cute, and does so in cute asian clothes. Lucky Aussie!

Of course nearly a month has gone by since my return, and I've been up to a few things. I'll write about those shortly, and this time I mean it. Just putting up pictures takes time, so I get lazy. I don't mind writing at all!

Take care everyone and sorry again for taking so long...
Aaron