Over a dinner of faux-meat Buddhist vegetarian Tibetan food, wine and tea in the evening, morning coffee, and beer with her friends Chris survives the onslaught of my verbal diarrhea of gratefully being able to talk to someone about anything other than the same sixteen topics and fourteen questions that get asked day in and day out.

She warned me repeatedly before I came that her apartment "isn't very comfortable" but the little heater she gives me for my room actually makes it warmer than any place I've been since the hotel with the underfloor heating way back in Gansu.

At first, I'm really comfortable and have no idea what she's talking about. However, as my bike gets packed up and shipped back to Hainan, my panniers get rearranged and shipped back to Hainan, and my luggage for Spain arrives, the hardness of the bed, the coldness of the surroundings, and the squatness of the toilet gradually make themselves more noticeable to my conscious mind.

Also, I've got thirteen days that I'm going to be in Chengdu and that's just too much to be spending in someone else's apartment. Even for friends who have known you for years, that's too much. For a host, and especially one who has ongoing things like her upcoming planned move to Cambodia, it's definitely pushing it.

With the intent that I'll actually potentially do stuff while I'm in Chengdu (but the knowledge that I won't), I research hostels and, on the morning of the fourth day, move out and move on to a place called Poshpacker near the Wenshu Monastery.