April 30; capital: from the peony's to china’s, all with the best type: friendship

Day 85

We planned our day last night to include precise times, directions, and activation to avoid any unnecessary events. 

In the morning, we walked to Wangcheng Park to admire Luoyang’s famous peonies.  Since Luoyang is actually the peony capital, peony watching was a must see for me. 

Inside the park, there was:

a ferris wheel (wish we had time to go on that),

there were tons of floats and stuff.

boat rides down the river (wish we had time to ride on that),

cable car rides (wish we had time to ride on that),

strange bears that drive the rickshaw. Still trying to figure out the dynamics of that.

an unexpected zoo,

Man feeding the monkeys

You could take a picture with the camel for a price.

The zoo was small and the animals were confined. There was only the most basic furnishings in the cages i.e. a tree for birds, ropes and nets for monkeys play. The zoo, although it provides an opportunity for Chinese people to stare at something to observe animals in real life all in one convenient location, was actually pretty depressing. The monkeys were in a big whole in the ground (reminded me of The Rise of the Planet of the Apes).  there was a lack of control from Chinese people who seemed to have the need to drop their shit in the moneys “habitat”. I don’t think there was special zoo keepers to take care of the animals. It was all pretty depressing...

and of course there were peonies.

yellow peonies

Moving on, we left the park to got to the Longman Luoyang train station.  With no time to get lost and adventure, we opted for the safest mode of transportation to get there: taxi.

There's 7 people in that taxi. Who needs a mini van right?

 I like the idea of traveling like a local and saving a few ice cream cones (RMB = kuai = yuan = ice cream cones. They’re all the same.), but we were pretty exhausted from everything that happened. I love adventure, but it really felt like our life depended o this train ride back to Beijing. 

There are 6 people in that cart thing. 

We arrived 2 hours early for good measure and had our lunch:

      leftovers from last night in ghetto plastic bags

waiting

Kris and Cat on the train. Farewell Henan.

Tanjin focused on her book.

Snacks and journal writing.

We boarded the train with great excitement bcause we actually knew what to do once we arrived to our destination: Take a bus, subway, then walk back home. Yes home, to our dysfunctional family. Yes, home to the deserted wasteland Xierqi. Yes, home.