Journey to the northwest part of China

I was really hesitated and could barely make up my mind to travel to Qinghai because of sticky private affairs although that was my plan from the very beginning of the summer vacation. However, I got a message from a couch surfer and met her in person. Her friendly nature contributed to my confidence to look for a couch online to experience a new thing and meet some nice people but then again, the bright rising sun of traveling got covered by the dark cloud of unrevealed problem of private affairs. I was blue until I got a positive message from Amy (A couch surfer in Xining) "Hey Abs! Come over here. Give me a call when you get to the train station". Honestly, that awaken me up to run to the train station to get the ticket without been thinking about the climate of the destination or anything. The ticket seller said, "no ticket except the standing ones". I was so excited to convince myself to get the standing ticket with the hope of getting a sleeper on the train as it worked several times in the past.
Somehow, I put cotton bugs not to hear others wining to set out. I packed up my backpack and bought some convenient food for the night and managed myself to get on the train. When I got on the train, the unbelievable crowd on the train reminded me of weekend. Attached video clip is good enough for you to understand. I felt like we were shortage of Oxygen on the train. The crowd made me take sweat shower for twice. According to my past experience, I asked train officer to inform me if any sleeping berth gets empty and assured I would get one if passengers from sleeping berth get off. And it worked out after three hours stinky crowded journey. Literally, It felt like I was rescued from hell. I had a conversation with the train officer and some other curious train passengers about my identity.
It was cloudy when I got to Xining (Capital of Qinghai) next morning. I could not even say proper goodbye to the Chinese bunk mates cause I was on a run to answer the call of nature. Releasing myself with 0.5 RMB was my first contribution to Qinghai tourism. I called Amy right after that and got to her apartment. She is so friendly that the first thing she offered is the key of her apartment and a nice friend Matt(Her room mate) who studies Tibetan there. Then, she went back to sleep promptly cause they stayed up late watching film. I had a sort of discussion with Matt about the similarities between Bengali and Tibetan. Then, we made some Bengali tea for breakfast. Meanwhile, Amy got up and asked me about the translation of an invitation letter of a party. She asked me whether I'm interested about a party at 2p.m. With my agreement she called them and put me on the phone to check out. However, I went out together wit them to have a little introduction of the city. Then, I bought the first tent and sleeping bag for camping around Qinghai lake without having any experience of the weather there.
I was starving for lunch but Amy was insisted to meet her friend on time at the party. Somehow, we managed to get there on time and I asked some time out as an excuse of taking pictures but I was out to do a little favor to my stomach. The buffet began when I got back to the party. Anyway, I did not have any appetite to have some food there which was solved by delicious fried potato with beef and rice outside. But I had a lot of drink with a lot of new faces. Eventually, I was introduced to a well-enunciated English speaking Tibetan boy named Nam La.
After the party, Amy,me and Nam La went to the central square where I saw a Muslim couple sitting beside each other and the woman refused him while he was trying to grab her hip. Here I added the funny picture.
In the square, Amy couldn't help her curiosity of Chinese sports lottery but lost five yuan. We stayed in the square until it got dark and finally, we got back to Amy's apartment after dinner.
Matt (Amy's room mate) was studying Tibetan online on the tea-table next to my couch when we got back. He treated me to Xin jiang and Tibetan beer what I have never tried although I have been living in China for a long time. According to my own experience of drinking beer, Xin jiang and Tibetan beer tastes better than Tsingtao.
Next morning, I said goodbye to Matt and Amy to meet my student "Suria" in Huangzhong. I was really inspired by the beauty of Mosque and Tie er temple as well as the enormous hospitality of Suria's family in Huangzhong.
The whole family laughed when I told them I was going to camp around Qinghai lake cause they heard I didn't bring any warm clothes with me. Fortunately, whole family was so happy to meet me that decided to visit have a picnic around Qinghai lake together with me. As a Muslim custom, I had to go with Suria to ask her old grandpa's permission to take the family out to the lake.
It was dark when we set out next morning. Somehow, Suria's Dad managed to borrow a car from a neighbor to take us to the lake. The blue sky with white clouds, wonderful grassland and lake like a sea made China more beautiful again than what I thought. I was almost frozen when we got to the lake and I gave up the idea for camping at once around the lake. It was very kind of the family to lend me a leather jacket for the trip. I walked around 151 point of amazing Qinghai lake with the family. It was like heaven. I closed my eyes for few minutes towards the lake and when I opened it, saw a peaceful white seagull flying across the blue lake and when I turned back, it was a great combination of blue sky, grass land and yellow rape field.
I left the family reluctantly for the beautiful nature after the lunch. I took the bus from 151 to "Hei ma he" point. I met three Chinese students right after getting off the bus. In fact, they were the passengers of the same bus. It was being wise to get together with them to share room and food and above all, my skill of spoken Chinese got sharpened cause they don't speak English. We've visited several spots even bird's island together.
I was treated again along with the Chinese students to a delicious lunch on bird's island by Suria's Uncle who is a merchant there.
I had to say goodbye to bird's island, Qinghai lake and all the new friends I met along the way to get back my own messy life in Xi'an.
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