2 days ago I had decided to take the day off sightseeing and work on sending a package of gifts back to Canada, as well as getting the Tibet part of my tour handled. So I got up the morning of September 10th and thought I will send my packages first. Went to the hostel desk and proclaimed that I needed to send a package by post to Canada. They showed me a map and said that is where you need to go, but since it is Sunday you will have to wait until tomorrow. Constantly when I am travelling I lose track on what day it is. So I sat down and started sending requests for quotes on the trip I wanted to do. Felt like I was back at work getting price quotes for Hal! Got some responses, but not totally what I wanted so I realized this was going to take longer than I thought. Part of the problem is that it is so hard to communicate because of poor wifi that things take longer and sometimes just can't happen the way you want. I spent all day going back and forth with tour groups (mandatory you have to take a tour for Tibet) and had a couple of options that I thought I would sleep on. So went to bed early and got up on Monday the 11th thinking I was going to accomplish what I didn't the day before. Headed down to the post office to send my package. First, the post office wasn't where it was supposed to be. After wandering around and asking a few people I found where it was. The lady told me that she couldn't send half my stuff because it was metal and was too fragile to send. Customs wouldn't approve it. This started an argument over Google translate between myself and the post office. At one point I grabbed one of the metal items and banged it against my head and said "see not fragile, it didn't break". Eventually she sent me in a taxi to another post office who might help me. Got to the post office downtown and found a lady who could speak English. She was very helpful. Decided to send the parcels in two separate boxes because the metal ones might not clear customs. Put a return address for the hostel and headed back to the hostel. Process took me 3 hours and I am unsure if they will ever get home. Chinese rules crazy!! Decided on a Tibet tour and spent the afternoon trying to get it organized. The wifi was so bad I really accomplished very little before I had to head to the train to start my journey to Lijiang. Headed out on the metro with a frustrated attitude, so when metro security wanted to check my bags I almost lost it on them. They found my knife, but when I opened it up it looked like pliers so they let me keep it. Very lucky! Got to the train station and managed to get on the right train. Got on an overnight sleeper train, which had only Chinese going to Guiyang. Managed to get into a conversation with a young Chinese fellow. When I went to eat my noodles for supper, he grabbed them from me and threw them away proclaiming they would give me cancer. He gave me some other noodles that were better. I guess cheap noodles are no good. Who knew! Turned my day around. Had an enjoyable evening before going to sleep on a rock hard bed on a slow train. My trip to Lijiang consisted of a 26 hour 3 train journey. The first leg ended in Guiyang, where I had to grab a taxi and head to the North Railway Station. Every city has multiple train stations. It never seems that you arrive at the same one you transfer at. Managed to make my connection with the help of my Chinese friend from the first train. Back onto the next train for a couple of hours. This one was a fancy high speed train! It whipped me down to Kunming South station which was 28 km from my next departure, so quickly into another taxi and again a run to the Main Kunming station downtown to catch the 3rd leg of the journey. Made the connection and off for the last 7 and 1/2 hours to Lijiang. Didn't think this train would make it, but it arrived 10 minutes early into Lijiang. Couldn't talk to anyone on the last 2 trains as it was all non English speaking Chinese. Got to Lijiang and had to catch my third taxi of the day to get to the hostel. Was happy to arrive and quickly hit the streets for a meal of noodles before crashing for the night. This place has a lot more outdoor hiking type places, so am really looking forward to the 5 days I have here. Hopefully it is a relaxing time that renews my faith in the Chinese craziness!