Up at 6:30. Got to eat my first Asian buffet today. Nothing to write home about - cold noodles, fried rice, celery, corn-on-the-cob (tastes weird), and watermelon. A taxi ride later we met up again with Jia Ming and company at the bus station. The roads suck here so we decided to take the train, standing room only, for 2 hours, at 10:30 AM. The train was alright, we got to hang out between the smoking section and the bathroom. Luckily my suitcase is solid so I can sit on it for at least part of the time (people were passing us all the time - sellers of food, bathroom-goers, et cetera). The scenery was pretty nice, both natural and human. One woman was plainly attempting to flirt with me (hanging out near the stinky bathroom when she really had a seat, smiling at me, and playing along when I made some clumsy moves). I guess attraction can break through language barriers! Anyways, she waved goodbye to me as I got off of the train and then she was gone. In Jishou, people immediately started assailing us trying to sell various rides and food and things. A cute little girl with a bucket ran up to me, ignoring all others, so I gave her a yuan. We ate at a nice “fusion” place that served Chinese food but in a Western style - everyone got their own plates and we didn’t have chopsticks! I really liked their tomato beef. Now onward on the bus to Fenghuang. Lots of rural countryside with no rhyme or reason to the crop planting (it’s not in rows or squares that could be easily mechanically tilled). Once in Fenghuang, we found a guesthouse with the worst bathrooms bar none in our entire trip. No sink, squat toilet with the shower (hose) draining through the toilet. Some random girls had followed us from the bus stop and sold us tickets to a show that was going on later. Once we got out of the guesthouse, we journeyed farther into Fenghuang. We wandered across a couple of a fail bridges (rocks, wood, a car bridge, and an underwater bridge (?)). Had a couple of unintelligible foods which later gave me some not-so-fun digestive problems. Also, snail meat! Finally got my picture with the minority woman, but in this case she happened to be a tourist as well who had just bought the outfit! We eventually went to the show we had bought tickets for earlier where they had an auction, lots of dancers, and a guest-star MC. Li even had bug-repellent in his bag-of-miracles, which was handy. I slept through most of it since I don’t speak Chinese. After the long, tired walk back to the guesthouse, we both immediately fell asleep.