When we were getting to Chengdu, our first Chinese big city, I was wondering, is this going to be like Seoul or Delhi? I think my answer is, more like Seoul. Super clean, great subway, KTV and WiFi everywhere, dense high rises but not claustrophobic.

Also like Seoul in this way: if you get a meal and a coffee, your coffee will cost more than your meal. Our breakfast of baozi and little rice dumplings that I can’t remember the name of is like $2 for both of us. Then we go have coffee that costs $5 each. (This is an exceptional example; most meals cost more like $5. Still.)

(I even broke my rule of “always pay as much as possible for coffee” upon going into Eno Coffee and seeing that their only coffee options are $21, $26, and $33. USD. What! And they didn’t even look like they’re good at coffee. Come to think of it, I broke another rule of “of course always go into a coffee shop called Eno Coffee and then make Brian Eno puns."*)

More like Delhi weather-wise, unfortunately. I guess that’s what we get for coming in July.

* “Eno Coffee: Coffee for airports”
“You’ll love our strange flavor overtones”
“Eno Coffee: Sound and vision and taste”
(help me out here)