Where I Slept: Urumqi, China

Urumqi, China | 15 October, 2006 | $0 (couchsurfing)

I met David first back in Mongolia but the first time I came through town he was somewhere in Western Mongolia. This time around our schedules matched up and I took a bus over to his apartment next to Xinjiang University. After four months on the road staying at David’s apartment with a couch, kitchen, washing machine Mac-friendly wifi and wonderful roommates was just what I needed.

We quickly got to work getting massages at his favorite place, going to dinner and meeting up with his ex-pat friends for a game of ultimate frisbee. I could have breezed through Urumqi in a day but after so long on the road you start to appreciate a rest here and there. I spent my days walking around town looking for fabric to patch my pants or a way to watch the newest Superman movie in English and my nights hanging out with David and his friends. One of the only bad things that happened while I stayed in Urumqi was forgetting my travel towel at his place. I received it back three years later when David visited Chicago. There are a handful of people I met on my trip that I consider friends and David is one of them. We’ve met up in Mongolia, China and the US and he’s gone as far as to track down people in Tajikistan for me. Hopefully the next time we meet we’ll be somewhere new to both of us.

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