I spend the morning in Mix Hostel, trying to get some accommodation for Guilin. It's only a few days away and I'm thinking that I may have to book an expensive hotel as all the cheap places appear to be taken. As I'm checking out the girls ask me where I am going and I tell them it's Guilin after Chengdu, but that I don't have anywhere to stay. One of the girls gets a bunch of leaflets for places in Guilin an says that sometimes if you phone you can get a bed. She offers to phone for me and manages to get me somewhere to stay. Fantastic! It's costing me 80 a night, which is more expensive, but a lot cheaper than a hotel. Job done.
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I now head back to lazybones hostel, where I am staying tonight. I know how to get there so it is easy. When I check in I enquire about the third night that I am looking to stay. Previously they had said that there were no rooms but worst case scenario I could sleep in the bar on the sofa. They still don't know about the last night but if there is a spot that frees up they will keep it for me. I leave my stuff in my room and do a bit of research on what to do while I'm here in Chengdu, maybe I'll head in to the city tomorrow.
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I decide to order dinner in the hostel, when I get in to the bar there are no seats so I just ask this other westerner if I could sit with him. Of course it's not a problem. He is from England and is travelling with his wife, Carl an Charlotte. Great couple, he has been doing his fair bit of travelling over the past 20 years and had a good few stories to tell, including the odd life threatening one. I end up sitting with them all evening chatting and drinking a few beers. Then we play a bit of pool, you can't beat a free pool table in a hostel. They head to bed about 2 and I chat to a German guy, Jan, who I had met earlier. We play pool with some Chinese and are last to leave the bar at 3. It won't be an early rise for me tomorrow.