Chongqing, China

We arrived in Chongqing on Sunday, November 27, 2005. Our hotel was adequate since it didn't have coffee makers available to us and Vince had to improvise. The food was good until we all started to suffer from the MSG. The grocery store in the basement of the hotel had at least 20 different brands of MSG. The Sichuan cooking requires ample spoonfuls of MSG in everything. The best part of Sichuanese food is the pepper. It's fragrant and peppery hot. We had the Sichuan version of pizza, or flatbread, hot from the oven, from a street concession and it was wonderful. The noodles are very tasty too--see Vince's enthusiasum. Fortunately, none of us got sick.
Chongqing is a very modern city, although, it still doesn't have the metropolitan mix that Guangzhou or Shanghai have. It was interesting to see real Chinese life--not touristy. We enjoyed shopping at the the local grocery store and walking around the area by the hotel. The next day though, life would change forever. On Monday, we would finally meet Ruby.