I arrived in Chengdu tired but in high spirits: my adventure was progressing quickly, and I was in Sichuan, the land of spicy food, which holds a special place in my heart. I had two missions in Chengdu: 1) find a place to shower and 2) catch a bus south to Kunming. The quest for a shower took me down a dirty side street lined with hotels, where I stopped at several to ask about prices. I had to be careful, however, as I don’t think asking “how much for three hours?” would have been particularly successful. I finally found a room for about $20 a night, which I thought was fairly expensive at the time.