I met CL in person for the fist time on Saturday, 19th December 2015, around 11.30 PM. It was about an hour later than the expected arrival time of my flight and I was a little worried that he might have had waited for too long and got pissed. I was worried about a lot of other things including whether he will like the ‘real’ me or not.

As I exited the airport’s arrival area, I looked around for the face that I had seen only in pictures and video calls so far. I scanned all the Chinese faces waiting around the arrival area for a familiar one. In a few seconds, CL came dashing forward to meet me. He didn’t seem disappointed or anything. Despite meeting for the first time in person, we talked about stuff and it didn’t feel awkward at all.

We took the taxi and reached the hotel room he had booked near the airport. I took a shower and got into bed. He asked if he could turn off the lights and I said yes. So there we were, at the distant ends of a large double bed. I mustered all the courage I could and asked if he wanted to come closer, haha. He giggled and said we need to wake up early next morning. That fucker. I asked him if he wanted to kiss. He giggled again and said he’s shy. I pointed out that the lights were off. More giggles and we met in the middle of the bed in truce. I hugged him and held him in my arms. I felt like this was the moment that I had been waiting for 3 months since meeting him for the first time online. We kissed gently. He moaned. I was nervous. I shivered because of the adrenaline rush. I told him I’m cold. We kissed more. He moaned and I breathed harder.

He was still giggling when I removed his tshirt and kissed his body. And later when I pulled off his undies and kissed his dick too. Lots of wet kisses and warm embraces later, he erupted like a tiny Chinese fountain into my mouth and I followed suit moments later.

That ended any awkwardness that remained between us. We cleaned up and went to bed and hugged each other to sleep.

The next day, we visited the giant Buddha of Leshan. We checked into the Panda Prince hotel in the afternoon. Panda Prince turned out to be a really nice hotel and our favorite one in the trip. In the evening, we had a traditional Sichuan hot pot dinner with traditional art performance. We had two hours to to take rest before we had to get ready for the dinner; and without a doubt we didn’t lose any time in losing our clothes and getting busy :p. He’s a bad boy ;)

Later that evening, we had to dress quickly and run to the place where we were having dinner with art performance. I had a great time there. Both the food and the art performance were amazing. The art performance included dances, calligraphy display, martial art performances and Bian Lian, the famous Chinese face-changing dance. It ended all too early for me. After dinner, we walked around a little through the mostly empty streets, occasionally holding hands when nobody was around. After reaching room late that night, we got undressed, took hot shower and went to sleep naked, which suddenly became our new normal.

We had to wake up early the next day to go to Mount Emei and visit the Buddha temple there. Chengdu and Mount Emei remain my favorite places in China that I visited. After a 2 hour bus journey to the foot of the mountain, we hiked through the snow covered mountain path. The journey to the top was indescribably magical. On the top of the mountain there is a temple. On the hand-rails of the stairs to the temple, couples add locks with their names inscribed on them. It is believed that Buddha will keep those couples together forever. We added a golden, double-heart shaped lock of our own. It read “*** and *** forever”, along with the date, 21 Dec 2015. (Buddha, if you are reading this, 1.I’m holding you personally responsible if we don’t stay together at least for a reasonable definition of 'forever’ and 2.don’t forget to subscribe to my blog to get updates :-p ). I promised Buddha that I would visit him again with CL on Mount Emei with CL if everything worked out for us.

We had our next day free. We went around in Chengdu. We visited various streets, old and new. I bought souvenirs and stuff. And we went to a hobby shop where we built our own bracelets. I made the bracelet for him with my name on it and he made one for me with his name on it. In the evening, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Beijing.

We arrived at Beijing late into that night. The air in Beijing literally smelled of smoke and we wore our face masks all the while we were in Beijing. The next morning, we had to get up again at 5AM to join our tour group to visit the Great Wall. It was around 2AM when we finally reached our hotel room and we had no mind to get up again so early in the morning, so we skipped the tour the next day. Instead, we stayed in bed and had fun. We woke up around breakfast time and shifted to a different hotel because CL didn’t like the one the tour agency had arranged for us at first. The second one was nicer. We walked around and visited local market and stuff. We walked through those places in Beijing that aren’t that filled with tall buildings. It was nice. I don’t like cities much.

Like we did in Chengdu, we bought strawberries and I fed them to him from my mouth.

The next day, we woke up early and joined the tour group and visited the Summer Palace and such. Later that day, CL had to meet the founders of a startup which wanted to hire him. I tagged along and was delighted to see how startups worked in China. Their office was nice and all.

Not sure if it was his contact lenses or the air in Beijing, but CL got an eye infection. We went to a hospital and he consulted a doc. That night we slept in our separate beds for the first and only time during our entire trip.

I spent 7 days in China and had the best holiday I had ever had as an adult. I felt content and at peace. For the first time, I met someone who loved me as much as I loved him. Though my visit to China was filled with a plenty of new and exciting experiences, my favorite ones are the subtle moments we shared together. Like how we held hands under our bags during the bus journeys or the kisses we stole in the elevators. Or how I fed him strawberries from my mouth and how I held him in my arms, lying in the bed, doing nothing. There were far too many of those, but still not enough.

I love you CL.