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Published: November 17th 2006
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Got to Cheng-Du after a not so bad 16 hour train journey, I did think it was going to be the worse thing ever when I saw I had to sleep at the top of a triple bunk bed thing about 8 feet high with no door or cabin & people spitting & farting again, (I must be getting tough!)
We had the hostel people meet us again which was good, we are staying in a big converted warehouse, its great. We have an Austrian room mate called Marcus who wears checked purple trousers & is burning a pattern on a large brown dried fruit as I write my blog. We have another room mate called Joel from Sweeden, who I managed to walk in on as he was getting dressed, whoops! Oh well if you are going to stay in mixed dorms you have to be prepared for this type of thing!
We spent our first day (Wednesday) exploring, we saw the Mao statute, walked along the river & went to a Buddist Monastry which had some beautiful buildings and it was interesting to see how buddists worship & what their beliefs are. In the evening we went for a Sichaun Hot Pot which this area of China is famous for. We sat at a table with a big gas hob in the middle & were presented with a menu that had lots of different things on from ducks webbed feet to pig brain, (yummy!?)
Claire looked horrified but decided to let me order the ingredients for our hot pot. So I ordered, noodles, bean sprouts, sliced potato, spicy beef, crispy pork & ham sausage. I ordered far too much & everyone in the restaurant found this highly amusing as I attempted to put all the ingredients in the two pots, (a smaller one inside a bigger one), on the hob.
When it was cooked they could obviously see I hadn't got a clue what to do so helped me serve it in another dish with a peanut looking sauce in. It was extremely hot, both spicy & in temperature, I attempted to use chopsticks & managed to flick a bit in my eye which started to stream so it looked like I was crying! All the people working in the restaurant started to gather round as I must have been the entertainment for the evening! I don't think Claire knew whether to laugh at me or just leave me.
Thursday - We got up early & headed for the train station, as Marcus had given us a map with bus routes on. I managed to get us on the right bus, but heading in the wrong direction, I soon realised as I was looking at the map to follow the route so we promptly got off & crossed over the toad to get the bus in the other direction. When we got to the train station we queued for about half an hour, (people in China have no concept of queuing & why there is a queue, because you have to wait for your turn!)
Despite having the train number, date, departure time & destination written down the lady could not understand us. We tried hand signals & then she managed to communicate that there were no beds for Saturday to Shanghai. She then offered us a train on Saturday to Nanjing, (on the way to Shanghai) but we couldn't understand if she was offering soft or hard sleeper, we got so annoyed with people pushing & shouting & being rude that we brought the eickets she was offering, (not knowing where we would be sleeping, sitting or even standing for 37 hours).
We then visited the famous Pandas! It was great we saw lots of Red Pandas really close up & then saw some Giant Pandas; there were even some cubs playing. We got to see some really baby cubs who were sleeping but they wouldn't let us take photos of the babies. We really enjoyed seeing them.
When we got back to the hostel we asked a lady who spoke English on Reception to tell us what type of ticket we had brought, again she found this funny, (stupid foriegners not knowing what they have brought). She advised us we had brought a bottom & middle bed on a hard sleeper, which isn't what we wanted but it is better than me climbing up to the top bunk again or spending 37 hours standing up!
Friday - We got a bus to Le Shan & then the special 13 bus (everytime you go over a bump the whole bus sounds like its going to fall apart) but really it is called the special 13. I had copied some Chinese characters to try & make the phrase that we wanted to go to Le Shan to see the giant budda, (after the communication problems at the train station!). Amazingly they understood my Chinese picture writing & we got to the Giant Budda & back with great ease!
The Budda was big, we got to walk around lots of other Buddas, gardens & temples. Then when we found the big man himself we walked down the side of him & climbed back up the other. I had read in my book that if you pat his nose or put your finger in his ear that it will bring good luck & wealth but when we got to him you couldn't touch him. Claire took my photo so it looked like I was putting my finger in his ear & patting his nose.
We went for food when we got back & I think we were served a soup with maybe a brain or heart or something very wrong in it! We hadn't asked for it but got it anyway. When my meal came it was horrible, no meat just bits of bone so Claire being such a kind person gave me some of her normal meal.
Cheng-Du has been somewhat quiet after the adventures of Xi An but I loved seeing the Pandas & the budda was good too!
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Amanda
non-member comment
Wow!
Hiya Erica! I've been keeping up to date with your blogs and they're always a great read! It sound like you're having so much fun! Lots of love Amanda xxxxxx