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Published: September 27th 2008
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Panda
Eating the Bamboo Day 1
After roughing it through the Tibetean area of wester Sichuan we finally made it to Chengdu and it was a great feeling. Normally big cities in China would be a bit overwhelming but seeing some English signs and knowing where to stay and being able to speak to a variety of other westerners meant that we were just happy to finally be here. We checked into Dragon Town which was a recommended place from other Gappers. it was good but construction work was happening whilst we were there so it wasn't as good as it could have been and it was BOILING hot. We checked in and paid for a few nights. We had a walk around to get our bearings and we all fell into temptation of the great ice cream shops of Chengdu and spent a ridicolous 70 RMB on an ice-cream! It was worth it but still 70RMB was a bit of an ouch for the wallet. Later that night we met up with some other Gappers and was really happy to see Amy and Dip. Victoria would be traveling with them after Chengdu because I had to return back to teaching.
Day 2
We decided that on the first day we should go and see one of the highlights of Chengdu which was the pandas. Myself, Victoria, Loz went and we were joined by Sam. We left early in the morning so we could see the feeding take place. We got there by taxi for about 30RMB and then entry was about 20RMB. We went in there and saw the baby panda's in the little bed. We weren't allowed to take pictures of them because of the affect the flash would have on them. We then went to see the feeding and the feeding was halerious to see. The pandas just sat back and smiled and ate infront of everyone taking pictures. I think they were use to being celebrities. We spent a good 5 hours there! Got a bit boring after a while but we did watch the panda free documentry which was in English and had Chinese subtitles which was different. We were always use to everything being in Chinese. We left and then later met up with the other Gappers for dinner.
Day 3
Victoria and Lauren went off to the VISA place to check if they
Loz and Me Dressed up
Ready for a night out and Loz doing a emo pose? could get there visa's updated. I didn't have my passport on me the whole time because it was getting re-knewed in Simao and it was currently being posted to Chengdu. Thank god it arrived if it didnt there might have been a bit of trouble for me. So I spent the day walking through Chengdu's old town and buying much needed clothes and travel equiptment. When i met back up with Lauren and Vic they said they couldn't get there VISA's re-knewed from a volunteer visa to a tourist visa so they had to fly out of Chengdu to HONG KONG! I couldn't go because I didn't have my passport and also I didn't want to pay the money to go there. So it meant we would have only a few more days together. So the girls decided that they were going to spoil themselves with haircuts and getting their nails done and then heading to a night at the disco. I was dragged along and ended up gettting a much needed hair cut my self and it got coloured blonde which was different and gave me alot more attention. So that night we met up with the other Gappers as they were in their backpacking gear and the 3 of us were dressed up and we hit the clubs for a goodbye to Chengdu session. It was great going out again, reminded me of Simao and I decided that once I got my passport in the post I would go back to Simao instead of Xi-an so I could organise my lessons and also have a few awesome nights on before the responsibility of teaching. So it was a sad goodbye the next day as Victoria would be returning to Scottland and Dip and Amy to England, but the good thing was Loz was doing another semester of volunteering aswell so I would probably see her again in China. So after we all went our different ways I went back to SImao and waited for the new volunteers came and I would begin traveling and teaching with a new lot of people.
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