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Day 153: Thursday, April 29th, 2010.
Chengdu, China.
Happy happy joy joy! Pandas! Wasn't much of a crowd at the
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding so that was good. We arrived around 9:30am which is when the panda's are fed, therefore, more active. They'd sit and eat, walk 10 steps, and then lay down exhausted. I'm guessing the folks taking care of panda's all over the world know what they're doing but I highly suggest we pop these guys some Zoloft.
Normally you can pay to hold baby pandas and have your picture taken, but they were sick. So, myself, Amavailse and Damon coughed up the money to have our picture taken with a grown panda. We put on paper booties (like in hospitals), one glove on whichever hand we wanted to touch the panda with, and crouched behind one that was set up on a bench type thing, eating her little heart out. I think she could have cared less that anyone was behind her- she just wanted the apples. All the pictures they took of me with her crack me up, so I included them all. I'm going mental because each picture I look at seems to say something different to
me and I'll do little voices in my head of what the panda is saying. Yes, I need help. We saw a video about the base and the pandas but some of us (ahem, moi) got bored and walked out and went and played with the koi fish. Guess I missed the highlight though- there was panda porn! They're worried that the panda's don't know what to do so I guess they show them videos of other panda's doing it. Giggidy giggidy.
We also saw red panda's while there- they remind me more of badgers but whatever Heather. Then, back on the bus. Once again, writing this many days later so I can't remember what we did between then and that night- have to work off of pictures. So, that night we went to the
Sichuan Opera. Wasn't expecting much- I've heard some of their opera on radios and what not and it sounds very screechy to me. This ended up being more of a variety act and was awesome. They did a "Quick mask change" kind of dance. One second they had on a blue mask, quick wave of hands and it was red- pretty cool. Another lady had
a giant stick puppet and did a gorgeous routine with that. Many dancers. And one guy, Huang Wei Zhi, playing some instrument that I don't know the name of- he was amazing. He mixed classical Chinese and then classical European music and then did some modern twists- surprising, and great. I bought a CD of his in the lobby but so far it hasn't impressed me- wish they had put his act on the CD. So, good night out.
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Ann
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Trip
How do you enter "real life" after this fabulous adventure? I'm going to miss my nearly daily dose of fun ala Amanda! Where's the next trip? Memphis is open to you any time! Look at all the family here!