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Arrived in Chengdu at 6am, and you could already feel the heat. Temperatures in the high 20s here so finally getting to put away the jumpers and trousers. Country is much greener the further south you go, but then, there are also more flies here too so more bites.
First introduction to the hostel involved sitting on the internet round 7am waiting for them to check us in, when a cat jumped out from under the pc and raced to the corner of the room, only to reemerge with a mouse between its teeth squealing. Cead mile failte!
It's coming close to the national holiday so things are getting busier - the whole of China gets the week of 1-7 May as a national holiday, and around this time travelling gets chaotic and all the tourist sights get mobbed.
Wandered around the city - Renmin park is beautiful, full of trees and an artificial lake and river where you can rent boats (no, no more boats for us, pedal or otherwise!) with bridges and tea houses. It's really laid back here. All around the park there were different groups of people partaking in traditional Chinese dances, young and
Train to Chengdu
The height of comfort!old alike. It looked a bit like the video for Fatboy Slim's "Praise You", and of course after getting asked personally by one of the local teachers, I felt it my duty to try my hand (and leg) at it, although to be fair, the pictures make it look more like I'm dancing to a different tune....probably the Hokey Cokey!
I did get a big clap at the end from the rest of the "troupe" and had to sign a few autographs, hilarious fun!
Had the local Sichuan food - very hot and very spicy, but really tasty. Decided to stick with pork this time rather than local canine species.
Having me up with Janna and Jakka (not sure of the spellings, but a sound couple from Slovenia whom we had met earlier in Beijing) we all headed out to see the Giant Buddha at Leshan called "Dafo", the world's largest Buddha sculpture standing at 71m (the eyes alone are 10m wide each!). Got a ferry to a nearby temple, and hiked our way through a couple of mountains on the way to Dafo, but the view at the end was just amazing (I know, I'm running out
of superlatives to describe all the stuff we are seeing on this trip!)
We also visited the Great Panda reserve to see them at feeding time (apparantly at their most active!). Those pandas are well lazy - just think of the old Kit Kat advert, and you'll know what I mean! - sitting and lying around just chewing on bamboo. Pictures all looked the same by the end but I did get to hold a red panda (yeah I know - it looks more like a racoon than a panda!) which was good fun.
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Maeve
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Red Panda
I see you've figured out a way to cut laundry bills - plastic sheeting for a skirt ! Plastic gloves too ! You're getting a cleanliness obsession -I'm getting worried ! Can you bring a panda home ? -Leave the blue sheet behind - that style is soo.. last year.