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Published: October 20th 2006
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***** We wrote this yesterday and started to add photos but it took ages so were going to wait to add more when we arrived in Guilin today but the brainers that we are, we've gone and left our memory cards in the computer in Chengdu so will have to wait until one of our friends meets up with us to give them back...hopefully that will be tomorrow (Saturday) but may not be until we get to thailand. We have other memory cards though so we can update you in what we've been up to but you wont get panda and more buddha and more hostel/drinking photos from Chengdu for a while******
Hello everyone,here's the next installment of Vic and Sam's adventures in China.....
We've been in Chengdu for a few days now and flying...yes that's flying people (we have had it with trains for the time being) to Guilin tomorrow.
Train journey from Xi'ian to Chengdu was a complete and utter nightmare. Multiply my discriprion of the other train by 100 and you're not even close. First of all we were in a 25 million mile long queue at the station and a 'suited and booted' 25yr ish
chinese guy decided that he was going to serenade the entire crowd with an 'X factor' type performance and lucky old us managed to get him in the same train compartment as us..he didn't sing all night but talked very loudly and thought he was the funniest man in the world....he wasn't - we dished him a few dirty looks from our top bunks but didn't seem to make any difference.
The ceilings were even lower on this train and the toilets were open to the track but this did eleviate the smell a bit. The worst part was the actual journey though - boy was it bumpy, Vic and I didn't get a wink of sleep becasue we were jolted around so much we were hanging on for dear life trying not to get thrown off - how that train did not de rail is beyond me, hence the flight to Guilin!
We got a rickshaw from the train station to our hostel which was brilliant, the lady was a complete fruit loop and giggled at us the entire way, she had no idea where she was going becasue kept stopping and asking every taxi driver we passed...we got
here eventaully and went straigt to sleep for a few hours because we were pooped.
The hostel is really nice...... and clean !!!!!! There are a couple of glass and bamboo out houses with CD players in, a waterfall area, a bar and fantastic food so a great place to stay. We're in a 4 bed mixed dorm and sharing with a guy called Erik from the USA and Jen from Canada. We've had a really good laugh but it would be hard to outdo our experience of the Xi'an Social scene...if you're reading this Catherine, Becky and Wedge - don't get to much of a big head! We've spent the last couple of nights sat around playing cards with Erik, Jen and some other people we've met who are all lovely. Shannon and her mum are travelling through China together then Shannon is doing the rest of SE Asia on her own so will probably meet up with her in Northern Thailand to do Elephant Treking etc.
Wednesday we went to Leshan to see the giant buddha (the largest one in the world I hasten to add) it is enourmous and carved into the rock face and looks out
across the river. We were a bit pathetic and decided to take a trip on the boat to go and see it rather than climb the 2 hours it takes to get to the top but to be honest there were so many people there we probably wouldn't of seen as much as we did if we had walked.
Today was one of my highlights so far, the Panda research and presevation centre. It was an early start as we had to get there in time for the feeding time but it was amazing, I could of stayed there all day. We saw about 25 giant pandas all in different sections and 4 ickle wickle baby ones which were being bottle fed and slept in a crib..we weren't allowed to take phots but I have now decided I want to feed baby pandas for a living.
This afternoon we wandered around some of the local streets which are really pretty, I think they are spending quite alot of money in doing up some of the areas as it kind of looks like what you would expect in Epcot but makes a pleasant change to some of the streets we've been down beleive me!
Tonight we're going to meet up with the Scottish couple we met in Shanghai for a drink and expect we'll end up getting back very late and very drunk...seems to be a bit of a reaccuring pattern.....hmm!
Thats about it folks, we'll update again in a few days once we're in Guilin.
Lots of Love Sam and Vic
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dolly
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Oh I do have a chuckle picturing you both in these situations!! So its just like home with having a daily tipple, singing on the kareoke ("what a feeling" that picture gave me!) and waking up with a sore head. Sounds like fun.Love you both xxx