August 2-5th: Aba & Chendgu

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August 2nd - Heading to Aba - Dia 42
Woken up in the middle of the night by the surrounding Yaks becoming more curious. Had to hit the tent and shout a couple of times throughout the night since I literally had a yak next to my face.
Almost around dawn Leonardo and I went outside to pii. Once we got back in the tent we started hearing, who knows how many yaks licking desperately at our pii. This sound continued for maybe an hour...
Waking up first I got out of the tent to see the woman already working in the field. Both young woman were picking up fresh yak poops and placing them in a huge basket they had tied around their back. One was picking it up with her gloved hands! What a hard job on the lower back, it must be, since you are crouched over all the time. Meanwhile, the grandma was siting on a stool milking a female Yak. How good does it feel to wake up in the country side ?
After kindly being fed breakfast we stayed around for a while helping the woman with their morning chores.
Bean and Leonardo went to fill up the huge jar of water which they could barely carry back to the yurt, meanwhile I helped the old woman spread some clumped cheese on top of a big tarp outside, to let the sun dry it out.
Unfortunately the time to leave had come...saying goodbye and thanking them for their extreme hospitality we put our packs on and started crossing the green pasture towards the car.
After a short period of 2 hours we reached the County of Aba. Where we ate the most dearly missed noodles, I am really becoming Chinese after so much traveling around here ? We strolled around the town and started seeing a great deal of whool carpets being sold, Leo ended up buying one since he is heading to Vancouver so soon. I think Mexico produces much more beautiful carpets ?
With the sun setting and the rain starting to pour we found a room to sleep in for the night. A nice treat to all of us.
In the room Wu Xiaobing, with the help of Bean translating, told us a lot about the woman and marriage in China. Interestingly he sayed that woman in China were quite open for sexual intercorse and this was reaffirmed a couple of days ago by another Chinese friend I met ( another story to come soon jeje) . And the most interesting thing Wu mentioned was the frequent infidelity in marriage and how divorce is rarely a leading consequence of it. I always thought different of the Chinese Culture. Of course this is only one person taking, hopefully I can get more information throughout the rest of my trip

August 3rd - Long Bus to Chengdu - Dia 43
Starting the day right...an 8 hour bus ride. Going all the way from 4000m to around 400m. It was cool to see the transition and the reappearance of trees.
We arrived at Chengdu in the afternoon, welcomed by extreme humidity and heat. Defiently missed the humidity.
My first impressions of the city: Chengdu has put considerable time and effort to make the city as green as possible. With high rise building's having trees at the top (greenroofs) and most of the pedestrian walkways being shaded by the abundance of trees. Soo many "chicharras" humming in the the trees, sometimes they are so loud you cannot hear the traffic or the people around you! ?
A cool construction practice I saw around the city was placing in the temporary walls, which they use to surround the workplace, a variety of forest sceneries. Essentially portraying construction to be greener and keeping a green medium/feel around the city.
After dropping of our luggage in the Hostel we walked around and ate dinner. Met a new Italian friend who had gone motorcycling through Mongolia alone, Nicole. We walked around the nearby blocks of our Hostel with him. Apart from pandas, Chengdu is recognized for the hot chilli in their meals. They have this little round pepper which numbs the mouth when eaten. ? Definitely earned the recognition, had a pretty bad stomach ache and diarrhea the next day.

August 4th - Chendgu - Dia 44
Waking up late we spend the first part of the day walking through the city, around Tianfu Square, with our Italian friend and another new friend from New Zeland, Jake.
Chengdu is recognized as an international hub for foreign companies. And as we walked around we could see why. So many American and European clothing shops had started business here. If it weren't for the Chinese letters and the Chinese people I wouldnt had believed I was in China!
Having enough of the touristy section we decided to head over to a local food market. As we entered we realized they were selling mostly marine life. We ended up finding the biggest fish market we had ever seen in China, weird since Chengdu is not even close to the ocean. ?
They were selling all types of marine life: fish, lobsters, crabs, squids, salamanders, frogs, oysters and even snakes! We saw quite some graphic stuff which is not worth describing in detail. The least graphic was how they immobilized the crabs with strings and had them piled in boxes for a whole week! (after a week they died ?). It started to rain really heavily while we were walking through the fish market, so we had to stay around for an extra long time to wait for the rain to stop. Quite the experience. My hopes is that most of the marine life in the market was sold and eaten by the end of the day.
After a long walk we returned to the Hostal and relaxed, well deserved.
We didn't have anything planned for the rest of the day so as the sun was dropping Leonardo and I went in search of a park to workout. We did find a park but no workout gym as the other cities in China. But again we saw many middle ages/old people around the park doing exercise by dancing! All across the park people were dancing happily with the music that was being played. Some dance teachers even used the park as their dance studio, giving lessons to little girls and the occasional boy ?? Amazing atmosphere.
Not giving up on working out, we ended up having to improvise some stuff to be able to workout. But it worked perfectly with a couple of chairs, a big wooden stick and a steeled tarp ?
Tired and sore we walked back to the Hostel to meet up with Bean to head to dinner. I have learned that working out while traveling is the way to go 😊 Makes you feel happy and energetic again

August 5th - Pandas & Chendgu - Dia 45
Waking up at 6:30am to be one of the first persons to line up and access the Panda Center of Chengdu. We had been told that the crowds get uncomfortable if you arrive a bit later. Not wanting the crowds to ruin the experience we found ourselves waiting in line before the Panda Center had even opened ?
As we crossed through the entrance Leo, of course, had to go to the bathroom (stomach problems ?). We left him to do his thing and headed off to look for the Giant Pandas.
There were supposed to be 100 pandas around the area and we couldn't find a single one. The first few we saw were enclosed in a room with a tree house as a bed. But as we walked around the perimeter of the fenced forest we never managed to see a full grown giant panda. I guess they are trying to hide from the humans.
All the pandas we saw were enclosed in a small area, clearly visible. Tons of people jammed against the fence trying to see them. There was this Chinese guy who made me laugh a lot since he was clearly hot. Have never seen somebody sweat as much as he was sweating, looked as if I was actively hosing his face every second. First world problems: overcrowdedness . Supposedly there were signs everywhere which sayed please be quite but so many people in one place really did not help. The most amazing part was that the pandas seemed to not mind. They looked as if they were not even aware of all the people!
About to leave with mixed feelings about the Panda Sanctuary, everything got better after watching a quick clip of David Attenburg. The best animal narrator in human history ?. Clip was specifically for the Panda Sanctuary we where in. It described the effots, the problems they have had trying to reproduce Pandas, the different techniques they use and finally how China as a whole managed to reintroduce Pandas to the wild and make there status move from critically endangered to vulnerable. ?
Heading out of the sanctuary we went for breakfast. Some good old dumplins with soy milk. So good
With the day getting uncomfortably hot we went back to the Hostal. We stayed there a while catching up with the world back home and myself, trying to figure what to do the next following weeks. Since Bean and Leonardo were officially leaving tomorrow. A new beginning ?
We went for a walk early afternoon around the river which crosses the city. Quite a silty river (not swimmable) but a gorgeous walk through the trees. A lot of old chinese man seating on benches enjoying the moment ?. Really nice to walk through Chinese communities, a lot to see and such a tranquil environment.
In the evening, to my surprise, Leonardo and Bean invited me for dinner as a farwell. We went to a relatively expensive restaurant to have the classical dish around the area. "The Hot Pot". Defiently hot but extremely good. They brought you a bowl with a spicy red sauce and a non spicy sauce. The bowl was placed on top of a stove, once the sauce was boiling you threw in any food; from eggs to meat to veggies and then after a couple of minutes swooped it out and ate it. Such a good dish! You where basically crying because of how chilly it was but you kept on eating regardless ?
Ending the last day with a Bean and Leonardo. Happy they were part of my 6 month travels. Some unforgettable memories and a way of traveling so unique and amazingly successful. Hasta luego amigos!

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Photos

The shark fins :(
Sold for $20,000CAD!