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Published: June 11th 2010
Still in Chengdu a walk along Jinli Street reveals a recreated traditional Chinese Street complete with all the glitzy souveneirs that appeal to both the Chinese tourists and Alice alike -and yes this includes panda shops. However behind this we find a row of hawker stalls selling food with some English translations - finally we can work out some of what we have been eating. Ged gets the kids excited with what he thinks is sausage on a stick, the excitement quickly fades with the reality of chiken gizzard on a stick - oh well the stick bit was right! We do however discover egg flat cakes and twice threaded noodles which both prove to be a big hit with several trips back to the egg cake stall.
Our cheap and cozy hotel in Chengdu is also in a recreated tradtional area and so in search of a glimpse of China's past we head out to the 'ancient town' of Loudai and in doing so catch our first public bus in China - much to the delight of Jesse who has been just hanging out to get on one. Loudai is a lovely little village about an hours bus ride
from Chengdu. There was one main street which was full of interesting architecture and lots of teahouses, shops and restaurants which we enjoyed wandering down. We ate some street food and although marvelled at the various bugs on skewers available could not bring ourselves to give one a go - it would appear that if a creepy crawly is big enough to be threaded onto a bamboo skewer it was here. Loudai seemed very popular with Chinese tourists and there were many places renting out costumes - traditional, bridal and other characters - for people to wear to be photographed and filmed by large video cameras. I was tempted by the adult size little bo-peep type outfit but as there were no sheep in sight gave it a miss and Ged was seen looking longingly at a Chairman Mao get-up. We found this all highly amusing but perhaps not as amusing as they found us as our morning at Loudia has been filmed by many Chinese tourists & Alice may have been cause for a break-up when she was filmed instead of the immaculately dressed and made up 'blushing bride' - not happy Jan!
Just before we left Australia
we saw that there was a major international women's soccer tournament being held in Chengdu and on news of this Jesse packed a small Australian flag. The Australian Matildas are due to play on Thursday night and so plans are made for the boys to go and so excitedly they leave our hotel to watch Australia play Japan. Ged is surpised upon getting to the Chengdu Sports Centre that there are so many people and his suspicion s further aroused by the number of Chinese flags. Yes you guessed it they had missed the Australain game and were in line to see China play North Korea. Jesse is still keen and so he puts his Aussie flag away and in they go for a fabulous evening. By the way the Matildas won their game and went on to win the Cup!
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Which bugs on a skewer would you like?
