Doing the 'Du
Friday, September 5, 2008
We got up early Friday morning; Tse Tan picked us up to take us to the Lhasa airport. I was not feeling well. Something I ate on Thursday brought me a little case of Montezuma’s revenge. On Friday, I took advantage of every bathroom in our path, some more than once. The flight was uneventful (except for the child who barfed all over his seat across the aisle from John,) and when we arrived in Chengdu, a short taxi ride from the airport landed us at our hotel. While John and Ethan went out for a walk, I took a nap in the hotel room, which left me feeling much better. We met John’s friend Kate, who he’d met in Beijing, for dinner. While they ate some more adventurous Sichuan hot pot, I had some white rice and a few pieces of their meat cooked in a milder sauce. We went out for a few drinks after dinner, but the evening was pretty uneventful. It was nice not to have much of an agenda, after Tibet’s non-stop touring. Perhaps Friday’s most notable happening was the fact that none of us took any photographs all day!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Chengdu is the 5th largest city in China, roughly the size of New York City, but it has a reputation for being a lazy city. For the first time in well over 10 days, we did not set an alarm to wake us up. I got up at 9 to go down to the hotel’s breakfast but only a Chinese breakfast was available. I only found the hard-boiled eggs appetizing, and there was nothing to drink. After we’d showered, we trekked to the Starbucks at the end of the block and enjoyed a muffin and coffee, American-style (or Italian, I suppose, since I ordered a macchiato.)
One of Chengdu’s largest claims to fame is the Giant Panda Breeding Research Facility. On the edge of town, it is a beautiful facility, where the pandas have indoor cages as well as large wild exposures. As it was a hot day, we found many of the pandas inside in the air conditioning. Giant pandas in the wild live in very high altitudes, where the heat is not so oppressive. We were able to see some pandas at the nursery who were under 1 month old; one of them had unopened eyes and virtually no hair. The cubs just older than that were being handled by the staff, and though they spent most of their time sleeping, they were adorable.
Kate and her roommate, Sarah, were hosting a dumpling party, so while there, we met several other ex-pats living in Chendu for various reasons, and Andrew told us about a recent trip to Emeishan, which left us intrigued. We continued the night at a KTV establishment (Chinese karaoke,) where Ethan and I gave Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” new life, and John rocked the boat with “Don’t Rock the Boat.”
Sunday, September 7, 2008
This morning, everybody needed a bit of time alone, so John took laundry over to Kate’s, I took another trip to Starbucks, and Ethan spent some time in the hotel. When I got back, it was time for us to figure out how we were going to spend the rest of our week, so I put on my Program Manager hat and got to work. Determined to get to Bangkok as cheaply as possible, I searched flights from all of southern China’s international airports, and found that the cheapest way would be to fly through Guangzhou on Thursday. At the same time, Ethan did more research on Emeishan, where monkeys and monasteries cover a mountain that offers a multi-day hiking experience. When John learned of our great plans, and the money it would save him, he was excited and invited us to join him and Kate for brunch at Shamrock’s. After brunch, Kate took us to one of the city’s central parks, where we saw people drinking tea, having their ears cleaned, playing badminton, and line-dancing to “Who Let the Dogs Out!” We tried some local candies, and purchased a kids’ plastic badminton set to entertain ourselves. We then set out through downtown Chengdu, wandering past a 30 metre statue of Mao at Tian Fu Square, and picking up some fun fall clothing in trendy clothing shops. We even had a blizzard at Dairy Queen. After booking the flights for the remainder of our trip, we ate dinner at Shamrock’s (yes, 2 meals at Shamrock’s today—but it’s really close to our hotel) and now we’re packing up for tomorrow’s adventure. We’re leaving our luggage at Kate’s, including our laptops, and taking along 2 days’ worth of necessities. Tomorrow we’ll take a bus to Emeishan and start hiking the mountain. We plan to sleep at a monastery halfway up and reach the summit Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. On the way home, there is a 71 metre Buddha in Leshan that we hope we’ll have time to see. Wednesday night, we’ll stay at Kate’s and on Thursday we’ll travel to Bangkok. After a weekend in the city, we’ll spend the week on the beaches of Ko Samet, relaxing. On the 20th of September, we’ll fly back to Beijing, and soon we’ll be flying back to our respective hometowns. Though we’re excited to have booked the rest of our trip, it is bittersweet to think that 2 weeks from today, we’ll be back in Beijing, preparing to fly home. I have enjoyed John and Ethan’s company so much on this trip, I know I’ll go through a period of withdrawal when it’s all over.
We got up early Friday morning; Tse Tan picked us up to take us to the Lhasa airport. I was not feeling well. Something I ate on Thursday brought me a little case of Montezuma’s revenge. On Friday, I took advantage of every bathroom in our path, some more than once. The flight was uneventful (except for the child who barfed all over his seat across the aisle from John,) and when we arrived in Chengdu, a short taxi ride from the airport landed us at our hotel. While John and Ethan went out for a walk, I took a nap in the hotel room, which left me feeling much better. We met John’s friend Kate, who he’d met in Beijing, for dinner. While they ate some more adventurous Sichuan hot pot, I had some white rice and a few pieces of their meat cooked in a milder sauce. We went out for a few drinks after dinner, but the evening was pretty uneventful. It was nice not to have much of an agenda, after Tibet’s non-stop touring. Perhaps Friday’s most notable happening was the fact that none of us took any photographs all day!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Chengdu is the 5th largest city in China, roughly the size of New York City, but it has a reputation for being a lazy city. For the first time in well over 10 days, we did not set an alarm to wake us up. I got up at 9 to go down to the hotel’s breakfast but only a Chinese breakfast was available. I only found the hard-boiled eggs appetizing, and there was nothing to drink. After we’d showered, we trekked to the Starbucks at the end of the block and enjoyed a muffin and coffee, American-style (or Italian, I suppose, since I ordered a macchiato.)
One of Chengdu’s largest claims to fame is the Giant Panda Breeding Research Facility. On the edge of town, it is a beautiful facility, where the pandas have indoor cages as well as large wild exposures. As it was a hot day, we found many of the pandas inside in the air conditioning. Giant pandas in the wild live in very high altitudes, where the heat is not so oppressive. We were able to see some pandas at the nursery who were under 1 month old; one of them had unopened eyes and virtually no hair. The cubs just older than that were being handled by the staff, and though they spent most of their time sleeping, they were adorable.
Kate and her roommate, Sarah, were hosting a dumpling party, so while there, we met several other ex-pats living in Chendu for various reasons, and Andrew told us about a recent trip to Emeishan, which left us intrigued. We continued the night at a KTV establishment (Chinese karaoke,) where Ethan and I gave Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” new life, and John rocked the boat with “Don’t Rock the Boat.”
Sunday, September 7, 2008
This morning, everybody needed a bit of time alone, so John took laundry over to Kate’s, I took another trip to Starbucks, and Ethan spent some time in the hotel. When I got back, it was time for us to figure out how we were going to spend the rest of our week, so I put on my Program Manager hat and got to work. Determined to get to Bangkok as cheaply as possible, I searched flights from all of southern China’s international airports, and found that the cheapest way would be to fly through Guangzhou on Thursday. At the same time, Ethan did more research on Emeishan, where monkeys and monasteries cover a mountain that offers a multi-day hiking experience. When John learned of our great plans, and the money it would save him, he was excited and invited us to join him and Kate for brunch at Shamrock’s. After brunch, Kate took us to one of the city’s central parks, where we saw people drinking tea, having their ears cleaned, playing badminton, and line-dancing to “Who Let the Dogs Out!” We tried some local candies, and purchased a kids’ plastic badminton set to entertain ourselves. We then set out through downtown Chengdu, wandering past a 30 metre statue of Mao at Tian Fu Square, and picking up some fun fall clothing in trendy clothing shops. We even had a blizzard at Dairy Queen. After booking the flights for the remainder of our trip, we ate dinner at Shamrock’s (yes, 2 meals at Shamrock’s today—but it’s really close to our hotel) and now we’re packing up for tomorrow’s adventure. We’re leaving our luggage at Kate’s, including our laptops, and taking along 2 days’ worth of necessities. Tomorrow we’ll take a bus to Emeishan and start hiking the mountain. We plan to sleep at a monastery halfway up and reach the summit Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. On the way home, there is a 71 metre Buddha in Leshan that we hope we’ll have time to see. Wednesday night, we’ll stay at Kate’s and on Thursday we’ll travel to Bangkok. After a weekend in the city, we’ll spend the week on the beaches of Ko Samet, relaxing. On the 20th of September, we’ll fly back to Beijing, and soon we’ll be flying back to our respective hometowns. Though we’re excited to have booked the rest of our trip, it is bittersweet to think that 2 weeks from today, we’ll be back in Beijing, preparing to fly home. I have enjoyed John and Ethan’s company so much on this trip, I know I’ll go through a period of withdrawal when it’s all over.
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