20/08/09
Today was all about leaving Beijing and taking a flight over to Chengdu. Our taxi was booked for 2.30pm so we had plenty of time to kil once we had crammed up our intensely full bags- I swear they're getting bigger each by the day! We headed into Beijing city centre for one last wlk around and began to realise how well we had already got to know the streets now. Not only that but how to say no to people, in particular the very friendly but total scammers that are the so-called art students who walk up and down the street looking for tourist suckers but we know their game now!
We spent most of the time in a maaassive shopping complex which each floor dedicate to either just toys or jewelery or clothes in which they looked like they were all designed just for Laura and boy could she have spent every lasy penny in her account if it wasn't for the lack of room in our bags!
We headed back to the hostel 20 minutes early and our taxi man was ready and waiting so we speeded it off in typical Chinese style driving to the airport. We haven't mentioned the traffic out here yet...It's frankly insane! We've never seen anything like it. For example- if a pedestrian crossing goes green then everyone obviously walks across but the traffic doesn't stop ohh no no, you have to dodge buses, bikes and the raving mad taxi drivers. No one living here seems to mind and walk without a care in the world. No-one wears seat belts, infact belts are provided but in most cars there's no buckle to put them into! No-one wears helmets when on their bike or bicycle and carry their entire family on the back seat along with the pet dog sat in between their feet. The biggest thing though is the constant hooting of horns - you cannot go 10 seconds without someone playing rythmic patterns on their horn. They do it not because someone's done wrong but more to say "I'm coming, ready or not!". Going back to little country lanes in West Meon will be a joy to behold.
Anyway back to where I was - We're leaving Beijing! We get to the airport in plenty of time and decide to eat pretty much the entire contents of food we'd bought over the last few days. So we were early but the flight was delayed. Not that it said that anywhere in Englise, we got told but a Russian woman opposite us who not only spoke fluant English but Chinese too as her boyfriend was Chinese and it looked like she had brought her family over to meet his parents for the first time, that must have been an interesting time.
Anyway the flight eventually came and off we went an hour later than planned which wasn't too bad although we'd booked a taxi to pick us up when we land and the chances of them being there now were slim to none but behold a rather, if I can say, very attractive Chinese lady was stood waiting tot take us to our new home for the next three days - Sim's Cozy Guesthouse.
We arrived to a very warm welcome, The Lonely Planey seriously big up'd this place and we instantly saw why. From the beautiful garden complete with pond, rabbits running amongst plants and people playing acoustic guitars to our private room with an amaazing bed that we'd love to take home and tv/dvd player along with a movie library down stairs (not that we'd have time for that) and a bang on top shower. All simple things but when you're traveling you really start to appreciate the smallest things! It's run by a backpacker couple and their son and daughter and they've seen their fare share of hostels whilst around the world traveling too so they have put everything they'd always wanted under one roof.
While we were admiring our new pad the first disaster struck. I go to pay for the room and...my bank card...where is my frigging mother trucking card? The one we're using to pay for everything out here (until Laura's pins through for her new one). It didn't take long to realise I'd left it in a cashpoint back in Beijing. What a complete twit. When you finish getting money out your card doesn't pop out like it does over here, you have to press a few more buttons. ooohhhh dear. After quite a bit of sweating and shakes I'd sorted cancelling the card and nothing has been taken from my account since I lost it and a new one is on it's way. Phhhewww, we're safe and have money so don't worry okay! We slept well that night!
21/08/09
A new day and we woke up later than usual and without a single bug bite for the first time! The night before it was decided to put up the mssey net and it did a grand job. Then off we trotted for some great breakfast in the hostel. Laura had a banana pancake and I an egg and bacon sandwich alongside chunks of melon and salad. Not very in the spirit of things but we planned to visit a Chinese vegetarian restaurant later in the day.
One we'd munched we headed to buy some special discount cards to get us into various sites across the city for much cheaper. After eventually finding the shop that sold them we had to go all the way back to the hostel to activate them over the phone which took blooming ages and before we knew it lunchtime was soon approaching so we bombed it down to our first main site of the day - The Wenshu Temple, Chengdu's largest and best-preserved Buddist temple. It was probably our favourite so far, muchsmaller than the Forbidden City and reminded us of the ones we fell in love with in Japan.
There was a teahouse there in which we stopped in a good while. You collect your tea cups and sit on tiny chairs and table. The cups have lids on and what it took us a while to work out was that if you left your lid off then a man comes along and pours it back to the top again. This kept happening. More and more free tea. Then Laura twigged on. Next to the teachouse was the vege restaurant I mentioned earlier. We were a little peckish so we went for what we thought would be just a quick bite. More on that in a mintute. The menu was strictly vege but when we flicked through we read things like monkey brains, shark's fin, chicken paws and hot ear slices?! Very appealing to the everyday vegetarian. It turned out everything was fake but just made to taste like that. Very, very strange. I ordered beef but is was tofu and obviously nothing like it. Although saying that, it tasted enough like meat that Laura soon stopped eating it. We'd also ordered to share together dumblings and aubergines and when it all came out the portions were gigantic! A light bite? No chance this was going to take hours! No we didn't finish it but I currently have a doggy bag in my rucksack in which now we really don't want to see or smell for the next month thanks.
One temple down we grabbed a taxi (in which our bellies were thankful for) to the next one. We entered the Green Ram Taoist Temple where there is a bronze goat you should touch to heal your life's troubles and pains. I don't think all my troubles vanished but my stomach was certainly a bit more pain free now. One thing that does keep popping up while looking around the temples is that many people that come here do so to pray infront of the many statues and perform ceremonies and we really don't know what to do ourselves in these situations. Should we pray to the giant buddha? We don't think so but we would hate to offed anyone. At one point we heard a Taoist man shouting at a couple at the top of his voice and proceeded to do so for the next few minutes. We don't know what they did but we don't want to ever be in their shoes. Slightly on edge we left shortly after that and headed to our last stop The Thatched Cottage Of Du Fu (a famous poet that lived in here) which is meant to be the most beautiful green space in Chengdu. This park was made up of bamboo paths through to brideges over streams with the peotry written on stones throughout. To be honest it wasn't as good as it sounds as it was very westernised and somewhat fake. A lovely walk nevertheless!
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