Panda-monium in 'The Du'

Sunday, September 7, 2008 – 11:30pm – Chengdu, China – Sichuan Province

I realize that it has been a few days since my last post. We have all taken some much needed r&r after our intense experience in Tibet. When we left Tibet on the 5th, we flew to Chengdu (pronounced Chun-doo), affectionately known as “the Du”. It was a relatively uneventful flight, except for the child across the aisle from me that decided to channel the exorcist and projectile vomit all over the his seat, the seat in front of him, his mother and her suitcase. Poor kid. But it was remarkable how much came from this small child who could not be more than 2.
All in all, Chengdu is nothing really to write home about. It is a city, with little personality. Well, that is not all together true. The people of Chengdu have a reputation in the rest of China as being lazy, relaxed and slower paced. This is because of their “Tea House Culture”. It is the equivalent of coffee houses and cafes back home.
Regardless of the fact that Chengdu may not be all that interesting, we have all had an amazing time here – mostly due to our new friend Kate. I met Kate in Beijing as she is a friend of one of my colleagues and was up visiting one weekend. We had a beer together for just over an hour, she said if our travels took us to the ‘Du’ to give her a shout. I did, and it worked out awesomely. Kate booked a hotel for us which was just beside the apartment that she shares with her roommate Sara, a local Chengdu-ite. It was nice knowing exactly where we were going once we arrived. The hotel is fine – simple, clean, and most importantly, cheap.
On our first day, David was not feeling too well, so after taking a quick nap (as we had to get up early in Tibet and travel all day), Ethan and I went out for a walk to check out the area. We are staying in a very ‘neighbourhoody’ section of town and so that was very refreshing. We went into a local restaurant, had a couple of beers and discussed what we might do for the remainder of our trip. We thought that we would go to Guilin and Yongshuo, but after investigation we found it to be too expensive (mainly to get to Thailand afterwards).
By the time we finished our beers, Kate called and we decided to meet up for an early dinner (she had a conference call at 9pm and we were all starving). We went to hot pot – it was great. It is where you have a big pot divided in two one side with chicken broth and the other with a spicy Sichuan broth. You then order a bunch of meats, vegetables etc and throw it all in, let it cook and then enjoy.
Once we had gorged on another inexpensive dinner, Kate went home for her call and we went back to the hotel for a nap as we had decided to go out that night. We met up with Kate at a bar right beside our hotel called “Carol’s”. It was a weird pub-type dance club. We sat, chatted, had a few ‘pops’ and then danced our pants off. Kate’s friends called and they were out at a different club, so at 1:30 we left David at the hotel as he was still fighting a little with Montezuma, and headed out. Our evening was great. We met a lot of new, interesting people and Ethan, Kate and our new friend Drew even ended up doing Karaoke in an empty bar run by a guy who looked like a 14 year old Chinese Harry Potter. It was a trip. Then off to McDonalds at 4am to combat the impending hangover. A great night.
The following day, we went to see the Panda Base on the outskirts of Chengdu. It was amazing. I did not think that I would like it so much, but the bears are pretty cool, and it is a breeding and research facility, so there were many young panda babies in incubators. Quite cool.
The park itself was quite the contrast from industrial, slightly dilapidated Chengdu. It was serene, quiet, full of lush vegetation, flowers and even a ‘swan lake’ replete with butterflies. It was great to get away from the big city and just wander amongst the bamboo-lined pathways. Perhaps I was just tired from the night before, but I did not feel much like talking that day, so I went off and explored for a bit on my own while David and Ethan did their own thing. It was just what the doctor ordered.
We got home, had a quick nap (I was loving the lazy, napping culture of Chengdu), and then went over to Kate’s place for a ‘dumpling party’. It was amazing. Kate’s roommate loves to cook and wanted to make of feast for friends that included homemade dumplings, chicken feet, a pork noodle dish and some rabbit. It was delicious (and the first home-cooked meal that I had had in five months). Yummy.
I think the best part of the entire evening was just that it felt like being home. Going to a friend’s place to eat, drink and just hang out. It made me feel normal. That is why Chengdu will have a place in my heart for a long time. Hanging out with Kate and her ex-pat friends has been so relaxing and just what I needed. Following the feast it was off to Moon/KTV for some Karaoke. I had not done real Karaoke in China. It is much different here.
Firstly, driving up, it looks as if you are visiting a swanky hotel. You go to reception to register and everything. Then you go to the ‘grocery store’ where you get a shopping cart and pick out you beverages, snacks and even a full rabbit on the Barbie if you want. You then go up the escalators and are led to your private Karaoke room. There, you have a wait staff that waits on you hand and foot while you sing to your hearts content. We had a blast (and quite a lot to drink). It was very surreal and an experience I am glad that I had. To top it off, it was only 500 yuan for 7 of us – meaning that it was just over $10 for each of us – and we had alcohol to spare when we left. Insane.
This morning I woke a little tired again, as we did not get home until after 3:30 and then, because I was hopped up on red bull and vodka, Ethan and I chatted about nothing and everything that had happened to us until almost 5am. Why do I keep doing this to myself? Once ready to face the day, it was back to Kate’s to do some laundry.
In a bizarre way, I love doing laundry in other countries (like the time in torino when my laundry took 48 hours because I could not read the Italian directions and somehow managed to lock my clothes in the washer)… Here was another experience. The washer had no lid, you had to fill it with water yourself and then drain it too. There are also no dryers and so I had to ring everything out and hang it outside on a line. An experience for sure. After laundry was done, Kate and I headed to Shamrocks, an Irish pub down the street that has an awesome brunch. Now everyone reading this knows my how much I love brunch (it verges on fetish really). I was in heaven, just sitting talking with a friend, enjoying brunch and not really having any plans for the day. I really felt like I was back home in Toronto. It was great.
David and Ethan eventually joined and had brunch themselves. While I was slaving over laundry, they had figured out the rest of our trip – we are now planned until I leave for home on the 22nd – a good feeling really. Because Guilin and Yongshuo were not the most economical of options, we have decided to leave our crap at Kate’s and head to Emei Shan – a monkey infested mountain that we are going to climb, staying in monasteries along the way. It is supposedly breathtaking. It will be a three day excursion, and on the way back we are planning to visit Leshan to see the biggest Buddha in the world. We are getting a good balance between cities and partying and communing with nature. We are all pretty stoked about our trip – we have to take a bus (so boats are the only mode of transport that we have not done yet)…
Following brunch, we headed to “the people’s park” and wandered around. The culture was much akin to the temple of heaven – there were tons of people taking dancing lessons, flying kites, singing in choirs and playing badminton. We got in on the action too – we bought a fisher price type of raquet game and played in the square – getting stared at because we were 1. Foreigners and 2. We were crap.
Then it was off to see a huge statue of Mao and then some shopping. We went out to dinner and headed back as we have to leave pretty early tomorrow morning.
So tomorrow we head off to hike for three days. We return to Chengdu to crash at Kate’s on Wednesday night and then catch a flight to Guangzhou to catch a connecting flight to Bangkok, Thailand. We are staying in Bankok for a couple of days, then it is off to Ko Samet (an island) to relax on the beach for five days to end our trip. I then fly back to Beijing on the 20th, meet up with dear old mom who happens to be working in Beijing then, and fly home on the 22nd.
We will not be taking our laptops on our 3 day trek, so it is here that I will say adieu and I will check back in as soon as I can. It is strange to think that I will be home in two weeks tomorrow. Where does the time go?

PS - pics to come on this post....