First of all let me start by apologising for not keeping this blog upto date. I hadn't realised just how long ago my last entry was. I've got loads to update you on. I'm perfectly fine and am currently (2nd May 07)in Xi'an (synonymous with the Terracotta Army) tomorrow I'm off to Luoyang. It's 9 pm and if the Internet Cafe doesn't get too smoky I plan to fall to asleep at my monitor updating this blog!
What can I say about Chengdu? Well it's as hot as Zhongdian was cold. In the mid-afternoon temperatures must have hit at least 25C. I thoroughly recommend everyone coming to China, visit Chengdu simply because it has the friendliest locals I've met by far. I'll explain what I mean.
On my first day, I was walking down the road, took out my map and decided to get orientated, I wasn't lost. Almost immediately a woman with perfect English asked if she could help. Taking full advantage of the opportunity I asked if she could recommend somewhere to eat. She started off telling me the whereabouts of western fast food outlets and I had to stop her and specifically say I wanted to try local cuisine. I have no idea what kind of foreigners she's met before, I lie, I do, those like our Pam Kandola! She immediately wrote down the name of her favourite restaurant and a few dishes she and her friends loved and she thought I might enjoy.
I went to the recommended noodle bar and showed the waitress the note with the name of the dish on it. I sat down and was later joined by a reporter and a photographer writing an article about which places a foreigner should eat at and visit. I took the opportunity to mine them for local information and so my itinerary was set. I should say the food was spot on.
The next day (Tuesday 17th April) I got up ridiculously early to go and see the Pandas at their reserve. By early I mean 6 o'clock I know that is considered a lie in for the shop keepers not to mention the employed but as I'm in neither category, it's bloody early ;-) Pandas tend to fall asleep after 10 am when they've had their fill of bamboo. What can I say, it was nice, I took some pictures and discovered they come in a red variety too! The red ones are small though, only slightly larger than a fox.
Girlie bit coming up, guys feel free to skip to the next paragraph. OK then but don't say I didn't warn you... Spent the afternoon shopping. Made the 'mistake' of walking into a shop where all the clothes were made for my physique. I know people go to America to go shopping but if I'm ever at that stage I'm coming to Asia for sure. The shop was pure heaven, this is what haute couture must feel like. It got to the stage where I ended up handing my camera over to the shop assistant as I couldn't remember what I looked like in the first outfits I tried on! If I could have I would have bought the entire shop. As it was I only got a few items and now I can't wait for your engagement party Janey (and James if you're still reading!), I'm only hoping my faith in China Post is not misplaced!
I'm totally loving this holiday, it is getting better by the day. Being a lone traveller is simply awesome. I'm finding it to be a totally different experience to when I'm travelling in a group. In the first instance I am approached more often by locals.
When I first arrived in China I use to book hostels online before I got on the train to the destination. Now I'm much more laid back and don't bother with any of that. I decide on my next hostel purely on recommendation. The beauty of doing it this way is that I get to meet the same people again at different destinations. Or I meet strangers and we both know the same people as we've stayed in different hostels with them! I have no doubt that they are parallel groups of tourists visiting the same cities at the same time but never meeting simply because of the youth hostels we choose to stay at. I am definitely on the Israeli hostel track for I've met more Israelis than any other group.
Either way it is awesome, so far I've exchanged read books for unread ones; Indian recipes for Polish ones; Harpy's wedding pictures for a friend's Hebrew wedding pictures - their dos sound like ours. I'm being sent pictures of Yangshuo (I managed to delete these earlier, if you remember). I'm going to upload pictures for a friend whose camera battery died.
Loads of people are interested to know where I come from. To be beautiful in China all you need is Indian eyes. I've had people three rows down in a train carriage literally get off their seat to get a good look at me when they've heard I'm Indian, if only I looked like Shilpa Shetty! All this staring definitely reinforces that fame is not worth it, I like being anonymous. I've had a Chinese lady come up to me in a hostel and tell me I have big eyes and a high nose - I was starting to feel like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood! She even went as far as to ask me if she could feel my eyes and nose, in the interests of Indo - China relations who was I to object! I'm not kidding when I say, this woman squealed when she felt how high my nose bridge was. We must have looked like a right pair of weirdos thank god we were indoors.
Culinary Discoveries:
Sichuan cuisine was made for Indians. This must be the chilli province of China. I've had to ask people to tone it down for me but I think it would be perfect for the likes of Pops and Cacs!
The local speciality is huo goa. It consists of a massive steel cooking pot containing stock set into a table top under which a gas heater is lit. The heater keeps the stock at boiling point. Being pre-warned we opted for two cooking bowls. The inner cooking bowl containing less spice than the outer one. The outer one was blood red and had heaps of chillis floating in it. I'm told Vietnam and Cambodia have this style of cooking too but it is not as spicy. Uncooked food is delivered to the table and basically you put it into the pot, wait until it is cooked and then eat it.
I decided to brave it and start of on the hot stuff, within ten minutes my lips were tingling, ten minutes later the WHOLE bulbous part of my nose was tingling, parts of it felt numb it was that spicy. After that I chickened it and stuck with the less spicy stock. There was a table of Chinese people infront of us by the end of their meal all six men were without their shirts.
On a hot day if a huo guo restaurant is busy and it has its windows open the chilli is strong enough to induce coughing fits in passerbys. I've both seen and experienced it.
It was lush but I don't think it's something you should inflict on your digestion system too often.
