China: Chengdu day 7

Well here I am. I'm the youth hostel bar drinking local Tsingtao beer in Chengdu. unbeknown to me the last week Carmel and I have been drinking export level Tsingtao beer which is more expensive, less tasty and has less alcohol in it too. This has a much better taste! Tastes far more bitter, which suits me.

Today I said goodbye to Carmel at terminal two. As I write she is probably landing back in the UK. We had such a great week. Cheers Carmel. it was hard bloody work but I still really enjoyed it and we were fab travel partners together. Shame the adventures couldn't continue!

Now I'm on my own. the flight here was fine. A piece of cake. but when I landed nobody was at the gate to pick me up. I couldn't get my phone to work either but I managed to use a phone from a local woman and the taxi driver was hanging out in international arrivals. For some odd reason they thought I was coming from japan.

Anyway when I arrived the young lads on reception were very apologetic. I told them that I was having trouble with my phone ( to be honest I just missed out the area code) but they have given me a Chinese phone to use. It's as old or even older version than mine but it has a local sim. So now I can call with confidence and they have even written the Chinese characters for ' I want to top up my card.' this is all really useful when you need to organise accommodation on the hoof like what I am intending to do!

To add to the joy they have put my pics from my camera onto my ipad via iTunes. A piece of piss really. So I am happy!

When I arrived in Chengdu I was shocked again by how super ugly this city is. FULL of pollution and a heavy stink of cigarettes and fumes just hangs above and around you. I just can't breath and find even going up a flight of steps a chore. now, this is probably just because of my heavy cold but to be honest, I'm not sure.

I got the local bus into Chengdu this afternoon and managed to get to a hot pot noodle place and blew my head off with a vegtastic sezuhan hot pot broth. Full of goodness and wonderfulness. it made my ears pop, my eyeballs sweat and I couldn't finish it all! it was great and cost a quid! I will try and upload a picture of it

Woman boiling up my veggies from fresh. I just chose what wanted from her left.

It worked! This is lotus root, cabbage and cauliflower all with tofu and noodles in a hot pot broth. No meat today.

I then wandered off in the dark round the central part of the city. It is so bloody high rise here. IMMENSE. Mao rises above it all waving down the capatilist avenue with the swanky shops on. God knows why so many Chinese come to Bicester village; they have it all a hundred fold here!

I managed to find the bus stop to get back. Even though it was after 9pm on a Sundays night everyone was out and the lights of the city were blazing down on me. It was fun being on public transport. I chatted to a young boy and he just wanted to stare at me, my guide book and map because it was all so foreign to him. He had some English and his mum was encouraging him to speak to me. He was a sweet little lad.

I can't believe I found my way through this hub bub back to the hostel. This is a mixture of being given a good map and me rising to the challenge!

Must sleep now. Yes, I'm off to see the pandas at 8 am. Night

Chengdu memories: