The trip to the panda breeding centre was really good. We arrived there just about feeding time so we got so see them languidly tucking into some delicious looking bamboo. (Excuse my use of the word "languidly" but I know my mate Jack will appreciate it.) The weather, as usual in Chengdu, was a horribly overcast and misty day, the air thick with the output from countless industrial districts and so the light wasn't that good for photographing these brilliant animals. It was great fun watching them though as they reclined on their more than ample arses and delicately stripped the more tender bamboo leaves from the branches. Some of them seemed painfully shy and appeared to be deliberately avoiding our camera lenses. It was much like that old Kit-Kat advert where the bloke waits hours for the pandas to do something and as soon as he turns his back to "have a break, have a Kit-Kat" the panda starts swishing around on a pair of roller skates and doing acrobatics. I bet they did that to us, too. The best thing about the visit was seeing the baby pandas. Only a couple of months old they were about the size of large teddy-bears and infinitely cuter. One of them, my favourite, just layed flat on its stomach with its arms and legs splayed out like one of those animal skin rugs. It only got slightly animated when another of its furry friends clumsily fell onto it. They were absolutely adorable but we weren't allowed to take photos of those. It turns out that you could pay ¥100, if you felt so inclined, to have your picture taken holding one of the little cuties. Shameless racketeering, but not that unusual.
The next day we took a trip to Leshan to see the giant Buddha. The guesthouse we were staying at runs trips there but it costs about 60 quid to hire a car for the day. Probably feasible in a big group to share the cost but we fancied going it alone. We took the long distance bus to Leshan then a local bus to the Buddha. It was a bit of an adventure as travelling by bus in China always is but we made it there. We even managed to book a little boat trip to go and see it
from the river where you get a fantastic view of it in all its giant glory, plus you get to see the two guardians either side of it which you can't see from the land. Starting in AD 713, the Buddha took over 91 years to build and is carved out of the cliff face. It is 71m high (over 210ft) and its ears alone are 7m long. It is very, very impressive. We climbed down the steps to look up at it from his toenails and it just dwarfs everything around it. A Buddhist monk called Haitong started the building process, originally thinking that the Buddha would calm the rapid waters and protect the fishermen from the dangerous currents of the nearby river. It worked, not from any divine influence, but from the sheer amount of rubble, rock and silt that was dumped into the river, filling the hollows and therefore calming the turbulent water. It's a miracle!
All in all, our full day trip including transport and entrance fees cost about half of what the guesthouse's tour would've cost. Plus it was more fun. Bargain.
On Friday we just faffed around Chengdu for a bit visiting the monastery and various tombs and temples. The monastery was a lovely place to see, monks scurried around urgently, sweet smelling incense filled the air and worshippers said their prayers in front of the numerous images of Buddha. It was so calm and serene, a great place to escape the depression of the ugly, grey city. The only disappointing part of the place was the little garden out the back, or more
specifically the "free life pond" which was the main feature. It consisted of a large pool, green with thick algae and numerous dead fish floating around in it. Even the turtles seemed afraid to wallow in it as most of them were trying to escape onto a nearby island. The ones that weren't fleeing the murky mire looked suspiciously inactive. I think maybe the name was translated incorrectly and should have been "free of life pond". It was pretty stagnant.
Our last meal in Chengdu was a local, Sichuan speciality called Hotpot. Now, to most of us, this conjures up cosy images of Betty Turpin dishing up a Lancastrian confection of lamb chops, carrots and onions stewed under a thick layer of sliced potatoes. No such luck. This particularly fiery potion was a huge vat of dark oil infused with chillies, peppercorns, chillies, garlic, chillies, ginger, chillies, lemon grass and more chillies. This fearsome cauldron was then placed over a gas burner in the middle of our table where it bubbled and boiled scarily in front of us. We then dipped slivers of raw pork, beef, potatoes and dumplings into it where it fizzed and cooked within econds. The first taste was like holding a blowtorch to your tongue, but once your mouth was sufficiently numbed from the Sichuan chilli's effect, it became quite delicious. The idea was to dip the oily cooked morsels onto a further bowl of sesame oil infused with garlic (more than I would use in a dish for 8 people!!), coriander, salt, sugar, vinegar and oyster sauce. There was loads of food and we couldn't eat it all, particularly since it was so greasy but I think it's more of a novelty than a gastronomic delight. More so for the staff in that they had a couple of useless Westerners in their restaurant who didn't have a clue. At one point we had six members of the crew fussing over us, letting out squeals of delight each time I tried fishing out a slippery dumpling with my chopsticks and failed. Miserably.
Back at the hotel we were happy to recieve our permits for Tibet and collect our luggage ready for the train. I sat down on the sofa while we waited for our transport and one of the two kittens that had been wandering around the restaurant came and parked himself on my lap. It was really cold so neither of us complained about sharing our warmth with each other though I think the scrawny little kitten got the better deal.
We'd been shopping earlier to stock up on snacks and instant noodles for the journey. Groaning under the weight of our booty, we were then presented with a big bag of fruit and biscuits for the trip by Sim, the owner of the guesthouse. A really nice touch.
It's Saturday afternoon now and we've been on the train to Lhasa for 16 hours already. Only another 29 hours to go. We're now at the point where 2 days on a train is barely an inconvenience, it's more of a chance to rest and catch up on some reading.
Sunday 7 December.
About 40 hours have passed now and we've ascended to 4560m above sea level. So far, only mild symptoms of altitude sickness are affecting us; runny noses, slight dizziness and shortage of breath, etc. The true test will be when we reach Lhasa and have to carry our heavy rucksacks for any distance. It was a little bit worrying when the train's carriage attendant knocked on the door last night and issued us each with oxygen canulas to plug into the O2 supply. Donning it
made me look like someone out of one those Government commercials warning of the risks of smoking. Speaking of which, though these carriages are supposed to be non-smoking it doesn't seem to stop the locals. I just hope they're not using their oxygen at the same time
otherwise the there'll be a terrible mess.
20:29
Arrived safely in Lhasa and our guide met us outside the station, they used to be able to go right to the platform and meet their punters, but not any more. He seems a nice enough chap, speaks good English without an American accent and is not one if these wide-boy tour guides like a lot of them.
We went for a meal tonight in a local restaurant. Rich thought he'd be adventurous and order some Tibetan stuff but hated it and went hungry instead. I enjoyed my yak momos and tenthuk though!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment