Do You Want Chilli Sauce With That?
We took an internal flight from Hefei to Chengdu. Chengdu is in Sichuan Province and is famous for their Sichuan cuisine. This is similar to basic Chinese food though it is laced with chilies, making it very hot. I enjoyed this food immensely though I think Matt preferred the milder stuff.
Chengdu is one of the main routes into Tibet from China so there are a lot of travelers going through and as a result a good lot of restaurants, hostels, and more things geared towards the traveler. I liked the place as soon as I got there as anything was better than Hefei and the people here were friendlier and more helpful.
We arrived late and managed to get to the hostel that we had "booked" before but they said that they had no record of the booking and they were full anyway; Chinese style. They hailed a cab and instructed him to take us to the other hostel nearer the centre called "Sam's Place" which is very popular, though again full. So Sam then said that we could stay at his sister hostel, "Holly's". This place was a dive and was mainly damp. I managed to end up in a room with a Chinese girl in it called Lili. Lili was a little berserk, though she spoke good English and was our hanger-on-cum-guide for our short time there. She could be hard work as sometimes she would laugh for no reason, but by this time I was so numb from fatigue and the chilies that I would often just laugh with her. She also lost a couple of cards from my deck meaning that the next time Matt and I tried to play Chase The Lady neither of us could win.
The one thing that we had to do in Chengdu was visit the Leshan Stone Buddha which was a couple of hours from Chengdu. This is a massive stone Buddha carved into a cliff face. It is about 100 metres tall and is in a sitting position. I have to admit I was impressed as there are steps carved into the rock face all around it where you can walk and get some good views. The people look like ants walking around his feet. The stairs have been there for hundreds of years though as they were there for the pilgrims that still visit. Because of their age the steps are quite treacherous but I managed to make it to the bottom.
Leshan was a decent place to stay for the day so long as you kept in the park where the Buddha sits. It was a peaceful and warm day and we spent about 2.5 hours at a small restaurant/tea room drinking about a gallon of tea each. The rest of Leshan is like another Chinese building site, though you don't see much of this other than when you drive through it.
We spent the few evenings we had in Chengdu at an ex-pat bar called "Dave's". This was a good place to spend an evening as the beer was cheap and for the first time in what seemed like years we were socialising with other travelers. I had a good time there, though the bog was frightening.
We were originally going to go and try some horse-trekking in a place called Songpan, a few hours north of Chengdu. We got reports though that the weather was inclement and that this time of year was bad for the trek, so we both decided that it would be a god crack to go to Tibet for a few days. We could organise the Chinese Aliens' Travel Permits and book the flight through the hostel we were staying in and go from there. So we did.
Chengdu is one of the main routes into Tibet from China so there are a lot of travelers going through and as a result a good lot of restaurants, hostels, and more things geared towards the traveler. I liked the place as soon as I got there as anything was better than Hefei and the people here were friendlier and more helpful.
We arrived late and managed to get to the hostel that we had "booked" before but they said that they had no record of the booking and they were full anyway; Chinese style. They hailed a cab and instructed him to take us to the other hostel nearer the centre called "Sam's Place" which is very popular, though again full. So Sam then said that we could stay at his sister hostel, "Holly's". This place was a dive and was mainly damp. I managed to end up in a room with a Chinese girl in it called Lili. Lili was a little berserk, though she spoke good English and was our hanger-on-cum-guide for our short time there. She could be hard work as sometimes she would laugh for no reason, but by this time I was so numb from fatigue and the chilies that I would often just laugh with her. She also lost a couple of cards from my deck meaning that the next time Matt and I tried to play Chase The Lady neither of us could win.
The one thing that we had to do in Chengdu was visit the Leshan Stone Buddha which was a couple of hours from Chengdu. This is a massive stone Buddha carved into a cliff face. It is about 100 metres tall and is in a sitting position. I have to admit I was impressed as there are steps carved into the rock face all around it where you can walk and get some good views. The people look like ants walking around his feet. The stairs have been there for hundreds of years though as they were there for the pilgrims that still visit. Because of their age the steps are quite treacherous but I managed to make it to the bottom.
Leshan was a decent place to stay for the day so long as you kept in the park where the Buddha sits. It was a peaceful and warm day and we spent about 2.5 hours at a small restaurant/tea room drinking about a gallon of tea each. The rest of Leshan is like another Chinese building site, though you don't see much of this other than when you drive through it.
We spent the few evenings we had in Chengdu at an ex-pat bar called "Dave's". This was a good place to spend an evening as the beer was cheap and for the first time in what seemed like years we were socialising with other travelers. I had a good time there, though the bog was frightening.
We were originally going to go and try some horse-trekking in a place called Songpan, a few hours north of Chengdu. We got reports though that the weather was inclement and that this time of year was bad for the trek, so we both decided that it would be a god crack to go to Tibet for a few days. We could organise the Chinese Aliens' Travel Permits and book the flight through the hostel we were staying in and go from there. So we did.