Tuesday 10th April 2007
Panda day today!! Up and out to catch 8.30 bus to the panda reserve, arriving there at about 10 to head straight for the nursery and enclosures. What beautiful creatures! (and what a lovely place, very clean and green!). V passed up the chance to cuddle the baby panda of 7 months (for about 1000 Yuan, £65ish) she paid 400 Yuan to stroke one of the bigger ones (2 years old).
As lovely as the panda was she couldn’t really have cared less whether or not V was stroking her! Still, she maintained it was a lovely experience (V, not the panda) and one she’ll never get the chance to repeat.
We spent a couple of hours walking round and taking loads of pictures. This was the first really sunny day we’d had so it was a joy just to be there.
After wandering round all the enclosures we hopped back on the bus into Chengdu city centre where a few of us were trying to satisfy our cravings for the real taste of China – pizza. Sadly the chosen restaurant was closed so we took a 25-minute detour to another pizza place – also closed. Eventually we ambled, by this point ravenous, into ‘Grandma’s Kitchen’ next door to the second closed pizza place, and had a beautiful burger and chips!
Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I love my Chinese food, but by this point some of us, me included, were craving some good old-fashioned Western fast food!
While I was out doing this V was back at the hotel as the tummy was still a bit delicate. But she was delighted when I turned up just after 5 with a marguerita pizza and some fruit. After a quick turnaround we’re off to the packed train station. After jostling our way through the merry crowds we finally made it to the rather grubby and packed waiting room. We didn’t have to wait long as Eric had secured us “VIP” passage so were soon packed on to a couple of comedy golf carts and sped off into the distant platform where our train awaited.
Sadly this was the worst train yet, not to mention the longest! Eventually, after a couple of hours’ nattering and playing cards, we resorted to iPods/earplugs and settled down for the night.
Panda day today!! Up and out to catch 8.30 bus to the panda reserve, arriving there at about 10 to head straight for the nursery and enclosures. What beautiful creatures! (and what a lovely place, very clean and green!). V passed up the chance to cuddle the baby panda of 7 months (for about 1000 Yuan, £65ish) she paid 400 Yuan to stroke one of the bigger ones (2 years old).
As lovely as the panda was she couldn’t really have cared less whether or not V was stroking her! Still, she maintained it was a lovely experience (V, not the panda) and one she’ll never get the chance to repeat.
We spent a couple of hours walking round and taking loads of pictures. This was the first really sunny day we’d had so it was a joy just to be there.
After wandering round all the enclosures we hopped back on the bus into Chengdu city centre where a few of us were trying to satisfy our cravings for the real taste of China – pizza. Sadly the chosen restaurant was closed so we took a 25-minute detour to another pizza place – also closed. Eventually we ambled, by this point ravenous, into ‘Grandma’s Kitchen’ next door to the second closed pizza place, and had a beautiful burger and chips!
Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I love my Chinese food, but by this point some of us, me included, were craving some good old-fashioned Western fast food!
While I was out doing this V was back at the hotel as the tummy was still a bit delicate. But she was delighted when I turned up just after 5 with a marguerita pizza and some fruit. After a quick turnaround we’re off to the packed train station. After jostling our way through the merry crowds we finally made it to the rather grubby and packed waiting room. We didn’t have to wait long as Eric had secured us “VIP” passage so were soon packed on to a couple of comedy golf carts and sped off into the distant platform where our train awaited.
Sadly this was the worst train yet, not to mention the longest! Eventually, after a couple of hours’ nattering and playing cards, we resorted to iPods/earplugs and settled down for the night.
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