Day Twenty

Crazy Chengdu Lotus Market

Not such an early start, I lied in bed for ages & refused to get up because I hadn't slept well at all. The hostel is a fabulous place but you can hear a pin drop 3 rooms ways, the noise of people shifting around is awful.

Finally out of bed! Time to try to figure out how the washing machine works. We desperately needed to wash some clothes as it's doing our heads in wearing the same things day in & day out. Washing machine on I decided to grab a shower whilst it did it's thing. With the washing done it had to be hung up to dry so we grabbed lots of hangers off the line & began to put our clothes on them. Outside our room was the balcony for hanging the washing so that was quite handy & we could also keep an eye out to make sure nobody wanted a new free outfit hahaha!

All sorted we decided to head out on the bus to find the Lotus Market. The market is meant to be like a wholesalers market where you can buy things cheap. A lot of market stalls on the other side of town come to this market & buy in bulk then they can sell it for more & make a profit. The market was a bus ride away but in the other direction which we haven't ventured to before. On the street for the bus & after a couple of stops we realised we were going the wrong way, we were too used to heading in the same direction. We had to jump off the bus quick at the next stop & then cross over to jump the bus all the way back in the other direction.

Arriving in the area of the market the whole place was buzzing & it was heaving with people everywhere. It might have been more crazy because it was a weekend day. On every sidewalk there was some kind of stall or someone trying to sell you their goods. I have never experienced anything like it & it certainly wouldn't compare to any English market. We decided to walk around so we started with the little stalls on the sidewalks. You literally had to physically push people to get past (a part Andy enjoyed).

We weren't looking for anything in particular but as we went in to shops there turned out to be shops with shops - this place was truly endless. As I ripped my leggings the night before I decided to have a scout around for a new pair. I have never seen so many pairs of leggings & each one a different design, it's unreal. Out of all the leggings there were I was struggling to get a plain black pair. Whilst browsing I came across this real naff looking jumper but I had to have it so I bartered for the jumper & moved to the next stall. Andy was laughing at my ridiculous looking jumper & still is but I love it.

On to the next street of shops. If I had try to describe the market I would say that it would be the size of Liverpool's city centre, possibly bigger. Like I have previously mentioned about shopping in China all the same type of shops are grouped together. The next street was the shoe street. Every type of shoes or boots, any colour, any size you could have purchased them here. The only thing we can't seem to buy is a decent pair of trainers.

We went to the trainers section & we saw the most hideous looking footwear. Are these people for real walking around in this stuff. The trainers are outrageous & the colours are whacky, far too whacky to buy too! Andy had spotted a pair of plain white ones & we thought we were on to some winners when we looked at the label type logo on the side of the trainers it said C & Q (which looked like D & G) & the letters sat in an Armani badge - so hilarious, I was begging Andy to buy them so I could look stupid in mu new jumper & he could look worse in his new trainers but he was having none of it.

Continuing to look for leggings it was becoming harder than one 1st thought. Every type of decent pair I picked up were very deceptive because most of the leggings had fur inside them! I mean I know China is a cold place but come off it - leggings lined with fur, how could I possibly wear them in Australia at the height of their summer?! Impossible!!! Anyways I managed to find a normal thin pair where the waist band sat on my waist & not around my boobs & the crutch was in the right place & not by my ankles. I managed to haggle for them too so that was a bonus.

After a few hours of walking round the market we were totally drained. It was mayhem trying to fight & find our way back to the bus stop. In the roads the were people, bikes, cars & all sorts. The bikes beeped the people, the cars beeped the bikes & well the people just rudely shouted at everyone & everything! Pleased with my bargain buys we got on the bus & in the right direction this time - thank god!

Back near our hostel & by the bus stop that we get off there where other shops & just out of curiosity we decided to take a look. We had noticed in many of these shops some black or navy Chinese traditional pumps with white soles so we were on a mission to buy ourselves a pair. They look extremely comfortable & all the Chinese peasants wear them so we thought we would give them ago. After going in & out a few shops we spotted a shopkeeper that we liked & she was lovely & could understand a bit of English. We sat down to try on some pumps for sizes & it was hilarious, the ones she kept passing Andy were too small so he needed bigger sizes & the ones she was getting me to try on were massive so I needed smaller sizes, it was dead funny & we were in there for ages. We managed to barter for the 2 pairs of shoes & off we trotted back to the hostel. I was pleased with our successful shopping trip, a pair of leggings, a weird naff looking woolly jumper & 2 pairs of traditional Chinese pumps all for £10 so who could complain about that - not us that's for sure.

Back at the hostel the big question on our minds was where to go to eat. We had asked the workers in the hostel for advice on some local places & they told us of a few. Out on the streets & trying to find these places to eat was a nightmare as most of the restaurants don't understand English & they certainly don't have English names or writing for us to recognise. After a while of walking around little streets we got fed up & headed on the the main road. There was plenty of selection to chose from here. We found this decent looking place & the prices didn't look too bad so we went in.

Inside there was lots of choice on the menu so we ordered a few things. We ordered a chicken & mushroom dish, a chicken in a sauté pickled sauce. To accompany that we ordered 2 portions of fries & 2 portions of fried rice as we thought rice wasn't included with the main dish as it was so cheap - again how wrong we got it. When the food turned up we had actually managed to order 4 meals. The main dishes had actually had rice included so the 2 fried rice we had ordered were meals in themselves, we also realised this when 4 sets of chopsticks came. They must have thought you greedy westerners but we weren't bothered we were hungry in fact starving. Alongside your meal you also get a bowl of soup & a bowl of pickled cabbage so in fact we ended up with:- 2 main dishes of meat & sauce, 2 sets of plain rice, 2 big plates of fried rice that had fried eggs on top, 4 bowls of soup, 4 portions of cabbage & 2 drinks!!! Amazing for £6 & we nearly ate the frigging lot - we weren't sure if people were staring because we are westerners or because we were eating like kings.

Stuffed to the brim & back out on the street we headed back towards the hostel. We passed a shopping plaza & there was loud traditional music blearing out. As we got closer to the source of the music & round to the front of the plaza there were people dancing everywhere. It was lovely to see men & women dancing together & better still it was Chinese style dancing. We stood & watched for ages laughing at the ridiculous looking dancers & then admiring the exceptionally good ones. I thought it was great.

Back in hostel & drinking very big & inexpensive bottles of beer we spent a long time on Skype to our families. Way passed bed time sleep was in order - 5.30am start tomorrow ready for Leshan..........