Hello! Just to let you know that we have arrived saftly in Chengdu after an 18 hour train journey. Going to see the Pandas tomorrow, yeyy!! Will update you soon but are going to bed know as we've just been lost for 4 hours & our feet hurt!

We were supposed to meet up with an Isrealy couple to get the bus to see the Pandas today however, we were a couple of minutes late & they had left without us. We had no idea where to get the bus from but luckily there was a tour leaving from the hostel at the moment we arrived so we hopped on that. The Pandas were amazing. We got there about 8.30am & they were all awake & eating their breakfast. There were 3 babies in a cot & they were so cute. We caught a group of them play fighting & one of them climbed up some stairs & dived bombed on the others over the banister! When we got back we decided to try a local dish, the Sichuan hotpot. You order your meat & vege & it comes out raw & you cook it on your table on a big pan/dish thing. It is well known for being hot so Charlie order the hot sauce & I asked for one that was not so hot. We ordered beef & pork balls & potato, cabbage & potato, deciding against the fish heads, willies & meter long intestines! As we started to cook our meat I noticed what i thought was an oyster shell & thought that's interesting, I've never had oyster before. On closer inspection I realised it was a fish head, a bit gross but I thought I'd just push it to the side & eat around it! As I poked it a hand came out & grabbed my chopstick! I jumped out of my skin. We realised it was a giant frogs leg & lost our appetite! We hid all the ingrediants in the sauce, paid Y120 & made a sharp exit, still starving! With rumbiling tummys we walked up to the peoples park where we were dragged into dancing in a circle with the old folk who were exercising. After that we went for a chrisanthanam tea in the tea house on the lake (Clare, our teas had whole flowers in - perhaps those are the ones you eat!!). As we were enjoying our tea some guys came round with long instraments & asked if we wanted our ears cleaned. We said yes for a crack, Charlie thought it tickled & I thought it hurt. We made the mistake of not asking how much first & so got stung for it, I almost got charged twice as much as Charlie as he had to use acid in my ears cos they were so clogged up & he pulled some gross stuff out! An english speaking chinese man helped us out tho & we paid Y30 each in the end which is about 2 pounds. After that we went for a macdonalds, at least we thought there would be nothing strange in that, altho........!

Xx