Hello from Chengdu!

We are here extending our Chinese visas which is taking no less than 7 days….!!We arrived here on Tuesday evening and got our application for extension in first thing Wednesday morning.We pick our passports up next Wednesday 21st and then fly to Xining on Thursday 22nd - our gateway to the Tibetan Plateau.

We have been delighted to find a small Tibetan community living here in Chengdu and have been hanging out in their area and found a Tibetan restaurant that makes the nicest Momos (dumplings) which come with an ultra spicy sauce (well we are in Sichuan!).

Our friends Barry and Nok arrive here in Chengdu tomorrow and we are so excited about their arrival - counting down the hours now!We are staying in a local hotel that they recommended.It has been nicknamed "Hotel Elusive" as it was very hard to find but worth it for the local "flavour" it provides us.The entrance is just a handpainted sign and the lobby is dire, but upstairs the rooms are functional and clean and very cheap.It's a friendly place run by women (who speak not a word of English) and the other people staying at the hotel are all chinese.There must be about 30 rooms here and maybe 5 are occupied each night.

So, here we are, waiting for visas and spending our time visiting the temples of Chengdu and spotting the various ethnic minorities that seem to be in pockets around the city - Tibetans and Uighurs.

We did some shopping for outdoor equipment while here for the trip up to Yushu.You can see on the photo blog a picture of Brian trying out his new sleeping bag on the shop floor.He had to get in it to check the length and the shop assistant zipped him right up - it was hysterical as that day it was 30 degrees and he was cooking in there because the sleeping bag is good for temperatures as low as minus 14……!

Ok, not sure from here on in how frequent the internet access is going to be.I expect we will have it in Xining but maybe not from Yushu.However, we will catch you all up on the trip once we return to sea level (around the 9th August).

Hope you are all well

Lots of love

Kerry and Brian