Day 18 We woke up on the train and realised we had another 5 hours or so to go. We both had top bunks which meant we couldnt sit up as the space was so small. All the chairs along the side were taken and we were sick of lying down, but there wasn't much we could do about it. We eventually arrived in Chengdu feeling a bit stiff at 12:40pm, 17 hours after leave Xi'an. On first inspection of our room we were blown away with the smell of damp but after a bit of complaining and a look in the other rooms we ended up sticking with the first option and just blasted the air con on. We wandered along to Wunshu temple and stopped for food on the way. We had a beef sandwich with all the chinese trimmings which at first tasted lovely, then after a couple of bites we had our first experience of the notorious Sichuan 'numb' spice. We couldnt feel our mouths they were tingling so much, almost like the feeling of popping candy! The temple was great, lots of people praying, burning incense and loads of big Bhuddas and scary looking Gods. The gardens around the temple were even nicer and we stumbled along a few lakes filled with turtles and giant toads which we watched for a while and wandered around the touristy streets around the temple. We wanted a traditional hotpot for dinner like the one we had in Xi'an. Whilst looking very confused with our map on a street corner, a lovely Chinese lad who spoke perfect English came to help. He explained the hotpots in the area were very expensive and showed us to a cheap chinese fast food place- CSC. We didn't like the look of it so escaped once he was out of sight and had a lovely meal of beef and rice in a small Chinese place next to our hostel.

Day 19 Our first struggle of the day was breakfast, with every new province we enter it's like coming in to a new country, the food and cooking styles change so much. After a bit of walking in the rain we gave up on finding bread or eggs and entred a decent looking muslim street cafe (due to there religion you can always trust the muslim restaurants to be clean and of a high standard). I ordered a plate of rice and beef with loads of veg which was lovely and Lloyd opted for a noodle soup, we were stuffed. We headed to Tianfu square where the giant statue of chairman Mao stands. The square was so heavily policed it was scary, we felt like anything could happen at any second so took our photos and left. The rain had stopped so we walked to the peoples park. The park was beautiful, full of little sections and gardens in which the older generations played games and talked. The centre of the park was dotted with dance troops and classes dancing to a range of different music. A massive thing in China is 'KTV' this is basiclly karaoke, people all over the park were singing, people in suits on there lunch hours, old men, young girls- so strange. We stopped at a tea house next to one of the ponds which was so relaxing and peaceful, I ordered a jasmine tea and Lloyd got a green tea. We were given the tea leaves in cups and a 2 litre flask of boiling water so we could keep topping it up, well this meant Lloyd couldn't leave untill we had finished the 2 litres of water. So after 2 hours and a few trips to the toilet we went in search of food. We walked for ages but were struggling to find food again, everyone here just seems to eat meat skewers which are great but not filling and expensive. We gave it a go though and after a few meat and potato skewers we were after a proper meal so decided just to go to the CSC place. After a very disapoining Kung Pao chicken we found a bakery and bought some lovely bread and cakes for the next morning to solve the breakfast problem.

Day 20 PANDA DAY!! We decided to pay a little extra at the hostel for transport to the Panda research base so we could arrive earlier than the public buses. Just as we arrived the 2 year old panda cubs were let out and given breakfast so we were immediately happy we had paid the extra to get there early. It was brilliant to see and the pandas were so close, Lloyd was ecstatic to say the least. The cubs were so funny chomping on their bamboo, we watched and took photos for half an hour. We moved on around the park, there was two australian girls and a lad from the USA also on the tour and we all got along so well which was nice. Next we saw the red pandas, they are more like a fox crossed with a raccoon. We couldnt understand why they were called pandas but then we read that they were discovered first and are the original pandas. The black and white panda we know now were actually given the name 'panda' second. We soon got bored of the red panda's and moved on to the Giant pandas. We knew the panda I adopted for Lloyd a few years back was from the Chengdu area of China so we tried to find him. The giant pandas we so funny, they all looked so relaxed and happy, the atmosphere was great and it was even better to see them in there natual environment and not trapped in a zoo. Our walk took us to the nursery where the baby one month old pandas are. They were sooo tiny, just starting to grow their fur and were so heavily protected we couldnt watch them for long. After walking around the centre and after seeing so many pandas we lost count, we came to the conclusion Lloyd's Panda 'Jiu Shan' must be in one of the other bases in Chengdu. The five of us went for lunch together at the muslim restaurant before finally heading back to the hostel. One of the girls said she was going for a blind massage (a massage by a blind person) so we decided to tag along. Lloyd was very unsure at first about the situation but once there he gave in and got one too. The massage was fab, traditional chinese so alot of work on the pulse points and deep tissue which worked wonders. We got back to the hostel and saw Thomas (One of the lads we met in Datong). We went for tea with him and the lad from the USA and got some noodles and minced beef which was basiclly chinese spaghetti bolognaise. We decided to have a few drinks in the hostel as there was quite a few of us together and a couple of games of shuffle board, just a long table you slide metal disks down to score points. It was a nice end to Chengdu.