We left a soggy Xi'an behind and boarded an overnight train to Chengdu which is in the Sichuan province, famed for spicy food and pandas. The travel day and the subsequent first day in Chengdu represented the highs and lows of travel in China. The train journey was less than desirable, firstly because Antony and I were in separate cabins so both of us were alone in out cabins with three (or more) Chinese people.It was loud, smelly, confusing and not conducive to sleep whatsoever! I was relieved when we stepped off the train and expected to see a small town waiting for us.However as we found out Chengdu has a population of over 10 million (roughly the same as London) and pollution as proof - so our arrival was overwhelming.This was compounded by Tony's (our new Chinese friend from Xi'an) cousin meeting us at the station with a homemade sign that said 'Tony from UK.'All we wanted to do was find a place to stay and take a shower and the cousin, named Kay, comes up to us asking if we wanted to go to dinner in broken English. We reluctantly said yes and agreed to meet at 7:30 for a hot pot dinner which is a local specialty.

We managed to find a hostel, took a nap, had a shower and were plotting how we could get out of the dinner arrangements.All we wanted was a western meal and watching a movie on the laptop - we were feeling China'd out.But Kay arrives out of breath having run to meet us at our hostel.We got into his tiny car and weaved around the city to pick up his cousin Blue Star.Both were 19 yr old students in on of Chengdu's 20 universities and keen to give us an authentic Chengdu meal.

Hotpot has to be seen to be believed... in the middle of the table is a hole where there is a gas flame and on top is a pot of chilli oil & broth. This boils away and then you cook your meat, veg, dumplings, and noodles in it. You cook one item at a time and everyone fishes it out with their chopsticks. Kay and Blue Star kept asking us if we liked pork, beef, fish, etc and we said yes. What arrived were bits of animal I had no intention of eating - like stomach lining, liver, duck neck, etc - which they kept calling 'sausage.' I was trying to be polite but you could imagine my face! I tried everything and most things were chewy - was made it edible was a dipping sauce which was sesame oil, coriander, loads of garlic, salt and good ol' MSG. I loved the dumplings and tofu and ate more than my fair share of those. Once again the Chinese paid and despite Antony shoving money in his hand, he wouldn't take it. We are really seeing the two polar opposites of the Chinese... the ones that rip you off mercilessly and the ones that are unbelievably generous. The guys were funny, very friendly and we had a fantastic time - not at all what we were expecting (see the video).

Whilst we had a brilliant time with them, we declined their offer to see a local techno DJ and headed back to the hostel where we met some other travelers (UK, Dutch & Canadian/Polish) which resulted in many funny stories being shared, beers drunk, and pool played.

It stuns us that we could wake up in misery but fall to sleep with smiles on our faces! It really does prove that if you roll with it things tend to end up much better than expected and we really didn't miss the western food and movie at all.

R & A x