8 - 10 February

We arrived late morning in Chengdu and headed to our hostel, Mix Hostel. It was a lively hostel and pretty much in the centre of town. We walked to the old Wenshu Monastry and Adam had a bit of a hissy fit because he was hungry and I wasn't. We ate a variety of food on sticks and then had an easy one for the rest of the day, neither of us had much sleep on the hard sleeper. It is hard to sleep when people are starring at you non stop.

The next morning we arose and went to see the pandas being fed. I don't think I had ever seen a panda before that point in the flesh. We went to a special reserve where they were breeding and studying them. It was fun morning out and all the pandas kept falling out of trees and wrestling each other. They were very silly pandas.

For the rest of the day we walked the city and had our first proper hot pot. The hot pot is a local tradition , it was amazing. It was hot chilli oil, dozens of chillies and Sichuan pepper in a big bowl over a stove in the centre of your table and then you cooked your own meat of choice in the lethal mix. Before you put the meat in your mouth you dip it in sesame oil and garlic and corinander, it was delicious. I tried to stay clear from the Sichuan pepper, I thought I was allergic to it for a few weeks because I would loose all taste sensation in my mouth and my lips and mouth would swell like I had been pumped full of collagen. After a chat with the Danes I found this to be normal and Adam was the only person in the world who this didn't seem to effect. Bloody nuts effect him, but not that stuff, what a nutter.

The hot pot was one of the greatest meals we have ever had. Nothing like the Chinese back home, but I think it might be an issue for health and safely having a cauldron of boiling oil in the centre of your table.

The following day we had another quiet one and then the day after we were getting a train to Guilin. The day we were leaving we ran into the Danes again and had a catch up. Hopefully run into them again in the future in SE Asia or Denmark.

I really loved Chengdu and I would defintely come back again, there is so much to do there, but we had to miss out because of the prices. It wasn't really expnsive it was just out of our budget. We need to come back anyway to do do the trip through China to Tibet, which is now a must on my list of things to see.

I think China is such a fantastic country, it is very touristy though. The Chinese love doing touristy things like having pictures taken for a 120 pounds next to a baby panda. I do have a couple of issues with it, but I suppose each country has its own customs. My three issues with the country are people constantly stare, point and laugh at me inparticular, they spit too much (every couple of minutes) and the babies wear crotchless pants to they can poo next to your table whilst you eat. Nappies haven't quite caught on here...