After a long day of travel via sleeper train, taxi & plane we made it to Chengdu airport. We'd arranged to meet Alan in the baggage hall, looking at the arrivals his flight was about an hour delayed so we people watched until he arrived. Exhausted but in one piece Alan arrived, time to get to the hostel & have a beer!

We decided to visit the Leshan Giant Buddha the next day. The private car option was too expensive so we decided to brave the buses! We found the 1st one ok and had a map of its route to follow and find our stop. Soon into the journey we realised it wasn't going the route we expected, we asked a local, well pointed as they didn't speak English. About 5 minutes later then poked us to tell us it's the stop we needed.

What we were told to look for wasnt obvious at all as we wandered around looking for the next bus we needed. We eventually found the ticket hall and it was super busy. With no English to guide our way we went to the ticket desk and pointed to the giant Buddha picture on our map and held up 3 fingers. We got three tickets, hopefully to the right place! As us and our bags went through the scanner we showed staff our ticket and was directed to our bus. We stopped abruptly after about an hours driving and we were all kicked off. The other passengers were talking Chinese to the driver but we had no clue if we were in the right place or not!

Almost immediately all these taxi drivers started approaching us speaking nothing but Chinese. I could gather they wanted our business, that bit was obvious, but I had no idea what they were saying. Sy spotted a tourist info hut so we went there, we had to wake up the girl there and she explained how to get to the Buddha from there. We decided on a taxi there and if time a bus back, using the calculator we bartered the taxi down to a reasonable fare and headed off. We got 5 minutes down the road before he had a head on collision with a guy on a motorbike. There was a few heated conversations, everyone was ok but they were talking about the mark on the car. Everyone from other cars, bikes & houses came to have a look but finally they all left and we continued to the Buddha.

He dropped us at one ticket office but even though the ticket price we wanted was listed above her head we were not allowed to buy them there. We had no idea why, she told us but again we didn't understand a word!! We headed down the road where she had pointed and took another turning, finally we'd found the place.

This Buddha is 233 feet tall and is the largest stone Buddha in the world. There is a path going down the cliff to its feet and then back up the other side. Trust us but hey, we don't read Chinese, we went the wrong way and headed down the narrow path everyone was climbing! It was pretty impressive but a shame we couldn't get out on the river to see it in full from there. We walked around some of the rest of the park and then somebody must have put the celebrity star on our heads. Many people wanted photos, we'd be rich if we started asking for £1 per photo! One girl of 12 bounded over while I was sat by myself eager to practise her English.

Luckily for us the journey back was a little simpler, a bus to the station then a coach back to Chengdu. The bus dropped us at the station and it was getting late so we decided to eat near to the station. We spotted a place that was super busy which is usually a good sign. We stood in the doorway trying to think of sign language for 'table for 3' but came up short. I hopped on the apps I have and found table for two and that did the trick. On the table was a clipboard & a tick box menu for what you could order. No pictures, just writing & we were clueless. We tried saying the word for chicken which got a nod but after that we were lost. We all looked at each other desperately trying to figure out what to do. I looked at others food incase I could say 'that, please' but I couldn't tell what anyone else was eating apart from the obvious rabbit heads & chicken feet!! Alan found the phrase for 'you choose' & with that we left it to the waitress to decide our fate. We had little bowls on the table that were filled with a creamy coloured water, we had no idea what they were for and couldn't see any local doing anything with theirs. The 1st dish came out and to this day I have no idea what it was. Some kind of soup with pâté texture slices, seaweed & potentially chicken pieces. Next was some Chinese cabbage and a spicy chicken broth thing. This was actually really nice but the Sichuan province was living up to its name as it was super spicy.

The locals took great amusement at watching us eat, it was so bizarre and we left there still confused!! The next day was what we had come here for........pandas!!

Pandas eat early then sleep so if you want to catch them active you have to arrive for feeding. We took a taxi there & for the first 45 minutes had the park to ourselves. Pandas are really funny, rolling onto their backs to eat, proper lazy. The cubs are so cute, just like toddlers learning to run and climb but doing it badly. Falling over or running into things. We enjoyed watching them for a few hours walking around the different areas of the park. We were going to volunteer at the park. The hostel were asking £70 but we heard that this money doesn't go towards the park just the agent which wasn't what we wanted. You could arrange through the park but it was £200 which we just couldn't afford. It was a shame as we all wanted to do it but couldn't jump to that price. At least our entry tickets helped support the research & care here.

Our hostel, aptly named Mr Panda had recommended a Hotpot place which is somewhat of a specialty here. He was fantastic as he wrote some menu items down for us so the staff would know what we wanted. We arrived and sat down at a table with a big gas ring in the middle. We ordered what Mr Panda had written down & got some beers in. This was much easier than last time!!

Then this large pan of two halves came out. One half you could see was spicy and the other plain. The heat was whacked up until the water boiled. We then put our ingredients in. We had beef, pork, quail eggs, bean skin, mushrooms & potatoes. Cook until done then eat! It was delicious and we ate every last morsel.

Our last day in Chengdu and we followed tour guide Sy to discover Jinli Street. A tourist road with old buildings much like Lijiang. We shopped, ate some meat on sticks & enjoyed people watching. Off in the morning to Xi'an, it will be a shame to say goodbye to Mr Panda and the staff there as they had been awesome & so helpful.