China Part 4 - Fran's Birthday:

Chengdu:

When we had booked our overnight train from Xi'an to Chengdu there had been 3 options, we went for the cheapest which had times to suit us. While waiting in the communal area of the hostel we got chatting to another guy who was getting the same train, Frank from New Zealand. We spent so long talking that we almost missed the train due to the chaos at Xi'an train station (this is normal in China at the moment, as the Olympics were on they x-ray every item of baggage, which leads to horrendous queues entering the station). Once we had boarded the train we suddenly realised why the tickets were cheaper – no air con! Well it was only 30 degrees outside, still it was a better option than the train we got to Pingyao!

Karl pretended all the way there that we were staying in a 6 person dorm, so imagine my surprise when we pulled up outside this plush hotel in the centre of town! This was my first birthday surprise, and it was still a whole day before my actual birthday. Our room was pure luxury and we enjoyed it immensely after having been in dorms for a while! We mooched around town and bumped into Frank again randomly in the square, and that evening Karl told me to put on a dress cos we were going out somewhere! Yippee another surprise for me! He took us to the Chinese Opera which was a real treat. They have all sorts of performers doing various things, like playing with fire, spinning plates, a hand shadow show, puppets and a changing masks performance which was really cool.

The next day dawned bright and early for us as we had a full day planned, whilst I was getting ready Karl read out all my birthday messages from everyone and made me nearly cry – thank you to everyone who wrote to me, it was so lovely to hear from you all especially as I was so far from home and missing everyone, it was very much appreciated! We caught the bus to the Panda Conservation Centre, yes we saw real life Panda's! They were so cute but smaller than we had imagined they would actually be. There is even a nursery on site so we saw mini baby panda's being looked after by the carers. Panda mummies are not actually that maternal and it takes them a few goes to know what to do with their babies, which is one of the reasons the Panda population is dwindling (that and deforestation of their natural bamboo habitat). Also did you know that Panda's actually have to fancy each other before they will contemplate getting it on?! They are a seriously strange creature. We watched them eating their bamboo and lazing around in their enclosures it was a very special experience, one which we will always remember!

When we got back to the hotel we chilled out for a while and then my next last surprise came in the form of a beautiful bunch of lilies and roses (my favourites!). They were really gorgeous and this a a funny tale; that morning whilst we were leaving the hotel, I saw those flowers and commented to the guy that they were beautiful and nearly asked him jokingly if they were for me as it was my birthday but we were crossing the road at that moment! We did laugh!

That night we went out for a nice Mexican and a bottle of wine with Frank and ended up having a few drinks at Hooters, that was random! All in all it was a really nice birthday and well worth the extra 30 hours on the train we endured to get there and away! Karl did a fantastic job with the surprises which is not easy since we spend virtually every minute of the day with one another!

This is the story of the day which we nearly didn't get to see the Buddha, and nearly missed the train! We arranged to meet up with Frank at 12pm at the bus station to go 2 hours away to view the worlds tallest standing Buddha in Leshan. What we hadn't realised is that once we arrived to the town, we would have to travel an extra distance to get to the blooming thing! We were running out of time as our overnight train was leaving from Chengdu to Guilin at 7pm, we consulted our bible the lonely planet and it said we could catch a local ferry to an island which overlooks the Buddha, and it only cost 1yuan (that's about 10p). The “ferry” was in fact a rickety rusty pontoon with a motor and packed full of local people, which was a real experience in itself! After ingesting goodness knows how many petrol fumes, we arrived at the little island, quickly walked to the peninsula to take a picture of the Buddha and caught the ferry back straight away. The view of the Buddha was hazy (so much pollution in China visibility is not always that good!), but it was very tall and hewn into the side of a cliff so it's quite imposing. On the bus back, we got caught in the rush hour traffic which delayed us and we were cursing ourselves for undertaking a trip so far away on a day we were supposed to be leaving town! We finally made it to the bus station but needed to get back to the hotel to pick up our bags before getting to the train station. There was not a cab available so we ended up running all the way back to the hotel which was a good two miles away, arriving hot and sweaty we piled in the door to snatch our bags and then begged the people in the queue for the taxi's to let us go first. I think one look at our ticket and realising how late we were was all that was needed and the taxi driver drove like a bat out of hell to get us there in time, which we eventually did! Phew!