Sichuan - Part 1

Our 2nd last day, the seventeenth day, started without much of a plan, except we only knew we were going to fly back to Chengdu (成都). My friends wanted to buy me lunch, before sending me to the airport. In the end, he got held up at work until quite late. His german tourists were complaining badly about the lack of heater in their rooms. I never knew germans were that afraid of cold. I thought Germany was very cold as well. So we just had a quick bite across the street from the hostel before rushing to the airport.

 

We reached Chengdu (成都) without much hiccups except for my little hiccup of forgetting to place some of my airplane  forbidden items into my checked in luggage. Thought of saving a little moolah by staying in a hostel. Took a airport bus to the city, then took a cab from within the city to the hostel. What I did not expect was the lack of room when I arrived. When I called them from the airport, they actually had room, but by the time we arrived, all the rooms where taken up in that 1 hours! Arghz! The reception send us on our way to another youth hostel near the area but without giving us a proper direction. So ended up on a slight wild goose chase, kept getting redirected by the locals to somewhere else. Ended up at a 2-star hotel. They actually had a twin room for 40Y but without a bathroom and 100Y for one with a bathroom. We decided to pamper ourselves on our last night here in China, so we took up the room with the bathroom.

 

So once again, after settling our luggages, we went out to hit the street. Started walking in a randomly selected direction, we ended up at a buddhist temple which surrounded it were rows of 2 stories ancient looking building which sells food and stuffs. Its either a tourist spot of some sort or some kind of more expensive food for the locals to spend their moolah on during the weekend. Tried some of the food found there. There was one that display Goose Egg (天鹅蛋). Was debating with myself if I should tried that. Was calculating the amount of colesterol in it, and finally given in to my desire to taste exotic food. Damn, when did I became so health conscious? And I felt conned! Its actually deep fried flour with some sesame on the outside. Arghz!

 

Then we continued walking until we thought we lost sight of where we were going. I only had a general direction of where our hotel was supposed to be. Anywhere we just continue walking until we came across a big departmental store. Ended inside it shopping for some gifts for some friends, and looking for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games mascots dolls for a colleague. And after we left the departmental store, we tried to find our way back to the hotel and we ended up in the direction, and then we finally came across that youth hostel that we were supposed to go as directed by the previous hostel!

 

We had the local steamboat for dinner. Its was flaming hot and numbing to the mouth. Almost could not take it anymore but we were closing to finishing our food already. For the 1st time I did not finish the plate of pomfret I ordered. Their pomfret was very small compared to those we ate in Sillypore. I tried the Harbin beer but found it no big deal. The beef was very nice though.

 

And with that, we ended up at an internet cafe to finish off our seventeenth day and final night in China.