Day 6
10/7/2015
Chengdu
Chengdu- Day 1
The much awaited Panda town. I've heard a lot of stories about Chengdu from my Snekrish and Ann. My friends who studied in Chengdu. And finally I get to meet them cuddly puddly clumsy pandas. Also with a very very guilty conscience , might even get to hold them for 2 minutes after spending a fortune. We reached our hostel by a tuk-tuk ( 20 CNY ). Our hostel in Chengdu was the "Hello Chengdu International Youth Hostel"( previously called the Sim's Cozy Travel Hostel ). The guard opened the gates for us and we waited in the lounge with the little piggy and the cats till 8 AM. Shiveta slept for a while and I went back to reading my book. The room that we got was a 4 bed-dorm with a clean bathroom. I slept like a log for another 2 hours. Had a pretty hearty breakfast at the restaurant run by the hostel and we were off to explore Chengdu. Equipped with a map of Chengdu and bus directions, our next destination was the ancient village of Huang Longxi. This place was suggested by our very helpful hostel manager, Evan. We took the Bus.No.28 to Xinnanment bus station and took a bus from there to Huang Longxi.
The bus journey was super comfortable with pushback chairs and air conditioning. The ticket costs us around 20 CNY/person. The local bus fare system, at this point, is still a mystery to me. Sometimes we just dropped 2 CNY each in the box at the front of the bus, because everytime we tried paying the driver, he just ushered out hurriedly.
Huang Longxi
An ancient village tucked away in a mountain valley. Many buildings of the village was reconstructed in the past few decades. On entering the village, we saw a lot of vendors selling water guns ( pichkaris ). Wondering what one would do with water guns in a village at this point of the year, we walked forward. We didn't have to wonder for long. We were caught by surprise, as we walked into a slightly crowded street when a squirt of water hits us. Welcome to Huang Longxi Holi( Holi is the Indian festival of colours where people throng the streets with water guns spraying colour and water on each other ).!! Armed with water guns, buckets, vessels and bowls, toddlers to centennials are found playing in the stream around which the village is constructed. The water gushes through the stream and you even find a miniature waterfall under which children and their parents are going wild playing water wars. Happy faces! It was a weekday and you can't help but wonder how much fun it would be to live in a village like this. Throw your school bags onto the couch after returning from school, grab your water guns and run to the stream screaming. We do have our share of streams and rivers back in Kerala, but streams with water theme park effects was new to me.
The village was a part of the Chinese heritage restoration project, hence the built-up in tourism. We tried our first Sichuanese street food here. I tried the squid and chicken liver skewers, whereas Shiveta tried the Ma po doufu. Both were super spicy. You can feel the burn of the red chilli powder's journey from your tongue to your tummy. Spicy but yummy! Aysha had told us that as you go southwards, the cuisine gets spicier and closer to home :) Shiveta finally got to eat her favourite lotus stem( nadru ). It was in the form of skewers and was not remotely close to the Jammu preaparation of lotus stem. Neverthless she enjoyed it and it was a pleasure watching her savour her favourite nadru after months of yearning.
We walked past the traditional-style buildings and homes. We even got to watch a traditional martial arts class with little ones struggling to control their newly attained powers.
On our way back, we slept like Pandas and got down at Xinnanmen station.
Wenshu Temple Vegetarian Restaurant
We went straight to the vegetarian restaurant inside Wenshu temple. Shiveta's happy hopeful face was mirrored in mine. A buffet of 99 CNY was being served and it was the famous Chongqing hotpot( the veg version ). We ordered a spicy and a medium spicy one. ooh Boy! Were we in for a surprise! The big bowl of liquid fire, as I'd like to describe it, was brought to our table along with veggies which included mushrooms, leaves, tofu, radish and other white vegetables. I hoped to find a carrot or some spinach. To my disappointment, none of those were served. The tofu and mushrooms were good. The staff, including an English speaking monk from the temple helped us complete half our hotpot. With burning throats, a flaming oesophagus and a half-finished hotpot, we thanked the staff profusely for helping us and rushed out for our free tea( which was part of the buffet ). By the setting sun , we drank copious amounts of green tea and walked back to our hostel.
Using maps without GPS was an archaic concept for us. Something we thought was pointless during our school days. But , it looked like al that map practice we did at school was after all useful. After a long walk with us enthusiastically matching the street name to the one on our map followed by placing the map on the floor and figuring out which direction we had to head to, we finally reached our hostel. Now I know why people get smarter after returning from backpacking trips :P
We had a sound sleep. The walking around had definitely exhausted us. Next day was our day with the Pandas. I was still in a dilemma about the 10,000 INR worth 2 minute Panda Holding. Kent was more excited for me that I was for myself about the Panda holding. Hmmmm...
Day 7
Inside, there were multiple enclousers for the pandas of different age groups ( Adult, New born & Young ones ). All those Youtube videos with the pandas tumbling over each other and acting like big cuddly babies came into life here! AH! Such Delight! The gentle giants.
On our visit to the nursery, we saw the hairless kitten-sized new born Pandas as well. There are specific timings to visit these guys while they are being fed.
My yearning to hold them pandas only increased as we moved past each enclosure. Finally we reached the "Panda Keeper Experience Office". I was grinning from ear to ear. I had only reached the desk, when the lady at the desk looked at me with a sympathetic face and told me that they've stopped the panda keeper experience since 6 months. Whaaatt!!? My big fat smile was scrubbed off my face instantly. But on second thoughts, I realised that watching them flop around in real itself was enough to make me smile wide. I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed this in a zoo.< I hate zoos > These Pandas are by all means in captivity , but they are very much in their natural surroundings. The red Pandas just walk around everywhere and are not even in enclosures. The employees are gentle and caring. I hope the pandas are happy. They are safer in this mini habitat of theirs than in the wild.
These giant cuddlies facing extinction are sexually reluctant while in captivity. Getting them to mate requires a lot of effort including exercise to build their lower-body muscles and other funny "Turning-on" techniques such as Panda Porn( Yeah :P ).
The Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre has about 50 Giant Pandas and 50 Red Pandas. The red pandas, as I mentioned earlier roam around freely. I was lucky to have one brush past me without giving me a second glance. There are boards around the place warning you not to touch these red fiery guys because they can be quite fierce when irritated. Remember Kichi( Mowgli's friend ) with the chirpy voice from the Jungle Book adaptation cartoon !
A green green jungle with a well-maintained swan lake, a few peacocks, peahens and lots and lots of Bamboo trees. It is a pleasant walk. We returned to our hostel by around 12:00 PM.
Wuhou Temple & Jinli Street
From the bus stop near our temple, we boarded the bus towards Wuhou Temple. This temple was built to honour several figures from the Three Kingdoms- Emperor Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and a few other kings.
Just behind the temple was Jinli Street- a small scale replica of an ancient village with lots of stalls and yummy street food. We had a chinese version of Empanada, a glutinous rice dessert of sorts and some rice cakes( A Chinese version of Puttu, a malayali dish sans the coconut). We got into Bus no.1 to Wenshu Temple.
Wenshu Temple
We had eaten our Veg Hotpot the previous night from the restaurant within Wenshu temple grounds, but had not been able to visit the temple. There were groups of ladies chanting prayers in front of the Manjushri idol and Avalokiteshvara idol. Photography was not permitted here. The atmosphere was serene and peaceful. The evening was cool and we enjoyed the walk through the temple grounds. It reminded me of the walk I had through the Vadakkumnathan temple grounds in Trichur with only of my best friends.
Sichuan University, Huaxi Campus
This was where my SneKrish had done her graduation. Started in 1926, the university has beautiful buldings and the campus grounds are really green. Sneha's friend took us around the campus. The lotus pond was a curious sight. Around the lotus pond was the gathering of a multitude of people with cameras of all shapes and sizes focussing on a particular lotus flower in pond. On looking carefully you see a teeny weeny bird sitting on the flower. Highness, Sneha's friend, explained to us the reason behind this curious party.A really good picture of this bird costs around 8000 CNY( 80,000 INR!??). We took a long distance picture of the celebrity bird on our not so high-tech camera as well. As we moved away, we could hear the mad clicking away of atleast 30 cameras. The bird had moved. I was almost tempted to make a huge noise and startle the bird. The picture of 30-50 photographers chasing me down with cameras and stones would have been quite a shot. Highness booked a table for us at Sultans, one of the famous Turkish restaurants. After bading goodbye to dear Highness, we decided to give the metro(intercity train) a try.
Metro Transport in Chengdu
The metro lines are really fast. The route maps were easy to comprehend. The staff sitting at the Help Desk speaks English and was really helpful. The travel costs around 2-5 CNY. We headed to Peoples' Park station from the metro station near Sichuan University.
People's park
You got to give it to the Chinese when it comes to parks. Humongous parks built around artificial lakes and entirely green. We went searching for The Ming Teahouse. By the time we got there the sun had almost set( around 7.30 PM). The tea house was set on the lakeside with a good view of the lake and boathouse. We hd a special Ming Deng pot of tea. Around 8.30 , we got up to leave for Sultans. The lady at the help desk helped us with the station details.
Sultan's : An unaccomplished food quest
We got down at the Ni Jia Qiao sttation and followed the map directions. We walked around for about half an hour before we decided to ask for help. Even though we had a team of around 6 strangers who didn't know each other, trying to help us out, unfortunately we didn't make it to the Sultan's.
The Bookworm
Chengdu- Day 1
The much awaited Panda town. I've heard a lot of stories about Chengdu from my Snekrish and Ann. My friends who studied in Chengdu. And finally I get to meet them cuddly puddly clumsy pandas. Also with a very very guilty conscience , might even get to hold them for 2 minutes after spending a fortune. We reached our hostel by a tuk-tuk ( 20 CNY ). Our hostel in Chengdu was the "Hello Chengdu International Youth Hostel"( previously called the Sim's Cozy Travel Hostel ). The guard opened the gates for us and we waited in the lounge with the little piggy and the cats till 8 AM. Shiveta slept for a while and I went back to reading my book. The room that we got was a 4 bed-dorm with a clean bathroom. I slept like a log for another 2 hours. Had a pretty hearty breakfast at the restaurant run by the hostel and we were off to explore Chengdu. Equipped with a map of Chengdu and bus directions, our next destination was the ancient village of Huang Longxi. This place was suggested by our very helpful hostel manager, Evan. We took the Bus.No.28 to Xinnanment bus station and took a bus from there to Huang Longxi.
The bus journey was super comfortable with pushback chairs and air conditioning. The ticket costs us around 20 CNY/person. The local bus fare system, at this point, is still a mystery to me. Sometimes we just dropped 2 CNY each in the box at the front of the bus, because everytime we tried paying the driver, he just ushered out hurriedly.
Huang Longxi
An ancient village tucked away in a mountain valley. Many buildings of the village was reconstructed in the past few decades. On entering the village, we saw a lot of vendors selling water guns ( pichkaris ). Wondering what one would do with water guns in a village at this point of the year, we walked forward. We didn't have to wonder for long. We were caught by surprise, as we walked into a slightly crowded street when a squirt of water hits us. Welcome to Huang Longxi Holi( Holi is the Indian festival of colours where people throng the streets with water guns spraying colour and water on each other ).!! Armed with water guns, buckets, vessels and bowls, toddlers to centennials are found playing in the stream around which the village is constructed. The water gushes through the stream and you even find a miniature waterfall under which children and their parents are going wild playing water wars. Happy faces! It was a weekday and you can't help but wonder how much fun it would be to live in a village like this. Throw your school bags onto the couch after returning from school, grab your water guns and run to the stream screaming. We do have our share of streams and rivers back in Kerala, but streams with water theme park effects was new to me.
The village was a part of the Chinese heritage restoration project, hence the built-up in tourism. We tried our first Sichuanese street food here. I tried the squid and chicken liver skewers, whereas Shiveta tried the Ma po doufu. Both were super spicy. You can feel the burn of the red chilli powder's journey from your tongue to your tummy. Spicy but yummy! Aysha had told us that as you go southwards, the cuisine gets spicier and closer to home :) Shiveta finally got to eat her favourite lotus stem( nadru ). It was in the form of skewers and was not remotely close to the Jammu preaparation of lotus stem. Neverthless she enjoyed it and it was a pleasure watching her savour her favourite nadru after months of yearning.
 |
| Look at her all ecstatic about finally laying hands on her favourite lotus root/stem( Nadru ) |
 |
| Huang Longxi village- Water fight day :) |
We walked past the traditional-style buildings and homes. We even got to watch a traditional martial arts class with little ones struggling to control their newly attained powers.
On our way back, we slept like Pandas and got down at Xinnanmen station.
Wenshu Temple Vegetarian Restaurant
We went straight to the vegetarian restaurant inside Wenshu temple. Shiveta's happy hopeful face was mirrored in mine. A buffet of 99 CNY was being served and it was the famous Chongqing hotpot( the veg version ). We ordered a spicy and a medium spicy one. ooh Boy! Were we in for a surprise! The big bowl of liquid fire, as I'd like to describe it, was brought to our table along with veggies which included mushrooms, leaves, tofu, radish and other white vegetables. I hoped to find a carrot or some spinach. To my disappointment, none of those were served. The tofu and mushrooms were good. The staff, including an English speaking monk from the temple helped us complete half our hotpot. With burning throats, a flaming oesophagus and a half-finished hotpot, we thanked the staff profusely for helping us and rushed out for our free tea( which was part of the buffet ). By the setting sun , we drank copious amounts of green tea and walked back to our hostel.
Using maps without GPS was an archaic concept for us. Something we thought was pointless during our school days. But , it looked like al that map practice we did at school was after all useful. After a long walk with us enthusiastically matching the street name to the one on our map followed by placing the map on the floor and figuring out which direction we had to head to, we finally reached our hostel. Now I know why people get smarter after returning from backpacking trips :P
We had a sound sleep. The walking around had definitely exhausted us. Next day was our day with the Pandas. I was still in a dilemma about the 10,000 INR worth 2 minute Panda Holding. Kent was more excited for me that I was for myself about the Panda holding. Hmmmm...
Day 7
11/7/2015
Chengdu- Day 2
Chengdu Panda Breeding Center
My Panda Day! Like a super excited bride on her wedding day, I woke up at 6. All I could think of was about the fluffy pandas and how it would be like to touch their adorable paws. We got into bus no.99 and got down at the station where we caught the bus no.198 towards Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre. We had no difficulty in figuring out where to get down. When we showed the name of destination written in Chinese, to one of our co-passsengers( an old smiling man), he put his hands behind his ears, puffed up his cheeks and drew circles around his eyes with his fingers. This man knew where we had to go, our Little old Panda Man. He signalled to us when we reached our destination around 8 AM. Pandas! Here we come! Happy as a clam, I trotted and hopped towards the entry-ticket stations.Chengdu Panda Breeding Center
Inside, there were multiple enclousers for the pandas of different age groups ( Adult, New born & Young ones ). All those Youtube videos with the pandas tumbling over each other and acting like big cuddly babies came into life here! AH! Such Delight! The gentle giants.
On our visit to the nursery, we saw the hairless kitten-sized new born Pandas as well. There are specific timings to visit these guys while they are being fed.
My yearning to hold them pandas only increased as we moved past each enclosure. Finally we reached the "Panda Keeper Experience Office". I was grinning from ear to ear. I had only reached the desk, when the lady at the desk looked at me with a sympathetic face and told me that they've stopped the panda keeper experience since 6 months. Whaaatt!!? My big fat smile was scrubbed off my face instantly. But on second thoughts, I realised that watching them flop around in real itself was enough to make me smile wide. I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed this in a zoo.< I hate zoos > These Pandas are by all means in captivity , but they are very much in their natural surroundings. The red Pandas just walk around everywhere and are not even in enclosures. The employees are gentle and caring. I hope the pandas are happy. They are safer in this mini habitat of theirs than in the wild.
These giant cuddlies facing extinction are sexually reluctant while in captivity. Getting them to mate requires a lot of effort including exercise to build their lower-body muscles and other funny "Turning-on" techniques such as Panda Porn( Yeah :P ).
The Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre has about 50 Giant Pandas and 50 Red Pandas. The red pandas, as I mentioned earlier roam around freely. I was lucky to have one brush past me without giving me a second glance. There are boards around the place warning you not to touch these red fiery guys because they can be quite fierce when irritated. Remember Kichi( Mowgli's friend ) with the chirpy voice from the Jungle Book adaptation cartoon !
A green green jungle with a well-maintained swan lake, a few peacocks, peahens and lots and lots of Bamboo trees. It is a pleasant walk. We returned to our hostel by around 12:00 PM.
 |
| The cuddlypoos munching away to glory |
 |
| And the Red Pandas walk in between your feet. They definitely have no doubts about who is boss around here! |
Wuhou Temple & Jinli Street
From the bus stop near our temple, we boarded the bus towards Wuhou Temple. This temple was built to honour several figures from the Three Kingdoms- Emperor Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and a few other kings.
Just behind the temple was Jinli Street- a small scale replica of an ancient village with lots of stalls and yummy street food. We had a chinese version of Empanada, a glutinous rice dessert of sorts and some rice cakes( A Chinese version of Puttu, a malayali dish sans the coconut). We got into Bus no.1 to Wenshu Temple.
Wenshu Temple
We had eaten our Veg Hotpot the previous night from the restaurant within Wenshu temple grounds, but had not been able to visit the temple. There were groups of ladies chanting prayers in front of the Manjushri idol and Avalokiteshvara idol. Photography was not permitted here. The atmosphere was serene and peaceful. The evening was cool and we enjoyed the walk through the temple grounds. It reminded me of the walk I had through the Vadakkumnathan temple grounds in Trichur with only of my best friends.
Sichuan University, Huaxi Campus
This was where my SneKrish had done her graduation. Started in 1926, the university has beautiful buldings and the campus grounds are really green. Sneha's friend took us around the campus. The lotus pond was a curious sight. Around the lotus pond was the gathering of a multitude of people with cameras of all shapes and sizes focussing on a particular lotus flower in pond. On looking carefully you see a teeny weeny bird sitting on the flower. Highness, Sneha's friend, explained to us the reason behind this curious party.A really good picture of this bird costs around 8000 CNY( 80,000 INR!??). We took a long distance picture of the celebrity bird on our not so high-tech camera as well. As we moved away, we could hear the mad clicking away of atleast 30 cameras. The bird had moved. I was almost tempted to make a huge noise and startle the bird. The picture of 30-50 photographers chasing me down with cameras and stones would have been quite a shot. Highness booked a table for us at Sultans, one of the famous Turkish restaurants. After bading goodbye to dear Highness, we decided to give the metro(intercity train) a try.
 |
| Sichuan University |
Metro Transport in Chengdu
The metro lines are really fast. The route maps were easy to comprehend. The staff sitting at the Help Desk speaks English and was really helpful. The travel costs around 2-5 CNY. We headed to Peoples' Park station from the metro station near Sichuan University.
People's park
You got to give it to the Chinese when it comes to parks. Humongous parks built around artificial lakes and entirely green. We went searching for The Ming Teahouse. By the time we got there the sun had almost set( around 7.30 PM). The tea house was set on the lakeside with a good view of the lake and boathouse. We hd a special Ming Deng pot of tea. Around 8.30 , we got up to leave for Sultans. The lady at the help desk helped us with the station details.
Sultan's : An unaccomplished food quest
We got down at the Ni Jia Qiao sttation and followed the map directions. We walked around for about half an hour before we decided to ask for help. Even though we had a team of around 6 strangers who didn't know each other, trying to help us out, unfortunately we didn't make it to the Sultan's.
The Bookworm
We made up for the disappointment of not making it to the Sultan's by eating at " The Bookworm", another Lonely planet recommendation in the neighbourhood. A bar cum restaurant with lots of foreigners and loads of books. It did complete justice to its name. Had a nice meal of pork and hummus and returned to our hostel.
Day 8
12/7/2015
Chengdu- Day 3
Leshan
We set out around 9, after breakfast to LEshan. The bus no.28 took us to Xinnanmen station. From there, we took tickets ( 46 CNY/head) to Xiaoba bus station. We got down at Xiaoba bus station and took the Bus 13( Ticket price : 2 CNY/head). The Bus 13 took us to the Buddha Scenic area. The route to the Buddha scenic area was rich with weird looking statues ( a mermaid on top of a crocodile ? hmm ). We reached the Grand Buddha in around 30 minutes. We were advised not to attempt to climb the Giant Buddha on weekends because of the traffic on the nicely laden stairs that take you till the top. From down below, we saw the almost standstill crowd and figured to go along with the advice and opted for the 30 minute round trip via a boat for 70 CNY. The Leshan dock was around 400 metres from the Giant Buddha entrance. The boat ride offered amazing views of the Grand Buddha. 71 m tall with ears(7m tall), shoulders( 28 m ) and each of his toes(8.5m). We couldnt possibly have appreciated the grandeur of the Giant Buddha statue better than we did during the boat trip. The boat takes you around the statue and gives you a full fledged view of the big carved structure. Another perk of the boat ride is that we could see the 2 guardian statues in the cliff side which is not visible from the land. The 1200 year old statue is carved into the cliff face overloooking the meeting point of Dadu river and Min river. The idea to build the Buddha statue was proposed by a Buddhist monk by the name of Haitong with hopes that Buddha would calm the swift rivers and protect the boatmen from the dangerous current. Even though, the construction was completed years after Haitong's death, the statue did provide the calming effect predicted by Haitong. Or was it just Mother Nature doing her job?The Giant Buddha is a spectacle not to be missed.
We took back the Bus 13 to Xiabo station and got a ticket back to Chengdu. Both of us had just started to doze off when we were startled out of our sleep with a Chinese version of the song " Woh Chali " playing in the bus. Except for the chorus of "Woh Chali", everything else was in Chinese. Trust music to always makes you feel at home, eh.
Day 9
Leshan
We set out around 9, after breakfast to LEshan. The bus no.28 took us to Xinnanmen station. From there, we took tickets ( 46 CNY/head) to Xiaoba bus station. We got down at Xiaoba bus station and took the Bus 13( Ticket price : 2 CNY/head). The Bus 13 took us to the Buddha Scenic area. The route to the Buddha scenic area was rich with weird looking statues ( a mermaid on top of a crocodile ? hmm ). We reached the Grand Buddha in around 30 minutes. We were advised not to attempt to climb the Giant Buddha on weekends because of the traffic on the nicely laden stairs that take you till the top. From down below, we saw the almost standstill crowd and figured to go along with the advice and opted for the 30 minute round trip via a boat for 70 CNY. The Leshan dock was around 400 metres from the Giant Buddha entrance. The boat ride offered amazing views of the Grand Buddha. 71 m tall with ears(7m tall), shoulders( 28 m ) and each of his toes(8.5m). We couldnt possibly have appreciated the grandeur of the Giant Buddha statue better than we did during the boat trip. The boat takes you around the statue and gives you a full fledged view of the big carved structure. Another perk of the boat ride is that we could see the 2 guardian statues in the cliff side which is not visible from the land. The 1200 year old statue is carved into the cliff face overloooking the meeting point of Dadu river and Min river. The idea to build the Buddha statue was proposed by a Buddhist monk by the name of Haitong with hopes that Buddha would calm the swift rivers and protect the boatmen from the dangerous current. Even though, the construction was completed years after Haitong's death, the statue did provide the calming effect predicted by Haitong. Or was it just Mother Nature doing her job?The Giant Buddha is a spectacle not to be missed.
 |
| One of the guardians that cannot be seen from land |
 |
| The Giant Buddha of Leshan |
We took back the Bus 13 to Xiabo station and got a ticket back to Chengdu. Both of us had just started to doze off when we were startled out of our sleep with a Chinese version of the song " Woh Chali " playing in the bus. Except for the chorus of "Woh Chali", everything else was in Chinese. Trust music to always makes you feel at home, eh.
Day 9
13/7/2015
Chengdu-Chongqing train ride
By this time, we had figured out the bus fare system. Most routes within the system will cost you only 2 CNY. So you just drop 2 CNY in the little box infront of the bus near the driver and you are good to go.
At around 8.30 AM we took the bus to Chengdu North Train station. Our train to Chongqing was on time( 10.30 AM). The train ride was breath-takingly scenic. I've fallen in love with the train jouneys through the mountain valleys. We reached Chongqing at around 12.30 ( 2 hour ride ).
