Yes.. missed a day, the 17th was a day in transit, remarkable only for the fact that we opted out of a 22-hr train ride, in favour of an 8-hr bus ride and a one-hour flight. Of course, as a lovely reminder of our 'real lives' the flight was delayed for almost 3 hours. Also of note is the fun that is involved in getting on planes here. Apparently, they are still strangers to the 'zone system' and boarding the plane involves a mad dash and scramble at the door to squeeze your way in! That's public transportation in China!!
Finally we arrived in Chengdu - the capital of Sichuan. We were very lucky to get a room... in the pouring rain at about 1AM, as all rooms in any semi-desireable place in town were full. In fact we would have been completely out of luck if it weren't for a rather portly french couple ahead of us that decided to decline the one room left, intended for one person. Fortunately, we have shed a few pounds along the way and were able to squeeze into the rather narrow single bed! Lucky us!!
Since Hong Kong, seems like ages ago, Chengdu is the biggest city we've been in. At 11M people its no small town. It was also the first time we were able to experience the pleasure of what we have come to call the 'White Sky' of China. At first we thought it was just cloudy... but no, its pollution. Its very eerie.. just out of a sci-fi flick. There is no sun, no clouds... not even a patch of blue, just a think white blanket of haze. Even wierder s that they seem to favor white tile as the exterior of the buildings, so they just dissappear into the haze.
While in search of a famous Daoist temple we came across a very funny park (which the temple was housed inside). They had all sorts of low-budget carnival games, so we treated ourselves to some whack-a-mole (I won), and some water ballon target shooting (Tawfik won) as well as a new treat - green pea (yes pea, not tea) ice cream bars.... actually, they were really tasty.
The other highlight of Chengdu was without a doubt the food. Sichuan lived up to its promise. Less oily / greasy, and SPICY!!! Yum!! We had a dinner where we were able to sample about 13 dishes plus 8 deserts (all for the steep price of $7 per person). This was one of the first meals where the meat did not involve picking your way through a maze of bones. (As an aside... the great mystery of China is where does all the chicken meat go??? Any time we have chicken or duck it's all bones with no meat... If anyone knows - please tell us!!). We tried several different noodle dishes, meat dishes and some interesting veggies.... The sweets were all gelatinous, gooey treats... not bad, but our real dessert was way better. Chengdu is home to an actual Haagen Daaz reastaurant where an absolutely to-die-for ice cream concoction goes for more than our dinner... but oh so worth it. We are anxiously awaiting the next Haagen daaz restaurant location in Shanghai!
