31.03: Fire alert at Chengdu airport

China is on another planet. Honestly! I already realised that at the conveyor belt for luggage retrieval at the airport. Conveyor belt? Yes!  I am used that people wait a meter from the belt, quietly step forward to pick their suitcase, walk to their cart, load and leave. Okay, I agree this is the sophisticated case, and yes, I have had people park carts AT the belt (and if you are one of them, please could you try to stop it, there is simply not enough space for carts).

Chengdu however took it to another dimension. I barely heard the alarm indicating the belt initiation because peril broke loose (in Dutch: de pleuris uitbrak). People started shouting, bulldozing carts to the belt, leaning forward on/over the belt and pushing an occasional person out of the way. For a moment I thought I had missed a fire alert announcement and reasoned that people were frantically trying to rescue their valuables. But people relaxed once reunited with their belongings so that did not add up. I was astonished. What an interesting start of this China Adventure.

1.04: Six for one… when oh when will I know know better

I woke up early due to arrival of my new dorm mate, Henry. This amicable British rock climber/traveler and PhD student-to-be suggested to bike around Chengdu together. Nice idea so off we went, Henry with helmet and I without, because Dutchies just don’t do helmets, sorry. I must have had a bad influence on Henry because he ended without too.

Biking in Chengdu was modestly dangerous because cyclists need to use the major roads in absence of designated cycle lanes. We had tons of fun despite the traffic risks. Witnessing a mass tea ceremony was definitely one of the highlights.

The stakes went up when we entered the National museum. We got a little bored because most signs were in Chinese so we invented our own interactivity: bets. For example, we disagreed on the location of Chengdu on a map on display so we needed to figure out who was wrong and that person had to buy a round of beer. Map reading skills…. Yes, I should have know better, I lost! (Note to Claire, since you asked me to refrain from stigmatising language I want to add to the above comment that map reading is a personal improvement area of an otherwise reasonably intelligent human being, and as such is hence fully unrelated to gender).

We biked to Chengdu’s top nightspot, which was beautifully located at the riverside. New challenge: no one spoke english and the menu was in Chinese only and very confusing because 1 beer costed roughly the same as 6 beers. So what do Penny-Pinched Dutchies & Budget Brits do? Ofcourse… they order [rounds of] 6 (and apologies for the blackmarking of the Dutch and Brits). That wasn’t the most sensible decision ofcourse because the next early morning I had panda petting scheduled  and trust me, I got punished badly for this mistake.

PS. If you visit Chengdu then pls try their hot pot. We dared to eat many uncommon items such as heart and some animal’s skin.

2.4: Cutest cuddly creatures

I now understand why WWF chose a panda as logo. Forget it penguins (of the movie ‘Madagascar’); cute and cuddly is reserved for these teddy bears with their big bellies.

One instinctively wants to run up to them and hug them. Part of the fun is that you actually can because they are not aggressive. I went early in the morning to see them at their most active and I can tell you these creatures are LAZY in caps. No complaining from my end though, my body system was nowhere ‘near the green’ yet, so thanks to their immobility I managed to take a few reasonable shots despite the shakes.

When the furry fellas made preparatives to nap, I went back to the hostel and had a nap too. At night, some locals invited us to a local gig. Chinese techno/house plus live jamming on Chinese instruments. Impressive!

3-6.04: The LOOOVE boat soon will be making another run….

The next morning I had to take a tough decision. I wanted to finish in Beijing and could travel eastwards via the Yiuzhaigou National Park with possibly the best ever horse riding hack or go via the (South) Center and sail the Yangze river’s Three Gorges -printed on China’s 10 Yuan bank note- and see Xian’s terra-cotta army.

I decided for the Middle because the East was simply to far out and I read some negative reviews on the hack on the internet. So I traveled to Chongquin on a high-speed bullet train and boarded a ‘world-standard’ cruise ship that night that would take me to Yichang in 4 days. Our Chinese Isaac was a little less fun then the series’ since ours spoke little English. This seemed the standard on the vessel; only 3 crew members spoke English and a travel group of 5 Brits and Aussies, who basically adopted me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It was unexpected good fun on the cruise liner. I rested quite a lot. Isn’t it funny that if one is somewhat confinement it is much more easy to kick back. I also wrote some blogs, edited pictures and had a great time listening to 80s-90s music with Vince, my new friend from the UK/Aussie group.

And then there were ofcourse the gorgeous gorges; the biggest one, the Qutang Gorge (on the 10 Yuan note) was incredible, however, I liked the Lesser Three Gorges best. On tiny tourist boats, we were taken into  a whole new world, brilliant.

Another highlight of the trip was not the word’s largest dam (the Three Gorges Dam), no. Much more damn memorable was witnessing a full cruise ship perform the Chicken Dance (in Dutch: vogeltjesdans). Hilarious! Never expected that this song was still accepted, LOL!