The Cure for Those Guyuan Blues - Leaving!

Greetings from Chengdu! So far it has been a really great city - just getting a good "vibe" from this place! We left Guyuan Sunday morning on an all day train ride to Chengdu! The Guyuan train station was probably the least crowded train station I have ever been to! Including Matt and myself, there were only 20 people at the station.

Anyhow, the trip was long, but not too bad. We had some really annoying cabin mates. Cell phones are the creation of the devil. Honestly, every time we tried to get a little shut-eye some one would A) Make a call B) Answer a call and talk really really loud C) Tinker with the cell phone and not turn off the beep beep beepiness or D) use the cell phone as a flashlight. So, at 2 AM the Chinese were screaming into phones, screaming at each other and sitting on our beds and/or on us - I was on the top tier of our bunks (three up) so, it was quite an intentional doing to climb the ladder and sit on my feet, but they managed to get it done.

We arrived at the Chengdu station earlier than expected (4:30 AM) and decided that we should try to get our tickets for Kunming as we would be traveling during the Spring Festival rush (Chinese New Year). We found that there was a special ticket window for Foreigners and Chinese dignitaries, but eventually pieced together that the window would not open for a couple of hours (the guards at the train station were at least very helpful and friendly, especially at 4:30 in the morning). So, we decided to head to Sam's Guesthouse to see if we could get a room.

Eventually, we made it there - and were ripped off by our taxi driver - extra fast meter. We knocked on the door for the Guesthouse, and there was no answer. So, we decided to wait for a little while. After about an hour a bleary-eyed man came staggering out, rubbing his eyes and arranged our room for us. We were really pleasantly surprised when we got to our room - the bathroom had a pedestal toilet, there was a nice shower, living room and separate bedroom with a heater. Probably the best room that I have ever gotten for about $12.50 USD a night.

Anyhow, we decided to take a nap as our Chinese bunk mates made sure that we were not able to get any sleep. A little later we went to Sam's travel service to see if they could help us arrange train tickets (rather than deal with the hassle at the train station). In a pinch they found out what was available and when, they also checked on flight for us. For just a little more, they found out that we could fly to Kunming and the flight would take just over an hour - SOLD! Hmmm...let's see...about a day on a train or just over an hour for not too much more $$$. WWJD? I'd say he would fly, baby, fly! So, after the transportation was done we discussed with them the real important stuff. Getting out to see the pandas! We arranged a tour to go out and see one of the panda research centers in Sichuan. I will write about the pandas in a separate post later.

The city is really cool! We walked around the city a little bit - tried to go to the Provincial Museum, but, sadly, it is now a parking lot. We also went to one of the pet market areas. It was a little sad, but a couple of places had chinchillas, which made me miss the girls. Anyhow, I was talking to one of the little chins and it responded to me and came up to the side of the cage and poked its little nose at me. A Chinese man saw this and pushed me out of the way and started to whistle at it loudly, poke at it and bang on the cage. Freaked the poor thing out! Animals in China are not always treated very kindly.

We also went to the Wuhou Temple - it was interesting, but the Chinese do have a certain passion for large, painted, plaster statues. According to Matt and the Lonely Planet travel bible, this temple was originally for the Minister of War, Zhuge Liang. But even though the temple is for the minister, the main attraction would be the shrine and tomb of Liu Bei, who was the emperor of the Shu Kingdom and was known for his generous heart. There was a pretty garden area that would have been really pretty to see in the summer, but in the winter it was not too inspiring. I don't know a lot about the Three Kingdoms story, but Matt was really excited to be there. Oh, also, my (at times) juvenile sense of humor was peaked with a sign pointing me in the direction of the "Tingli Pavilion".

The next day we went out to see the University Museum. We thought that we would be able to find it rather easily, but for some reason, we just couldn't do it. We asked and were pointed in the right direction many times, but, dammit, we just couldn't find it. So, about to give up, we decided to walk around one of the sides of the building where the museum was supposed to be and where we had been standing in front of for about 20 minutes, and, dammit, it was right there.

The museum was really interesting and well done - they obviously had some money to spend. It was pretty empty there, one other couple (both whiteys) was there, so the guards were following them around. We realized that we weren't being followed because they probably thought that I was Chinese. The most entertaining thing though was when we exited a gallery one of the guards was tap dancing in the hallway - really going all out with the tapping and arm flailing. He didn't realize that we were watching him. His fellow guard was laughing and started to laugh a little harder when he realized that we were amused with the show. With a quick nod of the head, the dancing guard was quickly made aware that we were watching and immediately stopped and turned around and gave quite and embarrassed smile. Shortly after that we left the museum, but as we were walking down the stairs, we distinctly heard a tap-tap-tapping sound coming from where we just were with the guards.

After, we checked out the Wenshu Temple - a monastery that dates back to the Tang. What was interesting about this temple was that it still houses a population of monks and nuns. On the temple grounds, there was also a large teahouse - one of Chengdu's biggest. Now, what I pictured a teahouse to be, especially when located on the grounds of a Buddhist monastery, was quite different than what we experienced. Apparently it is quite the place to be for entertainment, gossip and the sort for people a couple of generations older than me. It was quite boisterous with excited stories and jokes, not exactly a serene time to sip tea and reflect or read a book.

On Thursday we went out to Leshan (just south of Chengdu) to see the largest Buddha in the world. So, we went there and, well, it was big. We got just what we expected and were looking for, a gi-normous Buddha. In our short time there, we did manage to get taken for a ride by a rickshaw driver - meaning that we rode in his rickshaw and he ripped us off. He charged us 50 kuai for a ride from the wharf to the base of the Buddha park. We thought that he was going to bike us around the park area - it would have been a fair deal then.

One of the best things about Chengdu was the food - both Chinese and Western. Admittedly, I did not fully partake in a lot of the spicy Sichuan cuisine, aside from some spicy sweet potato noodles and tofu, but I did get to delight in baked macaroni and cheese, potato chowder, four cheese gnocchi, chimichangas, queso and chips, fried ice cream and Dr. Pepper! We also found a place near the guesthouse that served up a nice steamer basket of the kind of dumplings that we were so fond of in Nanjing, but can't get in Guyuan. So, if you are even stuck in Chengdu and get a bit of a western itch, I strongly recommend visiting Grandma's Kitchen and Peter's Southwestern Grill on Kehua Lu - both provided us with a very delightful dining experience and western toilets. Of course if many of you are in China, you would not be looking for all things western, right?

Unfortunately, I got a cold while we were there. It was in my chest, so I was worried about it as my breathing was getting labored. Matt and I went to the doctor (at the international hospital - wanted someone who could speak English) and she wanted to admit me in the hospital for 5 days for IV medicine and injections. Bleck! I told her that I could not be here for that long because I had to go to Kunming. She off-handedly told me that I would have to discuss that with the doctor in the hospital (I guess she was only for out-patient consultation or something). I had told her that I had something similar in the US and they were able to treat me as an out-patient with a nebulizer treatment, prednisone shot and a Z- pack of antibiotics. She didn't seemed to impressed with my self-diagnosis and treatment plan. I went back out and talked with the admitting nurse. Then, I found out the cost for treatment - at least 3,000 RMB, yea, right! So, we spoke to the nurse, told her that I did not want to stay at the hospital. Eventually, I went back to the doctor, and things quickly devolved from there. To sum up - I was frustrated and mad, she got defensive, I told her that there was no way that I was going to get injections in China, she angrily jotted down a note that I was refusing medical treatment, I angrily signed it. I wound up with a steroid inhaler, expectorant, antibiotics, bronchial dilator and anti-allergy pills. That cost about 200 RMB. Quite a savings, but cost quite a bit patience and expended a lot of energy.

So, the rest of my time in Chengdu was spent in my room at Sam's Guesthouse watching CCTV 9 - the English station (which, the programming, I must add, is not meant to be watched for 12 hours straight). Matt was able to go to a cooking class, see the big statue of Mao and look around one of the nearby parks. Anyhow the big news while we were there were the first direct across the channel flights from Taiwan to the mainland - errr "motherland" as it was referred to. They had live coverage of the planes taking off and landing and had hourly updates about the plane's flight progress. Lots of interviews of passengers saying how nice and convenient it was to be able to fly direct without stopping over in Hong Kong. Eva Airlines even "Hello Kittied" a special plane for the special flights. What a snooze! After awhile the slant seemed to be more of a political perspective about Taiwan and China and how much more convenient it would be for all of these people and businesses if Taiwan would come back to the motherland.

Anyhow, Chengdu is definitely one of my favorite cities here so far, the pandas were definitely worth the trip for me! Oh, also, Matt had a "small world moment" we ran into a girl from Alaska who was visiting some friends in China. We got to talking and found out that her mother's family all were from Mt. Carroll, IL (small midwestern town)! Chicago and burbs would be one thing, but Mt. Carroll, what are the odds of that? By flying to Kunming, we got to shave a day off of our "time on train" column on our IT. I was unable to access my blog while travelling - the site was blocked, so all of my tenses and what not will be all screwed up as I add to things that I wrote while on the trip. I will be posting quite a bit over the next few days, so, check back!