Montag, 27. Mai 2013
Chengdu
highpeak, 05:31h
Again a early wake up and taking a taxi to the so called JiuzhaiHuanglong airport, about 40 minutes driving from Songpan and to my surprise driving up into the mountains, as this aiport lies on 3500 m! Weather was cloudy and misty, close to snow and as a frequent passenger of China Eastern Airlines I expected to hear my most loved announcement on Chinese airports: "We are sorry to announce, that flight xxx is delayed due do late arrival of the aircraft..."
I was right, no airplane there, but finally the delay was just about 40 minutes (I guess Deutsche Bahn counts this as still in time...).
A very short flight to Chengdu, where we arrived around 10 am at 28 degrees, what a temperature shock.
A quick drive into the hotel (yes, this time a real hotel, not a hostel or a B&B without breakfast), took a marvelous hot shower and went off to the panda breeding base near Chengdu.
There we saw the downside of the warm weather: Too hot for the giant pandas, none of them outside, all staying inside the air cooled houses and cages.
Only some of the red pandas were crawling around on the trees, but also them quite lazy.
After the base we decided to enjoy the pool in the hotel, before we went out with my old friend Huang for an original Sichuan hot pot dinner, my god was this spicy, after about one hour eating I couldnt feel my lips anymore. But very tasty and with a lot of beer we cooled it down as much as possible.
Afterwards went for singing in a nearby KTV place, again a lot of beer and when we thought its time to call it a day to return to the hotel, Huang had a better idea: Time for street food barbeque (you can find many of them in Chengdu and they stay open till late, or better said early).
Finally around 3 am we made it to our nice hotel and enjoyed a clean and comfy bed.
I was right, no airplane there, but finally the delay was just about 40 minutes (I guess Deutsche Bahn counts this as still in time...).
A very short flight to Chengdu, where we arrived around 10 am at 28 degrees, what a temperature shock.
A quick drive into the hotel (yes, this time a real hotel, not a hostel or a B&B without breakfast), took a marvelous hot shower and went off to the panda breeding base near Chengdu.
There we saw the downside of the warm weather: Too hot for the giant pandas, none of them outside, all staying inside the air cooled houses and cages.
Only some of the red pandas were crawling around on the trees, but also them quite lazy.
After the base we decided to enjoy the pool in the hotel, before we went out with my old friend Huang for an original Sichuan hot pot dinner, my god was this spicy, after about one hour eating I couldnt feel my lips anymore. But very tasty and with a lot of beer we cooled it down as much as possible.
Afterwards went for singing in a nearby KTV place, again a lot of beer and when we thought its time to call it a day to return to the hotel, Huang had a better idea: Time for street food barbeque (you can find many of them in Chengdu and they stay open till late, or better said early).
Finally around 3 am we made it to our nice hotel and enjoyed a clean and comfy bed.
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