Recap: HKG, Shenzhen, Chengdu

Left Taipei on the 14th. It was actually pretty sad... the night before, Lim and his roommates pulled a prank on me (the story: the waitress at the place we ate at the day before thought we were flirting with her and had gone crazy and wanted to kill us, so in the morning we would have to go to the police to file a police report and I'd have to delay my flight)... which was followed by a surprise birthday cake. Seriously, those guys were too nice to me. I miss them already!

Got into Hong Kong where I found out shortly that Celina had given me the wrong number (haha), but thank goodness for facebook (sick), because I saw the new message she sent with her new number. Spent a few hours wandering around a small small area of Hong Kong. Our time included walking past the slew of nannies sitting on cardboard boxes on their day off, her slipping on some water in the mall (bahahah), and each of us getting some cheap and ridiculous-looking sunglasses (which I am wearing on my head right now). After a day of running around, she gave me some directions on how to get into Shenzhen. Bye Celi!

How is this for a welcoming party into China? Getting scammed by the cab driver! He tried to charge me 280 RMB to drive me to Rene's place, which I managed to bargain down to 150 RMB which was still a major ripoff. I tried to tell him to turn on the meter but he pretty much ignored me. China and I totally got off the wrong foot.

Flew into Chengdu the next day and my impression hadn't improved very much at all. Coming in, it was a very dreary city full of grey everywhere. I don't know if I was just tired from the nights of sleeplessness but it just looked massive, dull and busy yet uneventful. Fortunately Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel was a completely different atmosphere. Full of green everywhere, you could relax by the pond, at the bar, in the restaurant, upstairs, on the terrace. I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. Kept it low key that night because by the time I sorted out my train and plane tickets, pretty much everywhere was closed... that's ok though because I pretty much only came for one thing: the pandas.

The next morning we went to the Chengdu Panda Breeding Base (?) to check out the pandas. I was worried because this could be the biggest hit-or-miss thing on the trip, especially since Chengdu was so out of the way. The weather was actually PERFECT for panda-viewing - cool, misty and overcast. As a result, the pandas were able to stay outside the entire time we were there. I took about 200 photos that day (no joke) because you can't get enough pandas. My previous exposures to them were crowded zoos where two or three of them were the main attractions and it was impossible to get a good look at them. This time, the entire base was devoted to them, and although there were crowds, they would come and go and it would be easy to get awesome looks and photos of them as they played (mainly the babies), ate and lied down in laziness.

I HAD to get time with one of them. I knew coming in you could spend time with a baby, which costs an arm and a leg, or an adult. I eventually bit the bullet and went all out - got about 2 minutes of panda cub time. Amazing! That little bundle of joy felt as fluffy as it looked as I cradled it in my arms and on my lap. The staff there did a great job with my camera and got a few dozen photos in that short time. It was expensive, but to me at least, it was definitely worth it. The photo-ops with the adult looked just plain awful in comparison. You had to stand behind it and all you could do was pat it on the head. Anyways, I was pretty much on cloud-nine the rest of the day. Mission accomplished (and with flying colours too)!

I'll finish the recap later (including train ride to Xi'an, etc) because this is already way way way too long!