January 11: guo lai, guo lai!

This morning we got a bit of a late start and left the hostel around 10:30. We had to take two different busses to the Panda Base. The first bus was simple... Catch the 49 on the main road to the very last stop. Getting the second bus was an unnecessary pain. The guy at our hostel told us to take the 198 to the Panda Base. Seemed simple enough. Nope. We walked around this bus terminal for a good 10 minutes looking for the 198. When we finally found it,

It wasn't running! Finally I asked a bus driver what bus to take to the Panda Base and he said 87. 10 minutes later we were on this little bus headed to see the pandas!

This was a strange trip for me because sophomore year I went to china for interim and we went to Chengdu to this same panda base. The difference... There were no pandas when I went the first time. This time there were a ton of pandas!

Pandas live a great life. They eat bamboo, they play, they eat and best of all... They look so much cuter if they are fat and chubby! In my next life I want to be a panda.

At our first "panda stop" we witnessed the feeding of treats. This guy came over with a big bamboo stick and bowl of who knows what and started yelling "guo lai guo lai!!" Over and over again. Guo lai means come. Or get your asses up so you can eat more. These pandas that were sleeping, I am not kidding you, jumped up and "ran" over. They would push each other over too. It was hilarious.

After exploring the panda place, which was remarkable, by the way, we tried to flag down a bus to take us back to the one bus terminal so we could then get a bus back into the city so we could go to Wenshu temple. Sounds simple right? Nope. We tried to flag down a bus that passed us (which is totally normal to do in china) but instead of stopping she pointed ahead. We were in the middle of construction so we figured there was a bus stop just up the road. So we started walking. And we walked and walked and walked. We walked through construction and on the road with trucks flying passed us. I was sure we were going to die. Finally civilization was in sight. I was almost at a sprint walk. And just like that... We hit a road and we were on a bus.

Despite the scariness of trucks flying past me, the walk almost made the trip. I can't really describe it but walking through the construction of a developing country was pretty remarkable. I liked it.

Eventually we made our way to the Wenshu Buddhist Temple. I didn't realize until we got there that I went to the same temple sophomore year too. The difference this time... I actually learned about the temple. In not saying I didn't care sophomore year but as the years have passed and I've learned more about china, it's culture and religion I found the temple so much more interesting this time around.

After the temple we went to Tianfu our plan was to go see Mao's statue. So we had our map out trying to figure out which bus to take to get there. The nicest Chinese university student came up to us and asked if we needed help. She ended up walking us all the way to the metro and told us that was the best way. Her English was great.

Mao's statue was... A statue of Mao. Nothing more. The area around it was very nice.

Next and last stop: Sichuan hot pot. Again, I pulled out the map to figure out how we should get back to the area around our hostel. A group of westerners came up to us and asked if we needed help. We both laughed and said no this time. I liked that though.... Westerners looking out for westerners in a big city in China.

I lucked out at hot pot. We were able to do half unbelievably spicy and half not spicy. Thank The Lord because the spicy was SPICY. Ordering was of course a huge process. They kept saying one thing to me in Chinese, which meant, "too much food, no return". We didn't really get it because at the hot pot place we go to in Ma'anshan what we had ordered would have been perfect. But then the first dish came out... It was double the size. So we ended up changing our order.

The meal was probably one of the funnier meals I have ever had in China, thus far.

After dinner we went back to the hostel and I went straight to sleep. Our bus for Jiuzhaigou was leaving at 8am tomorrow.... Or was it? Being that I planned the whole trip, right as I was falling asleep I started to panic that the bus was leaving earlier. And was the bus really leaving for the bus station next to our hostel? Did I book the right hostel for Jiuzhaigou? If you know my mom... I obviously take after her in this sense.

So of course I got out of bed and checked the China Travel Bible (book) and it said the bus left at 9. So we didn't have to wake up at 6 after all, what a relief! Still... I set my alarm for 6 and went to sleep.