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A few days into our Chengdu stay, Az and I went to meet chinese at the hemp house reggae bar (pretty much our local now!) for a few beers and a catch up, its only 10 minutes and 12kwai (£1.20) in a taxi away. After a couple of drinks and the usual arabic banter she asked if we were hungry, we had eacten just before coming out so said no and returned the question; 'no, not really. so lets go get some BBQ food...' haah in true chinese style! For some reason they eat, non stop, not big meals and crap junk food but small snacky stuff and socialise around it, casual drinking in bars doesnt really seem to be in their culture (in my experience) so they do it over food.....27 times a day! On the side of just about every road in every city in china is these little BBQ 'restaurants' they have loads of fresh meat and sea food laid out and menus (if your lucky) full of different veg, noodles and accompaniments so you just order a load of dishes to share and everything, even the pak choi and salad leaves go on the barby!
Again, the menu was completely in chinese so we got her to order for us all, Az isnt the biggest fan of fish and sea food so obviously, she ordered a big plate of cockles, whole sish on skewers and a watermelon and rice dish i proceeded to tell him was fish eggs as he was eating it haha Az doesnt mind trying anything so she knew ordering allthis stuff wasnt actually an issue and just banter and of course the food was amazing and even Az enjoyed everything! we sat, drank, and chatted for hours, all the while chinese would shout at waitresses (shao mae!) to keep bringing us different dishes fresh from the BBQ, it started pretty tame with some lotus flower root, tofu, really good chicken, pork and veg and got more 'adventurous' as the drinks flowed. Before long me and Az were chewing on the toes of chicken feet and eating pig brain with our chop sticks haha (and still, theres absolutely nothing we tried that id have to think twice about eating again)
Mid week we had to move rooms, then move hostels completely as ours was booked up, we ended up at the 'Mix hostel' nearby, i much prefer this hostel, its smaller, cosy, got good staff, cheap room,s a good location and everything you need for a long or short stay. If your going to Chengdu, id highly recommend this place and for 35kwai a night you cant complain!
The following day we got the underground to the 'electronic plaza', 2 buildings, each 7 storeys high selling purely electronic items like lap tops, cameras, computers and sound systems. I was feeling pretty rough though and the cold was in full effect, i just could have done with my own bed in my won room, not a bed with a 2" matress in a room with people i dont know! lol we got an invite to meet chinese, her cousin and her fella for dinner later that evening that we gladly accepted. We met them at a lovely local restaurant and were treated to dinner, feeling like a local, socialising with chinese people, eating their traditional food and even speaking a bit of chinese. As always, the food was incredible and just kept coming! The cousins boyfriend who we had met 2 hours before, could barely speak english and who we will probably never see again insisted on paying and welcomed us to china - chinese hospitality at its best! - I know now that the next time a foreigner asks me for help or directions in london or just wants to chat and say hello, i will MAKE time for them and i urge you all to do the same, you never know when the favour will be returned or when you'll be at the other end of the stick needing help. I can honestly say that its the people you meet and experiences you have with them that really make what im doing special.
After dinner me Az, Smera and Chinese headed down the road to 'Lan Kwai Fong' where there was a big halloween party going on. Now i didnt really expect any celebrations for halloween in china but i tell you what, the chinese know how to do it properly! It was in a smart part of the city and between two roads alongside a river, lined with bars clubs and food stalls (of course!) not dissimilar to leicester square or some lively roas in Chelsea. The roads were closed, walls, floors, ceilings and even the sky were decorated from top to bottom with the most elaborate halloween decorations i have ever seen, a big music stage was set up in the centre and beer and alcohol tents surrounded it. Sometime being a westerner has its benefits, we got a load of free shots from a bacardi stand and went on a mini pub crawl through the bars and clubs that all had live singers or dance acts performing and were crammed full of pissed up chinese people in fancy dres. The clubs were as bizarre as usual, theres no dancefloors and instead they all sit or stand around tables chatting and laughing, sinking bottles of expensive whisky. In the odd bar or club theres theres a small podium bit that people ocassionally dance on and after a few 'wrong island ice teas' we were all up there throwing ridiculous shapes and being wathed by absolutely every face in the club! bloody foreigners!haha This was closely followed by a succession of *gumbets, more clubs and more bad dance moves.
* In china you 'gumbet' quite reguarly, it basically means you have to down your whole drink, as quickly as possible. Its normally done between chinese men and is a sign of respect, basically like saying 'i like you, you are my friend, lets drink to it' Though not finishing your drink or accepting the challenge is like backing down and saying that they are the better man, or i dont like you, we're not on the same level, i dont want to drink with you. So obviously this never happens, and meant me seeing away numerous glasses of posh whisky with random smiling chinese men, fllowed by shaking their hands, smiling back, sharing a laugh then me, sitting back waiting for the next......GUMBET! bottoms up! we walked past a BBQ place on the way home and since we were with chinese, couldnt just walk past and stopped for more food, this time squid chicken and pork off the barby with noodles that were pretty much like an english version of 'chow mein'! amazing, and so much better than a kabab for the walk home! haha We've spent a long time in cities since arriving in china so at the weekend chinese decided to take us into rural chengdu, just outside the city and away from the constant horns and people (ish!) to what was basically a flower factory! Fields upon fields of flowers growing, amongst farmers little ranshackle houses, tea houses and lakes full of lotus flowers, grown for their stems used in cooking. We walked for an hour or so out of where the main bulk of people were, buying their flowers and teas, and into the hills to a really nice little tea house that had verandas and balcony like decked areas built into the hill side for people to sit drink and eat in privacy . Considering how far away from the built up areas we were there was still 15-20 people there, chatting away drinking tea and playing cards. We sat amongst the plants and flowers in a little courtyard bit and had some amazing sichuan food (bloody spicy!) and some even better tea made from chrysanthemum flowers, played our shuttlecock game and just generally had a laugh, out in the sticks! We got a local bus to this place and to put the size of Chengdu into perspective, we drove for an hour and 20 minuts one day and never left what still seemed to be the city centre! Bus back, beers at the hostel and then onto the reggae bar to see a live band which was pretty good and actually had chinese AND american band members and singers randomly! We hit the halloween party in lan qwai fong again a bit later but had a slightly tamer night as the drink prices were killing us!
Chinese ended up staying at the hostel that night as we had another drink at the hostel and she lives a little way away, we woke up with hangovers and a drunkenly planned to-do list for the day - buy a yoyo (we had een inspired by a 16 year old chinese lad in a hostel a few nights before and his literally unbelivable skills), buy a fishing rod and most importantly...get food! haha We headed out to a different part of the city to meet 2 of chinese' friends for a hot pot. This one was different though, it was a lamb hot pot so just had one big pot in the middle and the only meat going in was lovely big bits of proper lamb meat which was music to my ears as id spent the last few weeks chewing around bone and gristle to get to any meat at all in most other dishes! We did it properly and sat chatting for a couple of hours over the different veg and meat bubbling away in the hot pot with chinese and her 2 friends who could barely speak english, in a ranshackled restaurant, down a side street with whole skinned goats hanging by their feet outside. Needless to say, especially coming from me, it was sooo good.
We found fishing rods in the end, set up for us by an old guy who had been in the military, the police force and now sells fishing rods out of a tine backstreet shop and couldnt be happier. Found yoyo's too, im still perfecting it but the tricks came flooding back almost instantly! haha The next morning we got up early to put our rods to the test, theres a river opposite where we're staying so Az and I pottered over about 7 in the morning (it was nice to se the city early in the morning anyway) and threw in our hooks. As usual, before long we had a crowd forming and one guy in particular came down and sat with us to watch. He spoke VERY limited english but was keen to try and use it, turns out he's chinese police and gleefully produced his shiny badge. After a few minutes he was passing his mobile phone to me, signing that he wanted me to speak to whoever was on the other end, it was his niece who could speak pretty good english and i think her uncle just wanted her to practice, we spoke awkwardly for a bit until she said ' my uncle says that your fishing in the wrong place, there are no fish there. Get in his car and he will drive you to a werry good place..' So cautiously, we got in this chinese policemans car and wer driven to what was actauul a much better part of the rivre to fish on! Thats the thing about chinese people, the majority are really good, genuine people that are always keen to help. After some more broken conversation and him introducing us to the local old boys fishing beside us he called his niece again who told me that her uncle had told her to tell me that if we ever needed anything; help, direction, showing around the city or picking up, to calll him, and gave me his and hers mobile numbers. Then that was it, his good deed done for the day and off to work he went....
We got food in a little shack of a local restaurant after fishing and were pretty chuffed with ourselves considering we managed to order food, eat and pay without speaking or writing a single english word, just chinese all the way :) (chinalization haha)
Im going in search of a new camera in the electronic plaza tomorrow and taking chinese out for a farewell thnank you meal, hopefully it wont be the last time i see her, it just wont be anytime soon! Then a 3 hour bullet train to Chongqing ready for the Yangtze river tour on wednesday. Chengdu has been a great city to visit and i've got to know it pretty well after 9 days, its just a lovely, clean, modern, lively city. It gave us a good few mad nights out, good memories and new friends so i cant complain. Its not the cheapest place to go but if you look hard enough (and we did) you can even find some dodgy backstreet restaurant and local food places which arealways the cheapest and best. We even managed to track down a muslim chinese retaurant as i was having withdrawal symptoms from the amazing hand made noodles they specialize in. Its got a good, cheap, easy to use underground, loads to see and do, brilliant night life, the amazing panda sanctuary and of course the unforgettable hot-pots (that im still suffering for! haha)
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