wed: in chengdu at 6am. saw a westerner and asked if he wanted to share a taxi into town. got to hostel and booked a tour to the panda breeding centre. it left at 7:30 so just had enough time for breakfast. breakfast is like at most hostels, nice, but pricey and small portions. panda place was pretty cool. must have seen like 11 red pandas and 16 giant pandas incl three yearlings. we got there about 8:15 around feeding time so all the pandas were out munching away. only one was sleeping. got some amazing pictures as there were all really close. followed the tour guide around to the best places and then had an hour to ourselves. had about 2 1/2 hrs there in total. couldnt find the area where they let you sit / hold the pandas. got back to hostel, didnt know what else to do so headed for the new 'old' streets and the peoples park which was heaving with people and little homemade shows, singing and games. then headed for the mao square. had a curry which wasnt nice and spicy. in evening went for beef and rice, but again had this not very nice curry thing. then wen to see a sichuan opera which had figure puppets, hand puppets, singing, 'guitar', mask changes, fire breathing. was pretty cool. in night met two dorm mates -canadian and american. chatted with them, played pool with canadian. went to bed at 1.
thurs: got some beers for the train and these pot noodle things. caught taxi to train station 14y. got a 21hr journey ahead of me on a damn middle bunk.