Day 35 Thursday 29th September 2011 Urumqi to Chengdu

Up early to catch the China Southern Airlines flight to Chengdu. Hotel bus took us to the airport which was a short distance away. Frustrating process with getting through security (baggage screened twice, shoes off, body search including soles of feet & a wand over all bags as well as the x-ray).

Huge queues everywhere probably due to the forthcoming holiday.

This flight was 3 hours & took us over some magnificent snow covered mountains (even better than yesterday!). I’m not sure whether the photos I took will do justice to what we actually saw.

Snow covered mountains on route to Chengdu

Arrived Chengdu on time & as in Urumqi had to wait ages for the luggage to come through. Checked messages (poor reception on phone & in internet café) to see whether Tibet permit had come through. Nothing!

I checked at Sichuan Airlines whether they had received the Tibet permit but they hadn’t and we wouldn’t be able to board the flight without it. They said we could change the flight but the next available one would be Sunday.

Next we were approached by a woman who said her sister ran an hotel close to the airport. We decided to go with her & were taken to an interesting part of town (absolutely no English) and the room was good enough complete with squat toilet.

Only drawback was room was on 6^th floor with no lift. Will certainly be fit after this.

We had only reached the room when there was a huge noise outside & band came marching down the street carrying a red banner. No idea what this was about but it seems we are in a colourful part of town.

Street where we stayed the first night in Chengdu 

Walked around the area & there are lots of local restaurants (many with table woks) so should get a decent dinner tonight.

In one of the streets we came across a large cordoned off area with food preparation & a bandstand. We then realised from the men’s headwear that this was preparation for a wake to be held tonight. Calligraphy was also being done for family members. Fortunately we are a few streets away.

These are charms (health, wealth, good luck etc) which people buy & attach 

We went back to the airport to change our flight to Sunday as it didn’t look as if our Tibetan permits would come through in time for tomorrow’s flight. We also booked a different hotel as the one we were in had a difficult address & we were concerned that the permit (which had to be sent to an address) might not reach us.

We went down our street to the restaurants & found a suitable one. We had forgotten that we were in Sichuan and most dishes have the Sichuan pepper which causes your mouth to become numb. Not only that but our eyes were watering & perspiration was dripping from our faces. The locals were laughing at our plight!

I read later that sweetened soy milk or something sweet will quell the spicy food fire rather than water or beer. Will know for next time.

This was a really interesting part of town, absolutely no other westerners, almost no English writing or signs, China as it exists in the suburbs.  I still have concerns over the fate of the Puce Goose as our so called agent is involved, however, time will tell.


(posted from the Victorian head office of the Blog - ngm)