Animal Farm (Marcus)

So we didn't make it to see the massive Buddha today, instead opting to explore a local buddhist temple and surrounding streets. We both woke up feeling tired and dodgy after last night's margarita fun ;)

The Mexican restaurant was great! I had burritos then one of Courtney's Fajita's. Was a funny moment where one of the staff came up and awkwardly asked us how we were, like she was starstruck. We're like, "Yeah good!" and proceeded to have a bit of a chat. She said something about her boss...(the place is called Peter's Tex Mex Grill" and I interupted with, "Oh what nationality is your boss, Chinese or ?" thinking possibly American due to the type of food on offer, so she walks away without word and comes back with a framed article with a photo of her boss - who turns out to be Chinese and a write up of his story. Peter is obviously very successful - only 27 years old, 2 of these restaurants in Chengdu and one in both Beijing and Shanghai(the Shanghai one we will definitely hunt down when we're there next).

So she's standing there with the frame and I look past it to a smiling Chinese guy behind her beside a table who happens to be looking at us. I do a double take, look at picture, look at guy, say to her, "Um is that him there?" to which of course it was so we started having a chat with him and yeah, this stuff always happens here somehow! He turned out to be a really nice guy and while we couldn't work out exactly how he got into cooking American Tex Mex cuisine, we did ascertain he's been cooking for 10 years and well, now runs a very successful chain of what was really good quality Western food. Good times!

So one of the charms of the hostel we're staying; Sim's Cozy Guesthouse is the fact the garden areas which are full of ponds/waterfalls/plants are also home to a whole bunch of animal pets. There are 5-6 chickens that roam around, this tiny orange cat which we know is full sized as Courtney saw him in a photo a year ago and he is still the same size; just an inkling above kitten sized. Courtney can't walk past him without a pat and I wouldn't either if i wasn't damned allergicked...wahhh. So chickens, cat - then there's a pond full of goldfish/carp, another bowl with tropical fish, turtles, some massive frogs, 3 PIGS..or piglets - smallish black pigs, i don't know if they're fully grown or what, but they're cute in a piggy way. A big white rabbit, a guinea pig, you bloody name it, it's here!

The place has a really cruisy happy vibe and I think that completely attributes to the owners, Sim and Maki. Sim looks like a really chilled kind of guy. We haven't really spoken to him but you can just tell. He's Singaporean whilst Maki is Japanese. I think Maki is responsible for a large part of the menu they sell here - which happens to be super cheap super damned tasty food. They sell these huge brownies in the bar area that really help me deal with this weather.

And the weather? It remains stinking hot. We explored this temple today but both felt completely disgusting throughout. We were out for four hours and were super relived to get back to the hostel and it's loving air-conditioning.

There's a term in China, labling three cities as the three furnaces of China. We knew about these before coming and did NOT want to live in them - well it turns out we live in the same province as one, and are holidaying right beside the other. One is Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province(where Wuxi is), another is Chongching, which is China's most populated city and a few hours away from Chengdu. Chongching is also where the recent earthquake disaster occured. Wuhan is the last of the three and I don't know much about it other than the fact it's in central China somewhere.

Chengdu is a nice city but mostly spoilt by it's pollution. One thing we have really learned as we have travelled around that Wuxi really isnt too bad afterall. Seeing other cities and what they offer - well Wuxi offers them too and I guess that now we are so familar with Wuxi, it's sort of like our home away from home. Doesn't change the fact that in our district, Xishan or DongTing or whatever it's called(we can never be sure), there's still stuffall to do, but there you go. Wuxi isn't too bad afterall.

I am really looking forward to leaving Chengdu for no other reason than the weather is really difficult to deal with, BUT I have to outright put it on the reccomended destination list for no other reason than the Panda visit was that good. Was just looking over the photos and I swear, you will not see anything cuter EVER! The guide who took us said we were actually lucky seeing them so active and playful. I kind of expected it to be like Lions in the Melbourne Zoo - you always want to see them sort of moving around and doing stuff but they never were - they were always asleep against the fence that made them hardest to see. Initially that's what the Panda's were, and that's what I expected to leave with, but oh no! And how's that for a total sidetrack!

Tomorrow we'll retry for this 70 metre buddha and perhaps dance on it's toenail. The day after we're off again on our way into Southern China and Kunming - hopefully to clearer skies. We cant wait for that.

See you!