Panda bears

Chengdu, China

We arrived in Chengduvia our first sleeper train. We booked ourselves into a four birth cabin and were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in a modern, comfortable, air conditioned room.  We passed the 27 hour journey watching films and eventually sleeping soundly in the beds - probably our best journey so far.

The main object of Chengduwas always the pandas. Kerry was giddy with excitement from the moment we arrived, in-fact, she was giddy with excitement months before we even started our trip.

We arrived at the breeding and research centre as early as possible after being warned of large crowds, and before long we were face to furry face with our first panda. Yeah, they’re pretty damn cute. The research and breeding centre’s primary goal is to take care of these endangered animals and provide a safe and life-like environment for them. As a result, the enclosures were really large and impressive and not just a cage for tourists to gawp through, it was great to see the care and the attention given to the animals. The baby pandas were little-girl-shriek-worthy and had hordes of people cooing and awing. The only downside was that Kerry, who was more than willing to spend the £200 it costs to hold a panda, wasn’t able to due to a past incident in which the pandas got ill from the experience.

We also got to try our first hot pot – a traditional Chinese meal of various foods cooked in a boiling spicy pot in the middle of the table. We struggled massively with translating what we wanted but a lady nearby who spoke some English was nice enough to help out. The first few bites and tastes were delicious, but after most of our taste buds had been stripped from our tongue, we soon found ourselves feeling more pain than enjoyment and were barely able to get through the rest of the incredibly spicy dish.

Ordering food in general has remained a task in China, on numerous occasions we’ve found ourselves leaving restaurants with empty stomachs due to our inability to communicate, and the owners not wishing to get it wrong. We’ve tried great food through trail and error but we guiltily hit McDonalds a few days running too.