|
  | |  |
Chengdu
Entry 35 of 114 | show all | print this entry |
Having sorted out a nice backpacker hostel, we headed off to try the famous Sichuan hotpot. We'd already had hotpot in Beijing and Xian, but Sichuan hotpot is cooked with hundreds of chillies and we couldn't resist. Many of you will know our love for chillies and spicy food, but this hotpot blew our heads off!!
We chose a selection of vegetables (needle mushrooms, cucumber, squash) and beef but also decided to try frog too. When it arrived at our table it was still twitching and had a beady eye staring at us (we sent it back to have that removed). In it went with everything else and it was actually really tasty (a bit like chicken).
Our main objective for Chengdu was to sort out our flight and visitor permit for going to Tibet. However, we were dismayed to discover on arrival that no permits were being issued to independent travellers until mid-September as there was a festival on and the government were clamping down on visitors to keep things under control. Nightmare scenario as we have to travel via Tibet into Nepal and Darjeeling to arrive in Bhutan on 30th September for our tour we've already booked.
The next day we set off to confirm the situation. We went into about 5 travel agencies who all confirmed that we couldn't go. We were about to give up and rethink our plans when we tried one more agency who turned out to specialise in Tibet. No problem they said and Jerry spoke with the manager on the phone who promised to try to sort things out for us. We then had a long afternoon awaiting the verdict with trepidation, but thankfully they (hopefully!) have turned up trumps and we are supposedly being picked up at 5:30am Monday morning for our flight into Lhasa. Fingers crossed we've not been misled!
To celebrate we treated ourselves to a romantic dinner, including our first bottle of wine for two months (a delicious Chilean Cab Sav). The food was also stupendous (grilled mediterranean vegetables, green salad, duck with cherries, tenderloin steak, cheesecake, mango mouse and rounded off with cappucinos! Yum yum!) and for a few hours we were as though back at home!
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from China or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
20 votes 
