Panty, panty, panty! Panda. panda! Today was a special day because it was my first time away from my family during my birthday. In the morning, I took the panda tour with Lazy Bones at 135rmb. Together on the tour were 1 Harbin lady, a Finnish guy and his Caucasian and our friendly driver cum guide. We gathered at 7.30am as we were told that the giant pandas were only active during morning. True enough when we arrived at 8.30am in Chengdu Panda Breeding & Research center 大熊猫繁育研究基地, we saw a group of giant pandas eating bamboos and we had fun taking photos of them. At first, the Harbin lady, Luo Xiao Mei was shy and reserved but after a while she warmed up and we chatted and joked along with the guide. Poor Caucasians had to tag along missing the fun since both of them do not understand mandarin.
This was the point where I find that the Singapore government or rather Mr Lee Kuan Yew's vision of 2 languages was really a good advantage for Singaporeans. Here, I can communicate with both the Chineses and Caucasians without a problem. In fact some locals have the misconceptions that Singaporeans only speak English and I used to get compliments on my good mandarin by them. What they don't understand is that I am of Chinese descent too. Both my parents were Chinese-educated and we communicate via Mandarin at home. It was because we were educated in English at school and that was what gave us the edge over the rest.
Back to the giant pandas. The adult pandas were calmly munching on bamboos without stopping. It is known that giant pandas have to feed non stop and move as little as possible because the bamboos do not provide them with enough energy. But the little cubs were energetic, climbing trees, exploring the ground and playing with each other. After that we visited the little pandas aka the red pandas as well.
In the afternoon, Fan Yang came all the way from his university campus to join me for lunch. I was really touched as he needed to take more than one hour to travel by bus to town. He took me to Chunxi road (again) and we had spicy pig intestines with vermicelli. It looked really oily but tasted quite good actually. After that we went to the People's Park 人民公园 for a stroll. The park was full of seniors dancing, singing and having fun together. Guessed we were the youngest among them all that day. We had a good chat by the lake. After that we went to Wide and Narrow Street 宽窄巷子 for some old town feel but the place was under construction so it was a little messy. Fan Yang will be graduating this year so I wished him the best in his future endeavours.
East meets west. Sun Yat Sen would like some Haagen Dazs too.
Star buck in ancient times?
In the evening, Yumin came all the way from her work place in the airport to meet me for dinner. I really felt special and honoured to find such great friends in Chengdu. I invited Luo Xiao Mei to join us and we went for Chengdu Mala hotpot 麻辣火鍋. The hotpot arrived with a thick layer of red chilli oil on top and bubbling with some orange looking concoctions from the bottom of the pot. It really looked and tasted lethal. By the 2nd bite, my tongue was numb and everything tasted weird. Only Yumin looked calmed while the both of us were hot and sweating from the 麻辣-ness. Yumin told the waitress that it was my birthday so they gave me a free bowl of long noodles 长寿面, sang a birthday song for me and gifted me a big mug. In singapore, I don't think you can get any restaurant that would bother celebrating your birthday but obviously it was a norm in China's restaurants. I have fun catching up on our Lijiang trip with Yumin. She mentioned that she was also burned out after the horse riding trip and slept through the day. Hahaha. Misery loves company.
After dinner we took a long walk back to hostel to remove all the guilt from the oil we consumed. Apparently Yumin is getting married next month. The guy whom she mentioned before actually agreed with her crazy marriage proposal. I was shocked and wondered if I should congratulate her or not. In a way, she is getting married and that was what she had wanted so I should be happy for her. But the terms and situation that led to the marriage were a little unusual and I wonder if she will regret in time. She is after all only 23 years old.
Again Chengdu taxi failed us that night. It took us a while before Yumin can find a taxi back. Sigh. All in, I had fun on my birthday, great thanks to both of my Chengdu friends.
Fiery Mala hotpot which took my tongue
The free 长寿面 which I dip the cooked food in to remove the oiliness
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