Travel Log 20

In Chengdu my couchsurfing host that I had been in contact with for a month decided that she wouldn’t host me the day I arrived so I had to find a hostel at the last minute. Luckily I found a nice hostel and settled down there for a few nights. Although I liked Chengdu I didn’t see much there, a nice temple, some crazy dancing people in the people’s park, a few nice reconstructed ancient tourist streets. One thing I did do was go out for some really nice food with a few CSers. One night my host ordered enough food for 4 people and then didn’t eat anything herself which meant I had it all to myself ,so I tried my hardest to finish as much as I could but failed luckily this being China the whole bill only came to £7. Another thing I did was meet a couchsurfer, that used to work in the hostel I was staying in, for Chinese tea in the park. So although I didn’t see many tourist sites I did have fun hanging out with the locals.

Although Chengdu is the home to the giant Pandas I decided not to spend the money going to see them as I thought that it would be more useful saving it for later on in my travels it also meant I could stay in bed. I had also just bought the most expensive transport ticket of my travels – a £45 soft sleeper 24 hour train to Xining and was feeling poor. Unfortunately just after I bought the ticket the couchsurfer I had planned to stay with in Xining decided to tell me she was working that weekend out of town and that I should find another couchsurfer. Grrr!