Sunday was Panday. Panda-seeing day. Yoke and Ian were having this game – the possible permutations of Pandas. Example : pandamonium, or pantastic. And indeed the pandas were pantastic. The Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center is situated around 20km away from Chengdu. There were around 10 of us, including Xiao, a Chinese friend of […]
That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Not to worry – these were just some pretty roads that we went to on Sunday. The week before we had gone to Hosa Fitness where we met the lovely Xiao Feng, a trainer there. Xiao Feng is an excitable young woman in her early 20s – prone to fits […]
I have been a bit behind in my posts – it’s unbelievable just how quickly the hours rush past here. I came here to China thinking I would spend a lot of time writing – not just this daily journal of my thoughts and adventures in China, but also a book of short stories I […]
I thought I would spend my Friday kind of just lazing around in my room. But Sophie texted asking if we would like to join “us” for a hotpot dinner. Initially I thought I wouldn’t go, but then Birdy pulled a face saying she didn’t want to be only vegetarian in the group, so I […]
Chengdu yesterday was in the midst of what our beloved meteorologists in Bangalore might call a ‘depression.’ And depressing it was too. Dank, dark and damp, it just grew progressively worse. Yoke and Birdy had the brilliant idea of playing some badminton in the evening. Yoke was away in the afternoon at the PSB, but […]
Isn’t that a rather cute name for a department store? That’s where I spent a major part of my Saturday. My day began with rather a bang. Last week, there were some flyers posted all over about March being a free workout month. Life Stream was the name of the fitness center it led to. […]
It’s been almost a week since I came back from Emei Shan. My legs still ache and quiver like jelly when I see steps or stairs of any kind. But this week, I have had to climb steps of a different kind. Monday saw us open Chinese lessons in the B1 level. This was decided […]
It is around 7:30 when Mr Lin, the tracksuit Red Bull energy bar, knocks on our door. He is already ready to leave, they are taking the bus down. Vikl and Ren Tao groan…and so do we. It is barely light outside, but the summit beckons. I think, rather foolishly, that the summit must be […]
After the frustration of day before, it was 7 40AM when we set off from Wuxiangang Parking lot. The students we met warn us that to climb the summit on foot is ‘dangerous.’ “It’s very cold up there,” they say. Take the bus, they urge. “Oh well, we are crazy, ” I laugh. Sigh. I […]