Big big buddha

After our bus misadventures, Tanny and I decided to stick to sites along the subway line for our last morning in Beijing. But first we went back to our local breakfast spot for the best minced pork buns we've ever tasted - ever! Of course Tanny had another bowl of warm soy milk and we had some more fried dough, but the pork buns were the highlight.

We got up early and made our way to the Lama Temple. It was only two subway stops away from our hotel and very easy to find. We actually got there before it opened and did a little food shopping. Tanny broke the rules and picked her own peaches from the bin.... the peach man wasn't too happy about that, but Tanny didn't really know what he was saying.

The temple was an interesting place. Far different than the Forbidden City, although it was also in a state of update and repair. When we first got there we were with a bunch of people there to worship and place their incence sticks in front of one or more temples or icons. It was a little weird snapping pictures around people that were praying. I'm assuming the monks all did they're praying before the gates opened to us papparazti.

The highlight of our trip to the temple was an 18 m high Buddha statue carved from a single white sandalwood tree. Fantastic! Unfortunately we couldn't photograph it.

That afternoon we left Beijing for Chengdu. We got to the airport early so we decided to buy our plane tickets from Chengdu to Guilin while we were there. Buying tickets for the flight was remniscent of getting the bus to the Great Wall. We knew there was a flight in the afternoon and started at the Air China counter. They only had a flight in the morning and told us to try another airline "over there" for the afternoon flight. So we tried the next ticket counter: Sichuan Air. They had an evening flight but no afternoon flight. Then we tried China Southern and struck gold!

I'll admit I was a little more nervous than usual flying within China. It probably didn't help that the daily English paper paid special attention to any mass transit accident nearby. Sure they were all in Russia, but every little bump of turbulence was a little worrying.

When we got to Chengdu we booked our hotel and "cab ride" to the hotel via the Chinese International Travel Service (a government agency). We negotiated a lower rate for the ride to the hotel and ended up getting a ride with another passenger in what was probably the travel agent's buddy's car. Pretty funny.

The car ride into town was the first of our maniac driving lessons. No one gets mad there, but they just play chicken with the pedestrians, bikes, mopeds and other cars. Lanes don't mean too much... just honk and go! It's amazing that we've only seen one fender-bender.

Chengdu didn't immediately impress me. It was very busy and pretty polluted (air). I'm assuming the insane humidity traps the air pollution making it worse. Our hotel room was also a little sketchy, but once it cooled down it seemed a lot better.

Tomorrow - pandas!