Sunsets In KL

These first 3 photos were taken on 26th March.  the sun is now setting further around and is spectacular.

The next lot of photos were take on April 5th.  Absolutely beautiful. 

Today we thought we would be brave and walk to find Chairman Mao's statue.  We had a map.  Not that it helped any except by putting us in the general area.  We walked around and around and couldn't find it.  Finally I asked a lady and she used her very limited English and many hand gestures to show us the way.  We finally found it and were impressed with it and the park nearby.

Wayne standing under the statue.

The reason why we couldn't find anything.

The entrance way to Wengshuyuan Street.  A lovely temple area.

Looking up at the entrance way.

Reflection of the entrance.

It was a beautiful place to walk around.

At one of the entrances/exits and yes this had English on it.

The guys riding their bikes still amaze me that they can keep balance.
This guy was taking bolts of material to a shop.

Posting a postcard home.  2 weeks home
and  it still hasn't arrived.

Once again bugs and starfishes to eat,

Wayne having a conversation with some 'friends'.

Beautiful flowers on a bike for sale.

Check out under the tray...an extra storage area.

A door knocker...so cute.

We walked back along the river through a bitter cold wind...it was lovely to feel the cold though..to our hostel and a warm coffee and some nibble before we caught our flight to the airport to come home.

We have had a wonderful experience that was made even more wonderful by the hospitality shown to us by Jingjings' family.  We know we want to explore more of China and are determined to do this but will do it in small bites to ensure that we see the most and the best.

Luodai Ancient Town

We were up in time to have a delightful breakfast at our place that was enough to satisfy us for most of the day.  We took a taxi to the local bus station to catch a real local bus to Luodai Ancient Town.  Jingjing stood in line only to find it was the wrong one and she rushed off to find the right one and called us over to the right bus and we hopped on and waited a few minutes and then we were off.  Noticeably we were the only white people on the bus which added to the fun.  We got off at the other end and found the gates to the Ancient Town and were impressed with it.  Wandering through here was incredible.

This little girl was posing for a photoshoot.

All sorts of dried fruit for sale -
we even saw kiwifruit wine.

This guy is making a muesli bar type of food.

It still amazes me what they use to cook with -
here it is a 44 gallon drum.  The food did look great.

And it would be right if you didn't have the
creepy crawlies to eat. and no I wasn't
brave enough to try one.

Wherever we went we were stopped for a chat.
This guy wanted to try his English.  We later
saw him with a hat similar to Bradley's.

Lunch time...late afternoon actually.
Jingjing is ordering a number of
different noodles and sauces for us.

Making the lunch from a side view.

Without the writing on the window.

Wayne enjoying his spicy one.
My non-spicy is in the picture too.

And yes I did eat it...this is actually
my 2nd bowl.

Lion dances in the street.

We bought some nuts of this guy
after he let us taste them.

A lady selling her wares.

I think this face has a thousand stories to
tell if only I could understand them.

delivering cinder blocks to the many
stall that use them.

It was again another day of wondrous things to see.  Finally it was time to catch the bus back to Chengdu.  Another experience for us.  You have to find the right line as a tourist it would have been hard to do.  You stand in the line as close as you can to the person in front of you as does the person behind you so that nobody can squeeze in.  While waiting a number of arguments broke out.  We had 10 minutes to wait for the bus and again we were the only white faces on the bus.  It amazed me on this trip just how often people took your photograph because you were different and stood out.  I can't count the number of times I realised there was a child walking beside me and then look up and there was her/his parent with their camera focussed on us.

Back at our hotel and it was time for Bradley and Jingjing to leave and head back to Mian Yang.  Looking back we had an action packed few days and we were/are very thankful that we had a local 'tour' guide with us.  She did an amazing job.

Chengdu

While in Chengdu we were lucky enough to  have some locals take us around and show us the highlights of Chengdu.  First stop was an archaeological dig from the Tang Dynasty.  Fascinating.  This was found while renovating and landscaping Du Fu' s thatched cottage.  Du Fu was an inspired poet and this is the place that he wrote many of his poems.  It was fascinating walking in the grounds.  From here we went to an old temple that had many statues that were built in the 1700's.  They were impressive.  We had lunch in one of the Old Streets.  This consisted of tiny birds on sticks, both spicy and not spicy, smelly tofu (which was actually very tasty), and a few other delicacies provided by Jingjing's mother and stepfather to give us a taste of local food.  This video is off the photos of these two outings.

After the excitement of the morning we didn't think it could be any better but it did.  We went out to the panda sanctuary.  Pandas are so cute.

To Finish off such a wonderful day we went shopping with Bradley and Jingjing to buy him some shoes.  In and out of shops until he finally found a pair that were wide enough. Then it was off to have a lovely bbq meal Chinese style.

And back to Nova for one of their scrumptious coffees for a night cap.

This is our last morning in Mian Yang.  We have packed our bags and left them at the luggage room while we go off and have breakfast with Bradley and Jingjing at one of their favourite local places.  And it was so yummy.  Noodles and soup.

Bradley and Jingjing
enjoying the breakfast

The Noodle Shop

A typical scene...outside
on the pavement.

We went back to our hotel and picked up our luggage and walked down to catch a bus to Chengdu.  We had back seats in the bus thanks to a lovely lady who shifted seats to allow this to happen.  I chose the window seat so I could view the world going by.  Below are some pictures of the countryside.  The pretty yellow of the lucerne (which they make into cooking oil) made such a contrast to the grey sky.

We arrived in Chengdu and made our way out onto the road to get a taxi which dropped us off on the right corner but we couldn't see Nova Travelers Lodge.  Finally we found it and made our way to our rooms.  This was a lovely place to stay.  We had a bedroom with an ensuite and it wasn't far to walk to the main attractions.  

We had dinner with Jingjing's mother, stepfather, aunty and uncle at her mothers house.  The eal and  company was lovely and we were very spoilt.  Wayne came away with a lovely teapot and cups for making his Chinese tea.  The evening went very fast and soon it was time to go back and crash at the backpackers.  We thought we would try their coffee and it was a good choice...the best coffee I had had in China.