14 - Sichuan Hotpot

The Chengdu region is situated in the middle of the famous Sichuan region. For dinner that evening, Frank had booked a table for a Sichuan hotpot feast, which I must say didn’t light my interest as I’m not a chilli fan. I could only think of the pain associated with the evacuation procedure the next day. But, nevertheless, we went & were served with a giant bowl of chilli hotpot with a small pot in the middle of it for cooking the meat & vegetables. Once cooked, you can then dip the meat/vege into the dark red chilli soup, then place in your bowl. In your bowl was some sesame oil, some oyster sauce & some fresh parsley leaves mixed around. The meat/vege then went into that sauce & was then ready to eat. Surprisingly, I became almost addicted to the food there. I was the one who dipped my stuff into the chilli sauce more than anyone else, but it didn’t really seem to be that spicy to me. Though simply by looking at the chilli pot you could see how hot it was meant to be. The others found it too hot & mostly refused to dip their food into it. Weird that I didn’t really experience it that way.

12 - Tibetan Yak Meat & Butter Tea

While in Chengdu, as it's only 3 hours away from Tibet, we went out for a group lunch to sample some true Tibetan food. There were only two of us game enough to try some butter tea, which at first was quite disgusting, but with some sugar added, became quite delicious - I ended up having about 7 cups of it, quite certain I would suffer quite a bit of extra weight as a result. The food was interesting, not sure if I’d call it tasty. We started with some really delicious rice fried with some kind of chive & some tiny pieces of yak meat. Then there were these balls of something that looked a bit like truffles, but I preferred my title of ground yak balls, which made them look even more ominous than they already did. There was quite a bit of yak at the table really - yak meat pieces (too over cooked for my liking), yak meat sausage encased in yak intestine (tasted okay), & a yak meat hotpot. The only vegetables served were some potatoes, nothing else I could remember anyway.

11 - Chengdu - Tibetan Quarter

The hotel was smack in the middle of the Tibetan Quarter, the largest Tibetan community outside Tibet. There had been some kind of uprising several weeks back, & previous groups travelling at that time had to stay elsewhere. Seemingly, there were some violent riots & police & army were going around checking if there were any journalists in the area - you did not want to be a journalist in the area at that time. Of course, it was all over the lack of Tibetan independence, & thing it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the takeover of Tibet by China. There were, of course, Tibetan people everywhere. All the shops sold Tibetan wares, especially Buddhist ornaments, & I bargained hard for a wooden beaded bracelet. I was a tad shocked when, for the first time in China, a child started begging to me to give him some money. He was spurned on by his mother who encouraged him to run after me. The kid, who would have been only 5 years of age, followed me even when I waved him away, grabbed hold of me & was overall incredibly persistent. Even though I really wanted to give him some money, I didn’t because it only encourages begging - & Frank says that it’s better to give some money to charity institutions.

10 - Western Breakfast in Chengdu

On 3rd May 2009, we arrived via another overnight train in Chengdu at 5:30am, before the city had time to wake up. After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we made our way to Holly’s Hostel down a back lane around the corner. None of us could believe our eyes - the menu offered western food, including bacon & egg rolls. Two of the traveller’s on the tour were celebrating their birthdays & being here for breakfast made an excellent choice for a celebratory meal. I had the omelette with bacon, blood orange juice & green tea - lovely!