In the land of hot chili peppers

We're in Chengdu now, the capital of Sichuan province in China. We got here a week ago on Saturday, and met Kevin- Rob's best friend. It was his girlfriend's b-day, and right after the flight we went to have dinner with them- and her parents and friends. When we got here the weather was warm and nice, and we could run around in flip flops and a t-shirt. But the next day it already cooled down a lot- which confused our plans. We chilled out here on Sunday, met Kevin for lunch at his favorite noodle place, and then we went to see their apartment. He was telling us how much the place needs a change- and how uninviting it is. He said he thought about getting a comfortable chair, and how they never have any time to do all those things. So when he went to work for a few hours, we decided to go to Ikea and buy them a comfy chair... We got it, and went back to his place, going through the cafe he was teaching English in, asking for the keys to his house. He didn't really understand why we want the key (I stayed outside with the big box so he doesn't see it) and we went to his place to assemble the chair. You should have seen his face when he came back home!!! Only his smile was worth the whole thing!!! After that we rearranged their whole apartment so it feels warmer and more welcoming (it's my hobby to redesign places in my head) and now it feels so much better to sit and hang out.

On the way up.
Le Shan

On Monday we went to Leshan- which is a mountain 150km away, and right next to it- on the river side there's the biggest Buddha in the world - 71 meters high. The fresh air and the nice scenery, we worth it, plus the big Buddha was really impressing.

The biggest Buddha in the World Le Shan

We went back the same afternoon, and went to the Pessach Seder that a few Israelis arranged here in Chengdu. There were about 50 ppl there, and it was nice. It was Rob's first Seder, and I had to explain everything to him- while noticing that I don't know the reason to some of the customs myself... On Tuesday we were really lazy, and we met a really nice couple to chat with, Helen and Werner, she's from England, he's from Austria, real close to where Rob's mom's from, and they live in Australia. They came to China from Japan, and the only reason they came here was to take the train from Chengdu to Lhasa- but it took them a while to get the tickets and the permit. So we enjoyed their presence for the time...
On Wednesday we took a 4 hour bus to the east- to a place called Dazu. The town is a normal Chinese town, where everyone stares at foreigners and shouts out when they see one... At a certain point we just decided to take a picture of anyone who stares or yells: "Lao Wai" which means: "old outside person" and is a not very nice way to call foreigners. The next morning we woke up to no hot water in the shower, and I found out that my daily contact lenses have a big black circle on them- to make the eyes look bigger. I wore them for a day- and every time I looked in a mirror I couldn't recognize myself. That day we went to Baiding Shan- where there are carvings in the clifs- of a lot of Buddhas. It was really amazing, and worth going there.

Until the last detail Amazing carvings in Baoding Shan

We went back to Chengdu the next day on a very crappy bus that we had to change after driving it for 30 minutes. When we came back we heard from ppl who stayed the last few days that it rained a lot- and it made us feel a bit lucky about getting away from the rain. Yesterday was Saturday- and we didn't do much, just met Kevin and Wang in the evening, after saying goodbye to Helen and Werner who took the train to Tibet in the afternoon.
Today we went to see the Pandas- and even though it was already my second time there- I enjoyed it so much!!! They're so cute!!! We're going to go back to Shanghai on Friday, and until then we'll go climb this mountain called QingCheng Shan for a couple of days.
So- If you read till now- congrats, I promise to put pictures here as soon as I can. All in all This is a really nice and relaxed holiday, but I'll be lying if I said I'm not counting the days till we leave China...