Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Up and running full tilt… finish the packing… get ready and out the door by 11:05 am… meeting one of Michael’s colleagues at the Maglev at noon. We were early and stopped for a bite of lunch at our fav place, Ajisen Noodles! Polished off lunch and waiting at the station 5 mins early.
While we waited, I purchased two round trip tickets to the airport and back… CNY 80.00 per person. A taxi runs about CNY 120 one way…AND takes about 40 mins. The train can have you there in about 7 mins. It was crazy fast… running about 460 kmh!!! We were there before the seat got warm!
Pudong Airport is huge… it took longer to walk to the gate than it took the cab to the Maglev and the train combined. Of course, Michael was nervous Nellie as usual. And I thought he was going to faint when the called final boarding and we were still walking to the gate. It was still half an hour til our departure time, but the color drained from his face. He is just not a good traveler and no matter how much you try to calm him… some things will just never change.
We made the flight and 3 hours later we were in Chengdu. Before I continue, I must tell you… our plane was so old that the arms of the seats had ash trays in them. When was the last time you could smoke on a plane?? I was thinking it had to be at least 30 years ago. I was a bit surprised to say the least!
Our car and driver was there to pick us up right on time and we were off to the InterContinental Century City Chengdu. It was huge and the grand lobby was breathtaking. Inside the lobby were reproductions of ancient Chinese Buildings. It is difficult to describe, but was beautiful. See the snaps.
Our driver recommended a place famous for its hot pots named Huangcheng Restaurant of Chengdu. Having never tried this before, it was quite an experience. Basically, in the middle of the table is a square stone. Under the stone is a gas burner. The wait staff brings a large deep square stainless tray that is divided into. The stone is removed and this tray fits into this hole. You choose your stock… half of ours was hot stock (medium hot) and the other half was pork stock. Then you choose your meats, fish, and seafoods… then vegetables… noodles, rice and whatever else you want. Then the feast begins… one by one your selections are brought to the table and the cooking begins when the stocks are boiling. Oh my goodness! Each meat takes so long… each vegetable… and so on. It is obscene. By the time the vegetables started cooking, I could not feel my tongue and my lips were on fire. Medium hot is hotter than any hot thing I have eaten. I must have bitten a pepper or peppercorn because my taste buds went on overload! It was like nothing I had ever tasted in my life… and after that point, nothing had any taste.
We were all sweating, our noses running and mouths on fire. Michael’s colleague asked if I had ever eaten anything this hot…’NO!!’ But we were laughing about the noses running and I had to share a story about my Grandmother. We called her MaMaw. She loved hot onions or peppers or really anything hot. I can still see her sitting at the table, still wearing her apron, eating something so hot she was sweating, mopping her brow and wiping her nose with her apron and continuing to enjoy whatever she was eating. She was such an amazing woman. Maybe one day I will write a blog about her, but for now I will continue to share our adventure in Chengdu.
I was relieved when the waiter brought a platter of cold fruit. It was just what I needed to help put out the fire. I had consumed all the rice, desperately trying to douse the fire and failing miserably. The watermelon did help, but nothing was really going to help but some time.
We ended the night and made our way back to the hotel. I needed to plan my outing for Thursday. Michael would be in meetings all day and I needed to do some serious exploring. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.
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