What I've been up to …

What do you call someone who is from  Chengdu? Chengduan? Chengduese? Or Chengdese?

Whatever it is, my first impression of the people from Chengdu (let’s call them Chengduans) is that they are so talkative! When we were checking in at the Air Asia counter, we came across a very noisy group. The girl on duty at the counter told us that they were from a tour group, going back to Chengdu. The girl also told us that there were other groups too who had checked-in earlier, and just as noisy. On enquiring, we were told that the flight was full!

The departure lounge was also noisy. I thought that was it, but I was very wrong. Throughout the 4 hour flight, they were just talking and talking and talking! And at the top of their voices too! Despite that I did manage some nap . So, the noisiness continued until we were at the baggage collection at modern Chengdu airport.

This is not my first trip to China. I’ve been to Beijing, Hong Kong and Guilin before, but I have to say this trip to Chengdu is the noisiest so far!

When we entered the taxi, I thought there would be some quietness that I desperately needed. I was wrong!! The cab radio (no, not the commercial radio, but the communication radio between the cab drivers and their base) kept on giving breaking transmission. To make it worse, the lady cab driver that we had could not speak English and took us to the wrong hotel! The problem with China us is the different way we pronounce their words (from the Romanised version). We had a map of the city, with some of their characters, as well as the location of our hotel, but the lady couldn’t figure it out. Finally we asked her to call the hotel telephone number and let the hotel staff tell her where it was!

It was a good one hour ride from the airport, where a good portion of it was spent going round the city. It would make a good “city ride” if not for the late hour! When we finally arrived at the hotel, it was past 11pm.

Not a very good start, but at least we have Internet in the hotel room. Never mind that we cannot access Facebook and Twitter (we knew that from our trip to Guilin last year). Let’s hope that I’ll have a better day tomorrow!!

By the way, our only entertainment on tv is the CCTV9! DH, next time we travel to China, can we stay in 5-star hotels like Sheraton?

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