Day 126 - another small Chinese town called Chengdu

Awoke to find my room mate walking around. He signalled to me, time for food. I showered and when I came out he signalled we needed to go because of our flight. I looked out the window and no buses were outside. I gave him the thumbs up. It's all good. He looked out and seemed to relax. We grabbed our bags, checked to see if left anything and headed down for breakfast. A buffet of Chinese food was available. Nothing particularly grabbed my fancy for 7am in the morning. I choose to take some plain noodles and two boiled eggs. A warm glass of orange. Their appeared to be some sort of soup or drink that you could have in a bowl. I could see people around the breakfast room drinking straight from the bowl. It didn't look like coffee. Thankfully I had my jar of Nescafe and there was warm milk available. I sat down at the table my room mate was at. There was a collection of business people around the table. I was the only westerner in the room. It appeared that the flight was frequented mainly be business people as I looked around the room. As i sat eating my small breakfast the people at the table chatted and joked amongst themselves. At one stage there was some conversation about who I was and my room mate was telling them about sharing a room with me. They thought this was hilarious and a conversation ensued.

The bus collected us just after nine. After making our way through morning traffic we arrived in the airport within in less than an hour. Again we had to queue and do security check. The airport was bustling with people from all the cancelled flights and all the days flights together. I headed to the same cafe and sat in expectation of a long wait. We finally boarded the plane at 12.30. We then sat on board for over an hour while we got clearance for take-off. As I looked out the window a row of planes queued nose to tail waiting for take-off. Shortly later we joined the queue. The plan took off with the usual wonderful roar and thrust that excites me. I've always found this part of a flight to be the one point were any form of fear disappears the most. As soon as the plane began to level off the food cart was out serving a morning snack of noodles, bread, yogurt and tea or coffee. Its amazing how for only a one hour flight they can include a snack also. The pilot brought the plane down for a smooth landing at 1.45pm. Chengdu airport is another super modern Chinese airport. Baggage collection was pretty much immediate and once again my rucksack was one of the first out. I figured out that this must be due to its irregular shape. Suitcases being square shaped are packed together. Backpackers get the sweet deal.

For the first time ever walking out into the arrivals hall a guy was standing holding my name. He shook my hand and we walked through the slick airport to the taxi stand. He rang someone on his mobile and asked me to wait five minutes. A girl pulled up in a smart looking alpha romeo. She walked around, said hello and opened my door. I jumped in and we drove off. They chatted amongst themselves as we raced along the motorway into the city. He dropped her off at one of the exits of the motorway. We arrived at Sim Cozys and he showed to reception and left. After checking in and dropping my bags to my room I went to the cafe, ordered some food and went online. Another very smart and cool Chinese hostel. Designed with multiple levels, the common area/restaurant had both indoor and outdoor areas. Before my food arrived I went down to the travel desk and booked the famous Panda Sanctuary tour for the next morning.

When I got back, Peter appeared on Gtalk, asking how I was. They had just arrived and just booked into a hotel in Dalian, north of Beijing. They seemed in good form and everything was going well. Peter asked had I chatted to Aidan yet. I was like, “No”. Didn't think much of it until half an hour later. There in my Inbox was an email from Aidan – Please Don't Hate Me. I was thinking, what could this be about. As I scanned the mail, I learnt that, Aidan in rebooking his flight had somehow rebooked mine. Actually, let be more clear. Quantas, had presumed that both flights were to be rebooked. Aidan had received confirmation of his new flight dates and saw that my flights had being changed also. I was now booked to leave China on the 25th to Perth and from Perth to Cairns on the 12th of December. I got angry straight away. Not taking the time to fully read the mail I was back on to Peter on Gtalk typing profanities. Peter, being the very cool diplomat, that he naturally is, was doing his best to calm me down. Explaining to me that Aidan had spent hours trying to sort it out. In my mood I wasn't listening to any of it. All i knew was that now i was to arrive into Cairns a week after Joao and I wasn't chuffed. After calming down a bit I went back and read the email to find out that he had got me back onto another flight to leave the same day from Hong Kong, stop over for a few hours in Singapore and then onto Perth. I suppose that was okay. Still there wasn't any clarification on the Perth to Cairns flight. I was more surprised and annoyed he hadn't contacted me on the mobile. I think also the constant giving up and starting of smoking wasn't helping the anxiety. This being one of the times I wasn't smoking. Jojo did his best to calm me down and recommended, i perhaps go out for a drink and a smoke to calm down. I needed to relax. I took his advice and decided to head out to the bar area. It was Halloween night and I was in the mood for some music and people. After having a few beers in the hostel and chatting to some backpackers I jumped in a taxi and headed out.

The bar/nightclub was filled with a mixture of Chinese and Westerners. The majority were dressed up in some form of a Halloween costume. I was kind of sad the gang hadn't all being together for this night. We had discussed all of us going out, although it wasn't meant to be. I danced away on the side of the dance floor, drinking JDs and coke. Nearing the end of the night, a couple of people made an effort to chat to me. One guy in particular had near perfect English and we chatted and shared about our different culture for over an hour. I headed home just after four feeling fairly inebriated. Knowing I was up in less than 3 hours to go on the panda tour I took a large bottle of water to bed.