Thursday

We took the high speed rail from Xi’an to Chengu, and again it was impressively comfortable and efficient. In the evening we went out for a walk and had my first ever hotpot dinner. The most obscure ingredient being duck intestine, which tasted fine if chewy.

Friday

We ate such a large dinner last night at hotpot, I skipped breakfast today. So we went to the Panda centre, walked around a lot and I didn’t even get a chance to have a coffee until about 11:30.

We returned to the hotel around 1, and I wanted to go off and do some of my own exploring, starting at Kuan and Zhai Alleys. They were packed, and full of tourist spots. I realised I’d spotted some of the stalls that offer ear cleaning services which I’d heard about before, and I wanted to give it a try.

I didn’t expect it to be so invasive – it was more uncomfortable than I expected and a tiny bit painful. Once the man moved on to my other ear, I started to feel dizzy, and realised I was about to pass out, so I told the man to stop.

Next minute, I’m a million miles away, dreaming about something and then coming to. I quickly realised where I was and had some water, and told the lady I hadn’t eaten all day (via my Apple Translate app of course). That, accompanied with the feeling of needles (which makes me pass out) made me pass out briefly. The shop people were nice though, gave me some snacks and didn’t charge me for the experience.

I should’ve eaten something earlier, but this experience triggered the same reaction I have when getting a needle. So I quickly went for a feed later on, finding some nice snacks and now I’m at a coffee shop just taking a moment to write about this. All part of the experience!

I did some more walking afterwards, stopping by People’s Park (where they have the strange tradition of putting up advertisements to marry off their sons and daughters), and had some tea on a quiet street.

Next stop: Leshan.