Songpan was a lost town for me - I didn't make it out of my hotel room - okay the bathroom to be more precise!...

Next day we were bus'ing it to Chengdu- which promised Panda's and spicy food - cool!

I could tell we were coming to the end of this first Intrepid trip as the hotel took a sudden turn for the better - suddenly we were checking into 4* luxury again complete with belhop!

It was nice to have a hot shower, a power shower no -less.

Dinner was a traditional Hotpot dinner, where we cook our own things in the middle of the table, in a spicy spicy sauce. This is the world capital of spice and it was really good - not just mind blowing hot - more a whole range of flavours in the hot domain - it was a rounded hot.. quite different to the brute use of chilli we have experienced elsewhere.

Next day we headed to the Panda Sanctuary - nice cute cuddly panda's - the centre is doing great work to get a breeding program going, and there are panda cubs there - an obvious sign of their success. To be fair though the adult panda weren't great crowd pleasers as all they did was eat bamboo then sleep. The cubs were a bit more entertaining with some pooing and falling over each other to add to the entertainment.

After that we headed into the centre of Chengdu - one of the few places still boasting a Mao statue in the centre square - I am not sure why they are keeping it - but I saw it - didn't bother with a photo :-)

We were heading to the Wusha Temple for lunch - a totally vegatarian restuarant where the food is 'cooked by the monks' yeah right!... anyway - the food was very good - and even the hard core meat eaters had to admit that you can do some amazing stuff with Tofu!

Then we moved into the park to find a teahouse by the lake - very pretty - where we learnt how to play MahJong - properly and lazed away a lovely afternoon.

In the evening there was a 'culture show' which most of the group was going for - I couldn't be aresed - sounded like another tourist rip off - so I passed, so did Adrian and Mickey - so we went in search of some more excellent food... and we found it.. it this point to order restuarant - served up some top food with the most incredible service - the waiters wore plastic gloves to pour beer, and the moment you took a sip from your glass it was topped up !.. quite strange - but very good!

Next stop was Yangshuo, after a little flight to Guilin...