Chongqing to Chengdu

A Western breakfast and we were off to the bus station. We had the hotels’ driver get us to the station and help us buy our tickets. It was a good thing- there were no signs in English and no one spoke any English.

We got on the bus and headed to Chengdu. It was a 4-hour ride- and quite an experience. Chinese buses, while fairly modern on long distance runs, have a driver and “stewardess” and play non-stop kung-fu movies at full blast the entire drive. Add to the noise pollution of the movies, we had a driver who must have had a major problem with depth perception, because he blew his horn every time he passed someone (which was frequently). (There are two horns on the bus- the quiet one for city streets and the blast your ears off one for the road.) About 3 hours into the ride and our stewardess was completely out in the seat next to us- they do have an amazing sleep gene. The Chinese (and Asians in general) can sleep anywhere and in any position. Meanwhile, we were watching our drivers’ eyelids closing, then see him shake his arms and hit his head to keep himself awake. We were thrilled when he took out a cigarette hoping that the smoking would help him stay awake. There were several times when John almost headed to the drivers seat to take over. Looking back, it was pretty amusing to see this guy constantly banging himself on the head to stay awake…but living through it was another thing.

We finally got to Chengdu and were dropped off at a bus station well outside of town. We grabbed a taxi and headed to the Holiday Inn. We wanted to check our options just in case our 3rd star Chengdu Hotel was as wonderful as our last hotel. The prices at the Holiday Inn (HI) were a bit steep- about $100 per night, so we headed to the Chengdu. Once again, the lobby was beautiful- with the same dingy ex-Communist feeling in the halls and rooms. While they claimed the A/C worked, it was questionable, but we decided we’d save the money and live with it.
We headed to the Traffic Hotel to try to get a handle on traveling to Tibet. The Traffic Hotel was a backpacker’s paradise. Multiple travel agencies lined the parking lot of the hotel. Inside, they had ice cold drinks, a currency exchange, Internet room, luggage storage, restaurant, IDD telephone service….everything you need to survive. We checked the room rates- 200 yuan (about $25 with breakfast)- and with working A/C units. We were sorely tempted, but decided to give the Chengdu a try. We got things in the works for our trip to Tibet and headed back to the HI. The taxi driver spoke excellent English, so we asked if he’d be willing to do a day tour of the city- what a lucky break.
The Holiday Inn was wonderful. We had a rooftop view of the city with ice-cold Dragon Seal wine and great food.