I came back from China yesterday on thair air, changed planes at Bangkok. Found myself wondering about jordan's thai trip when at the Bangkok airport, after seeing all the other Singaporean families around.

Anyway, I guess it was quite a good trip, considering that it was only 10 days and my parents were trying to furnish the new apartment they bought while having as much fun as possible too. The thing I appreciate most while in Chengdu is the weather. Early summer air and temperature did well to cure me of the insufferable sneezing fits and near-permanent sweating in Singapore. However, good food and good scenery did well to cover up such trivial matters like the weather. Long anticipated is the sensation of the famous "川菜", or Szechuan cuisine, on my taste buds. Indeed, it did not fail to disappoint, except that a lot of the food, like deep fried crispy pork bits and tapioca-flour chunks in spicy sauce, or even the more common sweet and sour pork, were sprinkled generously with "花椒",a detestable spice which produces the infamous numbing sensation, or "麻", and also generally completely submerged in a pool of oil.

Even though the food, which expanded my normally modest appetite to such an extent that I was wolfing down four bowls of rice on some occasions, is commendable, the even more important thing was the sightseeing. After getting more or less accustomed to Chengdu food and city life, we went on a four-day tour to "九寨沟", or nine-villages-valley. Indeed, it had proved to be one of the best trips in my life, in a more "Nature" aspect. It is hard to describe in words the beauty of the mountain lakes, streams, and waterfalls that decorated the forested expanse of mountain highlands. The lakes ranged from small to big in an entire spectrum of colours that is at once unexpected and striking. The shallower and smaller lakes were generally of a brilliant emerald hue while the deeper ones were blue, just like the sea. All of them have special and rather exaggerated names, for example the "five-colour-sea" or "五花海", which was named so because of its alternating stripes of deep blue and blue-brown, which gave it the appearance of a peacock's feathers. If not for the crowds that literally swarmed the tourist attractions, it would have been a totally wondrous experience.

After the tour, we also visited the panda base in Chengdu, which was of course full of pandas. The first panda we saw was an adult panda who was lazing around eating bamboos inside its enclosure. Don't get me wrong, these "enclosures" are not the pathetic small spaces we see in a zoo, but are as big as small mansions. The giant panda is indeed the national animal of China and invaluable. And they are really really cute!! We watched two panda toddlers jostling around for like the whole of an hour, it was so hilarious. Just seeing them makes you want to hug them, the fuzzy creatures.

But, as the chinese proverb goes, "天下无不散的宴席". All good things must come to an end. Yes, it is time to mug now.