Archive for February 27th, 2009

Lions and tigers and pandas, oh my!

We began our trip on February 10th, leaving Beijing for a one-day layover in Chengdu, China before heading on to Kathmandu. Chengdu is famous for it’s Panda Breeding Research Center (thanks for reminding us, Elise!), so of course we had to stop there.

Really, I’m not sure what kind of scientific merit this place has, as most of the signs were in Chinese, as was the educational video. So I can’t say there was a whole lot of learning about pandas that occurred. What I can say is this: Pandas are adorable. Seriously, seriously adorable.

Credit Cards and the Wahaha Hotel

The first of many soul-crushing experiences that surrounded our travels across Nepal and Tibet, of which you will learn more soon, happened before we even left Beijing. The trip was a pretty big purchase, including airfare, train fare, travel permits and accommodations and for some reason the travel agency insisted that we pay in cash, claiming that they “did not accept credit cards”. Strange, we thought. After much haggling the agency agreed to employ some of their local “associates” so that we could indeed pay with plastic. But like all things financial in China, it wasn’t easy.

wahaha
Continue reading ‘Credit Cards and the Wahaha Hotel’



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