Thanks to the kind and hospitable lady boss of the hotel, we got a cab waiting at 8am outside the hotel to pick us up to the airport. What I really like about this lady boss is that although she charged us at a discounted rate, her hospitality towards us wasn’t discounted. In fact, she helped to arrange for our flights, get a reliable driver to pick us up at a reasonable rate. That should be the way to do business, I think.
It was an hour ride to the airport and I stayed awake throughout, taking one last look at the mountains and rivers surrounding us. I guess I wouldn’t be back here again in many years to come. The light rain added on to the melancholic atmosphere.
We had abundant time when we reached the airport, which to my surprise was organized and tidy. Much better than the Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris. I found the travel guide book on Tibet 情缘西藏 at one of the gift shops, which JH bought the day before. I regretted not buying it then and so was glad to find it here. It is a different kind of travel guide – more life in it and written like a diary by a backpacker.
I also bought a box containing traditional herbs of Tibet – 西藏三宝: 冬虫草，红花 and I can’t remember the last one. Come to think of it, where are these herbs now? I remembered passing to my mum after I returned to SG. In fact I passed to her a lot of food, but they seemed to have disappeared.
While waiting at the boarding area, there was an announcement saying that the flight would be delayed for 2 hours because of technical fault. They had catered another plane to fly us back to Chengdu. In the meantime, we could use our tickets to exchange for free mineral water and a bowl of noodle. Well, not too bad except that the noodle was again spicy kind.
I saw 2 老外 obviously confused and lost and so decided to explain to them the situation. I understand exactly how they feel because I had countless such experience when I was in France; be it at the airport, train stations, etc. The 2 hours delay wasn’t that difficult to pass; with the noodle and my books.
The flight from Lhasa to Chengdu was about 2hrs and it was showing my idol Andy Lau’s movie: 童梦奇缘. I have already watched it before but don’t mind watching again since it is a rather touching film.
Finally we reached Chengdu airport and looked for a cab to take us back to Sims. Some unscrupulous coach agency tried to con us into taking their coach, saying that no taxi would take us because of our large luggage. Bloody hell. We took a cab from the airport on Day One of our trip. Think we stupid meh?
It was like coming back home. We even directed the taxi driver how to get to Sims Cozy Guesthouse. From our accented Chinese, the taxi driver mistook us as Hongkongers and tried to speak with us with Cantonese accented Chinese. “Li Ho ah, Yao qu la li ah…” Sorry lor, our Mandarin might not be perfect but we don’t sound like that. Act smart, that cab driver.
It was a nice feeling to be greeted by the staffs in Sims (my Chuan Mei-meis…) when we arrived. “你们回来啦！” Glad that they still remember us. We even got back the 4-bed room (room no. 15) that we used to have. After unpacking our stuffs and taking a short rest, we went out to walk around the neighbourhood for dinner.
We stumbled upon this high-class steamboat restaurant where a lot of working class people were enjoying their dinners. Though we wore only berms and slippers, we decided to give this place a try. We ordered some delicacies and asked for their 招牌, The Fish Head Steamboat.
The food wasn’t that fantastic. There wasn’t much meat in the fish head though the soup was sweet. We looked around the restaurant and it was quite crowded, with working-class people as well as family. That was when we notice the slogan of the restaurant: 好友如同一杯酒, Good Friend is like a Cup of Wine. But to our horror, there was serious English error! Friend was spelt as Firend! And it was repeated everywhere in that restaurant. We were laughing out loud about this joke. At least this restaurant is funny.
When it was time to pay the bill, we thought it would cost a bomb. But it turned out to be only 128rmb! Though still the most expensive meal so far, but it is only S$25! Thereafter, we became yaya and decided not to care too much about eating. Just order as much as we want next time.
We went back to the Sims and met 2 Singaporeans staying beside our room. It was so easy to distinguish SGs. JH was bathing and then he heard this conversation: “oei, pass me the shampoo leh. Wah Lew, the water suddenly hot suddenly cold one. Why huh?” haha.
When they returned to their room, we introduced ourselves and found out that they were planning to go to Tibet also. So we went downstairs to the cosy Japanese hut for supper and gave them advice in the meantime. They would be going with 2 other angmohs, a Brazilian and a Mexican I think.
Interaction with foreigners was what we lacked in this trip. But still, traveling with buddies isn’t that bad either. At least any disputes or arguments are easily solved and wouldn’t bear grudges with one another.
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