HOT! But It's Not Raining.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008--Chengdu (Continued)

I had SPICY food tonight. I went to a noodle shop. The bowl came with red peppers piled on top. The noodles themselves were rather bland. But the soup had really soaked up the pepper! My eyes were watering, and my forehead was sweating. But I wasn't the only one. The guy in front of me was wiping his forehead with a napkin when he finished. And a woman across the way was wiping both her forehead and her neck. I don't know how the locals do it, though. This place didn't serve tea the way many do. The locals were eating their noodles without anything to drink. I was regularly sipping on the beer that I ordered.

I had an interesting dessert by mistake. I pointed to the cooler and said I wanted a beer when I ordered at the counter. Well, a dessert showed up that is kept in the cooler. It is somewhat like flan. Maybe it is made with rice, though. Anyway, it was a gelatinous blob with a dark sweet syrup in the pan. It was probably good I got it. It was soothing after having that hot noodle soup!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008--Chengdu

I am tired today. I awoke sometime in the early morning from a dream in which I "found" a friend whom I haven't seen since the mid-1980s. He lost his job in Corpus then. He stayed around for a while, but eventually moved in with some friends who lived out in the country. After a while out there, he just never was heard from again. I have tried to locate him before, but his name is too common. Anyway, in the dream I was somewhere and saw him. I kept asking, "Is it you?!!" I slept some after that, but it was off and on.

I went to Wenshu Monastery this morning. It is one of the 4 major temples of Zen Buddhism and the most important temple in Chengdu. It was a nice complex with lots of atmosphere. They have a vegetarian restaurant and a tea house on site, and they were filled with people. There is a huge Tibetan Buddhist library. There are lots of nice shady areas to wander or sit. And the temple itself has monks chanting, incense burning, etc., to give it lots of atmosphere.

My guidebook had said that the alleys around the monastery were filled with "joss-stick vendors, foot callus removers, blind fortune tellers with bamboo spills, and tea houses." I went to explore and didn't find it. Instead, I found a totally new tourist area. I guess the old neighborhood has been torn down to build this Disneyfied area that looks old and has expensive souvenir shops and restaurants. Too bad.

I looked for a guesthouse that serves Danish food. I just wanted to see what was on the menu and thought I might have something light. However, it wasn't located where it was shown on the map in the guidebook. Therefore, I just headed back to People's Park where I visited yesterday. There are far more people there in the afternoon than I saw yesterday morning. I rested while listening to some performers. Then as I was ready to leave, I heard a band. I went to explore. It was a small band with a huge crowd around it. The band was playing a march, and the people were clapping along with the rhythym. I stayed for a while. Everyone coming to the park carries song sheets in their bags, and there are people selling songsheets, too. The other songs the band played were all ones from the songsheets, and the crowd sang along. It was somewhat like the effect of the German beer gardens, except no one was clasping arms and moving back and forth during the singing. It was fun to see.

I keep forgetting to write about the red lights here in Chengdu. They only have one round disk instead of three. That disk changes from green to yellow to red. I guess it is designed with LED lighting to be able to do that. It seems like it should be a cheaper way of providing signal lights that function properly.