Chongqing road trip

[Bamboo Grove]

Thursday

We had a long weekend and as there was a direct flight from Macau to Chongqing, I decided to visit pharvey’s old hometown, thank you for the tips, pharvey. During the last year or so that I have been living in Macau, I have most often used trip com to buy plane tickets and hotel rooms. So, they gave me two hours free at the airport lounge in Macau. My workday finished at 16.00 and my flight took off at 18.55. My colleague gave me a lift to the airport and as it is a small one, it didn’t take long time to go through the check-in and customs. This meant that I had about two hours to have a meal, down a few beers and couple of glasses of wine at the lounge.
The plane left on time (Macau airline) and arrived at Chongqing a bit early, around 20.45. I had booked a taxi to take me to my hotel and it was a good decision as it was quite late. The weather forecast had promised constant rain, so I was prepared to spend a lot of time in my hotel room. Not a fancy hotel but a nice room on 17th floor with a view to the Jialing-river, a tributary to Yangtze, which was only about 2 km away.
It was around 10 p.m. when I was in my room and I was a bit tired so I just went to the nearby Lawson’s convenience store, got a sandwich and couple of local beers.

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[pharvey]

Looking forward to this report BG - much has changed since I was there last, but the LHG has been back on several occasions and of course there are still connections.

The "Lights at Night" and "Fog of the Day" certainly bring back memories though!! That said, of course at this time of year you are not going to get clear days/skies!!

[buksida]

Yep, always good to read about road trips to different places, keep it coming!

[404cameljockey]

Thank you, very enjoyable. I have a friend who lives in this mega city and I'd love to visit her to taste her tongue-tingling huo guo after a very long time (spicy hot pot, Chongqing is really its home).

[migrant]

I'd love to visit her to taste her tongue-tingling huo guo after a very long time.

Thanks for explaining what it is, I had very disturbing thoughts when I started to read it

[Bamboo Grove]

Friday

I woke up around 8. A.M. and read the news before heading to do some sightseeing. It was foggy but there was no rain. The fog will be easy to see in many of my photos. My first visit was to an ancient city called Ciqikou ancient city. It was around 40 minutes metro trip to get there. This was my longest trip as all the other things I wanted to see were near my hotel.

Less than a year ago I visited two old places in Yunnan, Dali and Lijiang which had beautiful ancient cities. Ciqikou was not bad, but it wasn’t up to those two. Plenty of chili making shops, where you could watch how it was chopped, boiled, then put into different cups for sale. After walking around for around an hour, I decided to return to downtown area. Before that I tasted some snacks there: tofu with local chili sauce. Although my mouth still likes chili my tummy doesn’t often agree with it and this happened again, luckily only when it was around 5 a.m and I didn’t have to visit the loo more than once for this.

[pharvey]

Nice one BG - thanks. The Metro certainly didn't get out to Ciqikou whilst I was there, but it wasn't a hell of a long drive. It's an interesting place, but as you say better or perhaps "cleaner" sights to see!

As for the "Chilli Making", always quite something to see the different concoctions they come up with in CQ and Sichuan! Quite honestly I need an Industrial Scale extractor fan in our (small) UK kitchen as the LHG will make her own "Chongqing Chilli Pastes" and sauces from family recipes. The Tofu and Chilli is still a firm favourite of mine, but like you - I need to be close to porcelain these days!!

Keep the reports coming!!

[404cameljockey]

Lovely flavour of local life there.

Although my mouth still likes chili my tummy doesn’t often agree

Seems that applies to a lot of us olduns. I'm OK after a one-off but if I have too much over 2 or 3 days I'm in trouble.

And I believe I've gotten over a long-term allergy to raw oysters (had to keep trying of course, just to see). I used be 'open both ends' (as they say in the tanker trade) after a few.

[404cameljockey]

... LHG ...

I don't think I know what that stands for, please? It's not 'lovely huo guo'.

I've had wonderful, caring long-term Chinese, Viet and Thai girlfriends; nothing compares to Chinese women, they're like catnip to me, I guess it must be an obsession however it's based on experience, not just looks or even bed stuff. But this belongs in its own thread.

[Big Boy]

2 questions BG:

1. In photo 3, is that the local traditional dress? It looks very similar to Thailand's Hill Tribes if it is.

2. In photo 4, Weed Bistro, is that Thai style? Is cannabis legal there as well?

Lovely photos BTW - enjoying them.

[Bamboo Grove]

1. In photo 3, is that the local traditional dress? It looks very similar to Thailand's Hill Tribes if it is.

They have lots of minority nationalities in China, 55 if I remember correctly. Many of them are the same that live in Thailand as well so yes, that could be a Miao dress.

2. In photo 4, Weed Bistro, is that Thai style? Is cannabis legal there as well?

Weed is not legal in China so the name must refer to something else.

[Big Boy]

Thank you

[pharvey]

... LHG ...

I don't think I know what that stands for, please? It's not 'lovely huo guo'.

That would be my dear wife "The Long Haired General" - born and bred in Chongqing.

[Bamboo Grove]

One more chili production photo

I decided to return to downtown as it started to drizzle. Another 40 minutes and I was back in Yuzhong district, and I got out where the Yangtze-river cable way is. There was a longish queue but as it was early in the afternoon, I decided to buy the ticket, I had all the time, and the rain had stopped. Actually the queue moved forwards quite fast and we took the lifts upstairs where there was another short wait before we got into the cable car.
The cable way is 1166 meters long and it connects Yuzhong and Nan’an districts of Chongqing. It was still foggy but the trip had some nice views. I didn’t linger on the other side of the river, instead I returned as soon as it was possible. You can really see what the weather was like in these photos.

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Maybe there is pharvey's old home somewhere at the background.

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It was still relatively early in the afternoon and I had a plan to go to my hotel for a late afternoon nap but before that I wanted to see the famous Liziba metro station, where the train goes inside the building. I got off the train there and went outside, I think the station was on the 6th floor of the building and above it there were apartments. Below it there were four floors of souvenir shops. Outside there were lot of people taking selfies, so I didn’t want to stay there for too long. Just a couple of pictures and videos and then back up to the station and to the hotel for an afternoon rest.

[pharvey]

2. In photo 4, Weed Bistro, is that Thai style? Is cannabis legal there as well?

Weed is not legal in China so the name must refer to something else.

i showed the LHG the photo (well spotted by the way BB) and she did laugh at the "Translation" or our understanding/guesses! In Chinese it's "Wild Grass Music Pub" - probably not on a par with those in Amsterdam!!