*PHEW* finally.... a chance to catch up on the blogging

So as some of you know, Brian and I decided to venture into mainland China for about a week. The main purpose of this trip? Well Brian discovered a Panda sanctuary that would allow us to hold a Panda...and well, there was no arguing or discussion afterward. That was our mission, everything and anything else was simply secondary. We arrived home about 2 nights ago, but between, catching up on sleep and catching up on e-mails... blogging was unable to be completed. Today I was able to edit a billion pictures so that both Brian and I could finally post some blogs with pictures.... So here we go... To start, a slight rant about the driving in China.


To all Mario Kart enthusiasts,

Have I got the opportunity of a lifetime for you. Have you ever thought... MAN, I wish Mario Kart was real? .... That rainbow bridge looks too cool!!! Go to ChengDu!

After spending a day in Guangzhou, Brian and I flew to ChengDu. We arrived around 9:00 and found a taxi, hopped in, and gave him the address to our hotel. Little did we know we’d be on one (of a few) death defying 40 minute drives. As we zoomed along at god-only-knows-how-fast, we found ourselves on a bridge that had colourful lights everywhere. The lights were all over the outsides of the bridge, spotlights shining up the cables on either side of us, and on the arches above us. Along with the excessive number of lights on the bridge, all of the surrounding buildings were lit up like tacky christmas trees. Every building from banks to office buildings looked like a casino in las vegas. If you are ever wondering about a business to open up, some sort of florescent tube lighting business in Chengdu would be very successful!

The driving in Chengdu is absolute chaos. There is NO order, and no structure. Lines on the road are completely useless and ignored, traffic lights are genuinely a suggestion at best, and there are so many bikes and scooters that, if you are a pedestrian, they are by far more dangerous than the cars... they go on the road, the scooter lane, and the sidewalk if they feel the need. Each side of the road has about 3-4 lanes, which ends up being about 6-8 cars wide. The intersections, then results, in having about 24 cars side by side, and countless scooters and bikes mixed in. As I mentioned, traffic lights being mere suggestion, the chaos that ensues is simply terrifying. If roller-coasters give you an adrenaline rush, you aint seen nothing yet. What I can’t seem to understand is how there aren’t a hell of a lot more deaths-by-scooter or even just accidents. I honestly couldn’t count the number of times we almost sideswiped someone or vice versa.

After a few days away (separate post) we returned to Chengdu yesterday so we could catch our flight home this morning. On the drive to the airport we saw, not one, but two people taking their suv’s onto the sidewalk (with no regard for pedestrians or scooter-ists) to get around MAYBE one car. We saw multiple people drive the wrong way... no no, you heard right... they were driving the WRONG way dodging oncoming traffic and honking as if the other people were in THEIR way..... and then.... WE drove the wrong way. We were driving across a overpass, and in the middle of said overpass was some construction (no signs or anything, just driving along and BAM a hole in the road with a couple blue flags around it), so the traffic, including our driver, thought that it was only fair to take over one of the oncoming traffic lanes.

I seriously wish I had video or something to portray the actuality of insanity that is the driving in Chengdu, oh wait I do... just pop in Mario Kart, and play the rainbow bridge on the hardest level - imagine about 10 times the number of people, and some scooters on the sidewalk, and you’ve got it.