An Early Birthday Present!

Anybody who knows me knows I’m a bit of an animal freak. I love animals of all shapes and sizes. When I was first starting out on-air at News 12 New Jersey, I begged to host the station’s pet show. My “test” interview was a woman who raised rats. I let them crawl all over me and a tail even wandered down the front of my blouse. I got the job  - and with it all sorts of opportunities to meet cool animals. 

Today, I met one of my all-time favorites: the panda bear. 

 

Chengdu is home to the Panda Breeding Center which was high on my list to visit in China. I didn’t know much about it except that they had a lot of pandas there. Turns out, the place is beautifully landscaped - not surprisingly using lots of bamboo. It’s a bit like a small zoo except the only two animals there are giant pandas and red pandas which aren’t even related to pandas.

The first enclosure was the teenage pandas. We saw one big panda there with his/her back to us, munching on bamboo. I figured that was how the day would be - that we would have traveled all this way only to see the backs of pandas. Even that would have been cool.

The next enclosure took my breathe away. There were about a dozen, 2-year-old pandas, each about the same age as Hudson and just as active. We were standing about ten feet away from the group as they wrestled and played and chomped on bamboo. They were the absolute cutest things ever.

The kids liked them for about five minutes. Tom and I watched for at least a half hour. And oh - two appeared to be having oral sex - then a third joined in. I’m not sure what was going on there!

Then we stood in a long line to see the panda nursery. They had two, brand new baby pandas and one that a bit older, I’m guessing maybe a month old. Oh gosh - that one was the cutest of all. They don’t let anybody spend much time looking because so many people want to see. 

The adult pandas were a little harder to spot, but we still got a good view of them, especially two big ones in the trees, just hanging around. The branches didn’t even look strong enough to hold all that weight.

You can get your photo taken with the pandas, but it’s really pricey and they only accept cash. Sadly, we tried to get enough cash out last night and the machine just wouldn’t give us much so we only had enough money for one of us to get the photo taken. I knew what the deal was last night, but as we were walking away from the photo spot, I found myself pretty disappointed. I tried not to show it. I mean, it was what it was, right? 

Suddenly - totally out of the blue - Hudson started singing the “Happy Birthday” song! Ha! So... I suggested that maybe it be my birthday present. I know. I know. I should be a good mom and let the kids do it. After all, Hudson would have been free and they could have done it together. In truth though, both kids are just a little too young to appreciate it. Tom didn’t seem too bothered at the thought of not doing it so - my birthday came early this year - and oh what a present!

They had me put on a surgical gown, surgical booties and plastic gloves. Then I got to sit next to a two-year-old on a bench which he munched on apples. Um - that two year old is much bigger than mine - with much bigger teeth and ultra long, sharp, curved nails! And his mommy doesn’t make him take a bath every day either! Through the plastic gloves, I could feel that his fur is bristly and it made me think a little bit of a kitchen sink brush. The keepers took twenty photo with my camera and a few with Tom’s iPhone. It was a very cool experience that probably lasted a total of two minutes.

As I left, they changed pandas so somebody else could have a turn. That panda made the funniest, highest pitch sound ever as they carried him off! I was so surprised!

The money goes to support the breeding center, an important place since the other center was destroyed by the earthquake as was much of their natural environment.I got a DVD, very nice sweatshirt and certificate. What a great gift!!! Yea Tom! And our lovely guide bought the kids little stuffed pandas. THAT was a nice thing to do, too. She must have thought I was the most selfish person in the world that I didn’t let the kids do it. I know that if the kids were just a year older, I’d have let them without hesitation. But at this age, they were both probably happier with the toy than the experience. Of that, I’m pretty certain.

Afterwards, we had lunch in some nice, clean, non-descript restaurant. Maisie again wolfed down some sort of Chinese chicken dish while Hudson had nothing. 

 

Next we went to People’s Park, a place that is a very small version of New York’s Central Park. I didn’t see any other tourists there - or very few any way. Maisie tried to keep up with a group exercise dance that made me think of a Chinese line dance. It was just one of the many musical things going on in the park, the loudest place ever with all sorts of conflicting music.

There were people playing chinese checkers, mahjong, cards - you name it. And there were “ads” on laminated cards that were about 5x8 in size, sticking on sticks in the ground. Some were ads for things for sale, some were personals - the works.

In Chengdu, a teahouse is outside and not the least bit like the teahouse we visited in Beijing. May insisted we go since it’s really a part of daily life here.

We ordered chrysanthemum and jasmine teas. Before it came, men in silk, smoking-like jackets wielding weird tools descended upon us.

They were - are you ready for this because we weren’t - professional ear cleaners. Yes, while we sipped on tea, these middle-aged Chinese men wearing mining lamps went to work on our ears with little brushes.

May swore they’re sanitary. Then, when our ears were deemed clean, they took out these REALLY long, massive tweezer-like things (pitch forks maybe and hit them together somehow making the ear cleaner vibrate inside our ear - giving us “an inner ear massage.”

The ear-cleaning/massage was followed by a neck/back/arm massage - the oddest one I’ve ever had. Forget Turkish baths, spitting shamans or mud rubs. This was perhaps the single, weirdest local tradition in which I’ve ever partaken on my travels only because it just seemed so out of left field. At least odd shaman rituals are about religion. Again, we were the only tourists there. Most were locals there for their daily cup of tea and ear cleaning. Who knew?!

The kids delighted everybody running through all the tables chasing each other and laughing. Can you imagine the dirty looks they'd get in an American restaurant?! Man, people here love them. I kind of feel like we’re getting a taste of what it must be like to be chased by the paparazzi and let me just say that I don’t want to be Angelina Jolie. Navigating the crowds slows us down big time. At times today, we had at least 50 people gathered around us wanting to take pictures of the kids. Hudson is the biggest draw, but they love Maisie, too. Hudson is just plain sick of it. Maisie either loves it or hates it depending on her mood. When she loves it, she strikes a “Charlie’s Angel” type pose. All she needs is the gun.

With our now spotless ears, we hit Zhangwu Street, a new shopping area fashioned after the ancient town we visited yesterday. There are three such streets in Chengdu, this one, the one where our hotel was and another one we didn’t see. This one was beautifully executed and felt very old. 

This was the first time since we got to China that we have had time on our own to walk around without a guide. What a relief! The shops were expensive and had nothing that we hadn’t seen elsewhere though I did find Hudson the cutest pair of Chinese boots that will be perfect for Halloween. We visited a Starbucks (the only Western store) and had some very welcome, good coffee - finally!  No wonder people here drink tea. Coffee in China is terrible.

We saw babies here in potty training - which means big holes in the bottom of their pants. We've seen that all over, but for the first time, we saw a baby being carried in a basket. This may be "new" and a "tourist area," but we were among the only Westerners here. I loved it.

We got to the airport early and feasted on Pizza Hut. We were just as happy as the kids were to have something more familiar. I’m all for eating new things, but after almost 30 meals of “new” food, we were all ready for something we recognized.

Today was definitely a keeper. I took more photos today than any other. Partly because of the pandas, but I also got a lot of “real” Chinese people’s faces as they went about their daily lives today: old men playing games, babies in baskets, old women laughing. It was a fun day to shoot.

Our flight to Guilin took off on time - 7:45PM, the earliest flight of the day! Luckily, both kids are in great moods still and wide awake. We won’t get there to the hotel til 11 or so again. I hate that, but it is what it is.

Amazingly - and I do mean amazingly - the kids have done incredibly well without sleep. Yes, they’ve grabbed naps here and there in the car and in the stroller (especially Hudson), but they are definitely way behind on their shut eye (as are we!). Maisie usually has massive meltdowns when she’s tired, but she has been better than usual here. She has been a bit hyper and wild which is also from lack of sleep, but she’s not tantrumming. I think they’re both born travelers. How lucky!  This is Maisie’s tenth country in her short four years on the planet! Hudson? He’s clocked eight so far! I also think Maisie is starting to figure out how to self-regulate which is beyond great and will be the key to her testing out of therapy in the future. If she can handle transitions here, she can hopefully handle them at school.

She’s definitely homesick though. She misses her friends desperately. Truth? I’m a little homesick, too.