big buddhas and polar bear swimmers

This was my big day!!! Seeing the great Buddha of Leshan changed my life. Well, not really, but it was kind of great. I needed to see it cause the New Horizons textbook we used in Japan featured a lesson about it… “The Great Buddha of Leshan is 71 metres tall…”. We took the bus two hours of town and I thought Rodrigo was going to die. We were on a mini bus with no working heat or television. Not the best bus ride. We stuck around Leshan for a few hours watching the polar bear swim club in the river, eating kung pao chicken and mapou tofu and generally wandering about. The bus ride back was a lot better – bigger bus and Jackie Chan movie! And we even managed to make it back on time to catch the overnight train to Chongqing. The only drawback of the day was the worst public washroom EVER! Leshan bus station – don’t use it! The highlight(?) of the day was walking into a restaurant and having the hostess shake the chef awake, then seat us at the table where he had been sleeping. Clearly a happening place.