We all had a bit of a late start to the day. Priscilla wasn't feeling 100% so there was a day off from the early morning runs.
Steph and Louisa were taking it very easy so Priscilla, Erik and I ventured off on our own to the seven peaks park. This was on the other side of the river from our hostel and while the walk didn't take too long, it was very hot and humid and we were beginning to wish we took a taxi.
The park itself was a bit of a disappointment after the sweaty trek to get there. We were pleased to discover a cave which seemed to have natural air conditioning which helped cool us down. Apart from that the main attractions were the zoo and some of the rock formations.
I had a sense that the zoo was going to be a bit of a depressing affair and I wasn't wrong. Most of animals were in small concrete enclosures with little or no natural vegetation. First we saw some fat and lazy monkeys in a concrete asylum and things just got worse from there. There was about 30 deer stuck in a tiny concrete pen full of droppings. It looked like their antlers had been cut off. There was also a camel that was just sitting in the heat waiting for people to pay 20 RMB to ride it and have their photo taken.
We also saw lots of ostrich which looked pretty ugly. Erik was scared of them, I don't think he liked the idea of being pecked by one of them.
We saw signs for a Panda hotel so we decided to check that out too. When we got there we initially assumed no pandas had checked in as they were nowhere to be seen. However eventually we found two poor pandas locked up in separate concrete cells, both looking very forlorn. It was a complete contrast to Chengdu where the Pandas were kept in a natural environment with lots of trees to climb etc.
After the depressing animals we checked out the other main sight of the park which was a rock formation in the shape of a kneeling camel. It wasn't that impressive but that didn't stop Priscilla from persuading Erik and I to adopt a similar pose in front of it so she could take a photo. It looked like we were smelling each other's arses in the photos!
We headed back to town for lunch and met up with Steph and Louisa in an Italian place close by our hostel. We all thought the food was pretty good and we lingered there a while escaping the heat.
The girls decided they wanted to get foot massages after lunch so they headed off to a place near our hostel, while Erik and I napped for a while. After an hour or so Priscilla bounced in to the room obviously rejuvenated by her massage and decided to wake us up by stepping on our backs with her massaged feet. After much cajoling the girls convinced us that we should get massages too. It was very good value at 80 RMB (~$12) for a 80 minute back and foot massage. I am convinced I have lots of knots in my back and the back massage was a bit painful at first but got more relaxing as it went on. The foot massage was very relaxing, especially at the end when they applied some mint cooling gel. However I have to admit I did laugh a few times when it got a bit ticklish.
Afterwards we headed back to the hostel and chilled out for a while before dinner. Erik had spotted a Paulaner pub near our hostel so we decided to give chinese food a break once again and headed there. Erik was pleased to discover they had one of his favorite beers at the bar so he ordered that while I went for a Hefeweizen and priscilla got the chimay. Steph laid off the drinking that night. We ordered some german sausage and french fries; the food wasn't quite up to loreley standards but it was ok.
After eating we decided to try and play darts; unfortunately the darts they had must have been very blunt as every second dart fell out of the board. I know you are probably thinking a bad workman blames his tools but really it was really the darts.
Later our dutch friend from the hostel joined us at the bar, and having given up on the darts we decided to play dice instead. This was a lot more successful. I started very well but by the end of the game it seemed like I was losing pretty much every game. I ended up having to drink half of Priscilla's beer as mine ran out so quickly taking all the penalty drinks. After a while we all called it quits and headed back to the hostel, a sensible idea for me given that I had rather less sensibly promised to go running with Priscilla at 6:30am.
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