On Palm Sunday morning, most of the Tauck group got on the bus to the huge, impeccably clean and modern train station in Chengdu. I thought about getting a blizzard at The DQ so I could think Mom and the 4th of July but I was very full after the breakfast spread at the St. Regis.
We took a slower train to Leshan, where the biggest Buddha in the world hangs out on a lovely river. The “town” itself is so much smaller than all of the other cities we have been to so far (only 3 million). If you look closely, you can see all of the tiny Buddhas in the posts in the roundabout.
After driving through the hamlet of Leshan, we took a large boat down the river to see the site, although some people (none of us) walked to the top.
After a large lunch at a 4 star hotel in Leshan (but with 5 star bathrooms), we reversed course back to Chengdu, this time back on the bullet train.
A core group of us then finished up by taking a taxi to a very Swanky Italian restaurant in an extremely high-end shopping area (Mercedes after Porsche after Audi were cruising around, and I even saw a Maybach) and finished it up by walking back to the hotel in a slight mist). So if nothing else, Tauck is the best at feeding and handling logistics.
Yesterday morning, we then flew to Guilin and I am writing this from my comfy room at the Banyan Tree resort (emphasis on Resort) after another full day. More details of yesterday and today (which is 5:00 on Tuesday) in next post. But here is room and resort.
Yes, those are rose petals strewn about, but I haven’t used my egg shape tub. Yet …
One Response to Bus to train to bus to boat to Buddha And back again