PANDAS!

We have left the Panda Reserve and are on the train to Chongquing where we will spend the night before getting on the boat down the Yangtze.
What can I say about the pandas?  They are just what you’d expect – beautiful, funny, slow, sleepy and hungry.  There was a huge crowd of people and you could always tell where the pandas were from the mob gathered along the fence.  The Reserve is a wonderful place with long walkways meandering through the forests of bamboo.  When Langer asked if anyone wanted to hold a baby panda, I said, “Me!”  It cost about $150, called a “donation” to the reserve, but where was I going to have an opportunity like that again?  I stood in line to wait, got my plastic booties and gloves and walked in to an isolated spot with a bench and THE BABY PANDA!!!  Someone took my camera and when it was my turn, snapped away.  The baby was pretty big and heavy, with coarse fur.  He (or she?) was happy to sit there as long as there was a piece of bamboo to chew on.  He really didn’t pay much attention to me at all, even though I buried my face in his fur.  He didn’t smell like anything.  I got my minute or so, and then he was passed to the next guy.  So well worth the money!
Just got in the room in Xian.  And just got to the Internet for the first time in 4 days.
Photos:
http://public.fotki.com/mjlang4952/2011-06-18-china/