As you will probably know, it's almost the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) and we're on holiday - yippee!! We currently back on campus and it's fantastic - clean and quiet. Why can't it always be like this? Oh yes, because the students have to be here too... tee hee.
Anyway, we went on a short trip to Sichuan, which was great. We went to Chengdu first on the train. I normally really like taking the train in China - there's a big network of railways and [if you can get a ticket] you can get a bed and sleep for as much of it as you want. On the way, we got a ticket. It was very cheap, only 170 RMB. However, the train was a bit dirty and old and not as nice as some I've been on.
We stayed in a lovely place in Chengdu: Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel (www.gogosc.com) A bit more pricey than some of the places we stayed, but lovely clean rooms, a good bar and restaurant and a good travel service. While we were in Chengdu I stocked up on Western food - burger and chips, pizza, sandwich, coffee... and we bought some camera-related equipment.
After a couple of days we left for the mountains. We were heading for Songpan to go horseriding, but we were told that the bus from Chengdu to Songpan was not running (we never really got a clear explanation for why...), so we decided to get a bus to Pingwu and then a tourist spot called 'Jiuzhaigou'. We had initially not wanted to go there as Rick knew it as being a very popular place with the Chinese and thought it might be overrun, but we decided it was worth the risk at this time of year.
Early start, to the bus station and we successfully arrived in Pingwu. This is one of the places affected by the earthquake in May last year. The only real evidence we could see was in the blue tents that were still there and also some other temporary housing.
We found a hotel - a bit damp, but cheap, got some food and explored.
Next morning we got up early to stand by the side of the road and wait for the bus that we were told would go to Jiuzhaigou. Now, we'd been told 9am and 10am by different people, so we made sure we were out there just before 9.39am. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. And it was COLD. Eventually a woman in a nearby shop came out to ask us where we were going and when we told her, she explained that we were in the wrong place and that the bus stopped somewhere else along the main road. We duly found the right spot. And waited. And waited. Fortunately someone else was waiting for the bus, so we knew we were in the correct place. Eventually the bus arrived and we had to wait while the people on it got some lunch, snacks etc., and then we finally set off.
It wasn't a very nice bus - lots of sick on the floor etc., but we managed to find a couple of clean-ish seats.
Oh, and then the bus stopped and picked someone up exactly where we'd been waiting... never mind!
We arrived in Jiuzhaigou, but we needed to be a bit further along the same road, so we (eventually) negotiated a price with a random guy with a car and set off. We found the hotel we wanted to stay in, but just before that, our driver had spotted some people looking for a hotel. He offered (I think!) to take them to some hotels and so we sat in the car while he took them to a couple to look at. Eventually they decided to go to a completely different one, so he followed them to see where they would go(!) and then tried (I think) to see if that hotel would do some kind of commission thing with him if he brought them guests... I think he was also trying to do the same at the place where we stayed, but sadly it was a very cheap place and clearly not in the market for that sort of thing!!!
Anyway, our hotel was absolutely fine, if a little cold (see picture). More later...
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