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Published: November 24th 2011
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I haven't had time to proof read this, my apologies. You'll find out why at the last paragraph (dangling carrot!)
So on the 9th of November i set out from UST, HK heading for
Chengdu, China with three Spaniards for company. After traveling to the Philippines with three cliquey Scandinavians i had made the Spanish promise me the majority of conversation would be in English - how naive. Once again a Brit is at a significant disadvantage due to a lack of emphasis on languages back in secondary school. The story of my life.
But in all seriousness they were pretty decent about it. The girls, Marta and Irene, especially made such an effort and also took a proactive interest in developing their almost fluent grasp on the English language with the introduction on youth colloquialisms and older sayings. I even at one point taught them the difference between envy and jealousy which i've since seen them teach to Americans.
Our flight was slightly delayed but we found friends in the airport to keep us amused. At the other end stood a small balding oriental waving a 'Marka' sign (Marta pre-booked a taxi and spelled her name
out three times over the phone). we jumped in and, in our hyper state, starting bombarding the Chifu (phonetic spelling of driver in Mandarin) with general questions about nothing. It was soon evident i was the best at Chinese. Irene had never studied it, Marta had studied it too long ago to remember, and Enrique was taking classes but i can only assume by his poor basics he used the opportunity to take siestas. This was a challenge i was very happy to accept as the guys turned to me in most situations to communicate with drivers/receptionists/ticket offices.
We arrived in our Chengdu hostel at 2330 knowing we would have a driver waiting at 0730 the next morning to head to Jiuzhaigou. We stayed in that evening.
We were late to the meet
the next morning. This was to be a reoccurring feature of the trip and a predictable one considering the company i was in. Even Enrique's half German side which prompted him to be reliably punctual receded at the thought of early mornings.the following seven hours consisted of Enrique sleeping, waking, complaining of boredom and and a lack of comfort, then falling asleep again. It was a
dull journey, but i've had worse. We stopped occasionally (when the chifu could understand our requests. He spoke not a word of English) for toilet breaks, lunch or to see the views. Lunch was another awkward encounter as we hadn't yet covered food in Chinese classes. It involved a lot of pointing at fellow guests' plates and some rather erratic hand gestures. Sichuan is a province renowned for its spicy food, and over the coming days, i found out why: it was delectable. This meal was just the garnishing on Sichuan's hot pot of fiery culinary fuel.
We arrived in
Jiuzhaigou at around 1800, and after the initial trouble of communications with the hostel receptionist, got into our rooms. Fully heated. It was around 4 degrees Celsius when we arrived. We had an explore that evening and another meal that evening requesting, via hand gesture and facial expression hot food. That evening we set our alarms for 0615 to be at the nature park for 0700 when it opened.
The next morning we left the hostel at 0715 into the crisp 1 degree air. I noticed just before leaving a light outside my window, and realised as i
sat in 24 degrees on a comfortable single, seven metres out my double glazed window squatted a family, under a red and blue awning with little but a small camping stove for warmth. These guys wake every morning to the site of our hostel mocking them...
My fine linguistic prowess got us tickets into the park and on the right bus in no time. It splits like a fork into two avenues with small buses traveling the length to drop off and collect weary hikers. We told ourselves we would bus the top of the first path, walk back to the divide, the bus to the top of the second and repeat.
We soon discovered this to be an insurmountable task as Jiuzhaigou is a leviathan of a natural park. We walked most of the first path at a reasonable pace and it still took us five hours. slightly defeated we turned to the bus system to save time and insure we saw as much as possible.
The buses were frequent and fast and as long as you didn't mind squashing on, you could get from A to B in no time.
As cliched as it sounds, no
words can do Jiuzhaigou justice. Few photos really communicate the power and beauty of the environment. Without doubt the most beautiful lakes i've ever seen; like nothing else. Without doubt worth the journey.
We stayed until around 18.00 and headed off for another spicy dish and requests lost in translation. Fortunately where ever we went, they understand my pronunciation of Piujuo (beer).
The journey back saw us accompanied by a driver fesh off the rally track. A young fella with a word or two of English at best but too busy slotting the vehicle between two large coaches before an on-coming lorry sends us tabogganning down the revine. We stopped by what we were told was an equally beautiful park:
Huanglong. It was snowing quite heavily and before taking the lift up to the top of this mountain side we agreed a meeting time with the driver. Only once at the top did we realised the scale of the park (once again, the lack of scales on ALL Chinese maps meant we had no idea about how long it would take until we were at the top). The girls turned back: Enrique and I ploughed on determined not
to waste our 20GBP entry fee. To combat the chill and the clock, we did it at a jog, stopping briefly to see the pools and a particularly elegant frozen waterfall. It was nice, but it paled when seen relative to Jiuzhaigou. That evening we had traditional Chinese hot pot. It must have been clear we had no idea how to go about eating, so were guided through the whole process by a swathe of inquisative waiters/waitresses. They showed us, without a word, the process of making your own sauces with the ingredients provided, how to cook the food, when to fish it out and eat it and more. It was a very enjoyable meal including a bite of two of chicken's foot's web, which was rather bland. (I have recently also tried chicken testicle which is surprisingly flavoursome...once you get over the initial birsting squirt in your mouth.)
On the Sunday we went to the
World's largest Giant Panda reserve for the morning. We had the opportunity to have our photo taken cuddling a baby panda, an opportunity one could not pass up you may think. With a 100GBP price tag, we didn't find it too hard to
walk on by. Watching pandas was good enough. The afternoon was filled with visiting temples and some tourist attractions around Chengdu including some odd encounters with locals. One generationally challenged maddam was telling me (i think) that i was Canadan. I corrected her: Wo shi Yingerlan ren! but she was having none of it. That evening we packed the girls off on their early flight home. Me and Enrique had another day.
By this point, Enrique's only-child syndrome was flaring up and the next twenty hour hours was testing but we carried on exploring the city at a gentle pace.
It is now two weeks since i returned from China. Going to Sichuan was not the smartest idea as i had a large
work load when i left. Since then, it has only increased. Exponentially. I honestly have never had so much work at any one point and never been working so consistantly, hence why this blog took too long to compile. I barely have time to grab food!
This being said, and due to my childishly weak ability to counteract peer pressure....I will be leaving for
Taipei in half an hour. What the hell, you
only live once!
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