Advertisement
I was in a deep sleep and having an amazing dream when suddenly, someone knocked at the door! Haha. But for reals, I’d asked my friend Rob to come make sure I was awake this morning at 6:45am since we were flying to Jiuzhaigou and had to leave the hotel at 7:30. I completely forgot that I’d asked him and when I opened the door I was like woah, instantly awake when I saw him standing there in just basketball shorts. The first thing that ran through my mind was “good MORNING it IS! Who is this?” and then I looked up and realized it was Rob lol. Let me inform you that Rob is about 6’2 while I’m coming up short at 5’5 so the first thing I saw was a half naked body. What a great way to start the day.
We flew out of this tiny airport on a small plane into even a tinier airport. When we got off the plane I almost stopped dead in my tracks. (We got off on the runway itself.) I saw my breath coming out of my mouth and the clouds at the same level as me! It was
so cold! All of us were pretty confused but really excited at the same time…we had no idea it was going to be this cold! Our professors told us to pack for just 2 nights in a smaller suitcase so packing for similar weather to Chengdu, I brought flip flops, shorts and a sun dress…no to mention a bathing suit since I’d hear something about there being pools! It appears that I’ll be wearing the same jeans and sneakers I wore on the plane here for the next 3 days! And I need to buy more socks!
After getting past the shock of the weather, we all went out and piled into the coach bus to take us to Multi-colored Pools (which was on religious land). While driving to the mountain, we wound around sharp turns and many time our bus was passing other busses on the road…on the wrong side! There are so many points that we were all freaking out wishing we had a shit-handle and saying that we were never going to complain about Arizona drivers again. But one thing distracted us all after a few minutes; the scenery. It was so beautiful that it felt
like we were in Colorado or Switzerland, not China. At one point we went around a turn and my mouth dropped; there was snow on the mountain tops! There is no denying it that instantly wished I was snowboarding and threw a mini hissy-fit with Maggie about wishing we had brought our boards.
I quickly adjusted to the scenery and feel asleep since I haven’t been sleeping well in these beds…they are as hard as rock and you can feel the springs. I am sitting here writing on the bed right now on my stomach and I can feel the springs in my elbows…ew. Anyways, if thinking about snowboarding wasn’t enough, we arrived at the base of the mountain and found out we got to take a gondola ride up half way then walk the rest! I was down with that. The gondola ride was sooo slow. They purposely made it slow so that we could enjoy the scenery but after many gondola experiences, I was quickly frustrated and wished it’d go faster.
After getting to the top and a million pictures later, we started walking along this wooden path that had been recently built. The wooden planks
ASU in the cold
We don't do cold in AZ! weren’t even the same length and in some areas, not even at the same level. It was such a nice walk through the woods though. We all just walked along talking and joking the entire way; it’s like we didn’t have a care in the world. It almost felt as if I’d become a part of nature.
We got to a stopping point where there was a Buddhist Temple where people were worshiping. I never realized how valuable the Buddhist religion is to the Chinese people…this makes me want to learn more about the ideals of it more. After the temple we walked around back…
…and then it came.
The multi-colored pools. 693 calcification ponds that reflect a deep jade colors of blues and greens. I have never seen anything like these in my entire life. The color of the ponds was so beautiful and the water was probably very cold. We weren’t allowed to touch the water or ponds since our touch would ruin the calcium build up and would take over 100 years to repair itself. The 45 minute hike from the gondola to the ponds was totally worth it…but the hour plus walk down
Rob Pimping it with the girls
It's the sweater...we couldn't help ourselves! kinda sucked. My calves are so sore from the past two days of hiking that the walk down almost felt deadly…but I did enjoy the environment. We were in a bit of a rush since we had a 2 ½ hour bus ride to the hotel for dinner.
As strenuous as the walk was, I would defiantly come back and go slower and stop to rest and just enjoy the landscape. It was just a wide open world till our eyes hit the mountains ahead.
Thoroughly exhausted, we got back to the hotel, ate dinner, then Fei recommended the most perfect thing in the world; in room foot massage. I didn’t even think twice and I was in. The next thing I knew was I was laying back on the bed while the woman was giving me a foot and calf massage that put me in complete ecstasy. It hurt but it felt so freaking good.
So they just left and my feet are feeling great. We need to wake up at 6am tomorrow to get to the Great Waterfalls before the rest of the tourists. I’m starting to get used to waking up early but I’m
Colored Pools
Wow, I don't know anywhere else in the world you can see this! learning to sleep well on the bus! Night!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.043s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0241s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Betty
non-member comment
Great story
Ha ha sounds like fun. I enjoyed reading your story on discovering a great foot massage.