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Asia » China » Jiuzhaigou
October 21st 2007
Published: October 21st 2007
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langmusi main streetlangmusi main streetlangmusi main street

ahh, the sleepy town of langmusi
so, we've actually been in three different places since my last entry, so i'll try to capture a bit of them all for you here.....

back in langmusi, we got up early in the morning to see the monks and were unfortunately disappointed. there were no monks praying in the temple, and it was bloody cold. however, it was nice walking through the town with nobody else up and about, especially considering that we seem to have a trail of german tour buses following us at the moment (from xiahe to langmusi, and then the next day we would see them in songpan, too). we climbed up the hill instead and watched the sun rise (well, the sky got light. there was too much cloud to actually see any kind of sun), and then had some breakfast.

after a bit of a rest back at the ranch, during which we sat around and read and dozed, we decided to go up and brave the cliffs. this was a great experience, totally breathtaking, and in more ways than one. langmusi was probably one of the highest places we went to - i know the altitude was slightly higher than xiahe,
sunset in langmusisunset in langmusisunset in langmusi

what a beautiful place
but i don't know what it was, exactly - meaning that every little thing you do takes more breath than usual. i was still getting puffed climbing the stairs. so climbing a huge hill and then some cliffs took it out of me. i wasn't too physically tired, but i was really puffed and gasping for breath quite often.

on our way up, we walked past a shepherdess and her flock, which included sheep, goats and yaks. (or is the plural still yak? i'm not sure on that one). she was whistling away at them and throwing rocks to make them go in the right direction, which was down into the valley below. occasionally she'd stop and sing some tibetan song in a high voice. like many of the locals, she was in traditional tibetan costume, and had the brown face with rosy cheeks that we've come to love. she pointed us in the right direction up the hillside and went about her business.

we kept stumbling up rocks and grass and mud for a while, and were almost at the top when i felt a bit headachey and dizzy. ever aware of altitude sickness, i decided that
turnin prayer wheelsturnin prayer wheelsturnin prayer wheels

setting some of those prayers free - not 3ks of them like at xiahe, but some nonetheless
i probably shouldn't go to the top, just in case. it was a bit disheartening to be so close and yet start feeling sick, and know it was probably healthier not to keep climbing, but it was ok. i ate some bread and played some music to myself and felt much better about things. kt continued all the way to the top of the cliffs, and was soon joined by damien and helen, who we'd spotted at the bottom of the hill not too long before (they're fast climbers, those two).

the rest of langmusi involved a few more bites to eat and wandering around looking at more shiny things, as well as buying some strapping material so that i could make a strap for my guitar case (the handle is breaking, and i wanted to be able to wear it on my shoulder). unfortunately the only stuff we could find was this bright rainbow stuff, which i wasn't too keen on (especially since kt's been teasing me about being the biggest hippie around). but there wasn't anything else, so i bought it and sewed it on, consoling myself with the fact that it would make a good strong
lamu caveslamu caveslamu caves

the "fairy" caves that langmusi, (lamu in tibetan), is named after
strap, and that the rainbow is the symbol of queer pride, so it's not so bad, i guess.

after langmusi, songpan. we got a minibus to take the four of us there (helen and damien were headed that way too), which was an experience - driving here is interesting at best (fucking scary at worst), and at one point we left the road to go down a bumpy muddy rocky mountain, with steep, narrow roads. still, it wasn't as scary as some taxi rides have been, and we got through it without incident, despite trucks passing us in the opposite direction. we even got to have a brief frolic in the falling snow at the bottom when we stopped for a pee break.
songpan is a nice town, but hardly as breathtaking as langmusi and xiahe. in fact, all the honking of horns and craziness of tour buses (damien said 18 went past him in the space of five minutes) made it quite a shock after the rural villages we'd gotten used to. tourists everywhere, and the tacky tourist souveniers we'd avoided for a few days. oh well. a big part of songpan's attraction was that we could extend
spunky cowspunky cowspunky cow

one of the large herd on the side of the hill near the cliffs
our visa there, which we did without too much hassle (in fact, they processed it in about half an hour), but unfortunately it meant that we lost our second entry. never mind. we still have one more extension that we can do, and in future we'll just get single-entry ones, i think. after all that, we were free to have a bit of a look around. apart from the more picturesque 'old town', songpan isn't so much to look at, so after wandering for a while, we settled down with our first real pizzas in a while and some books and a beer. relaxing......

the next day, along with helen and damien, we got on the 11 o'clock bus to jiuzhaigou. jiuzhaigou is a gorgeous national park west of songpan (or maybe north - my geography in this region isn't great). early on our first day there, kt and i had run out of superlatives.
unfortunately, the beauty of the park is countered by several factors. the first, we discovered, was the lack of hotels/hostels, cheap or otherwise. "it's the busy season" we were told by shrugging staff. october, the busy season? it seemed kinda weird, since it's starting
helen at jiuzhaigouhelen at jiuzhaigouhelen at jiuzhaigou

at the start of our travels in jiuzhaigou it was all smiles.....
to snow in most places at this kind of altitude and higher (a modest 2000m) by this time of year. still, i guess they know what they're talking about. we got dragged along with a tout for a while, after trying a couple of hotels. that was an interesting trip - traipsing around with our heavy packs and wondering when the hell we'd get to where he was taking us. it ended up being to much of a run-around, so we eventually ditched him. he followed us down the road for a while, and his mates tried to get us to go for a ride with them, but we weren't having any of it. severely pissed off, we walked for a little while and got in a taxi (the tout had followed us and actually tried to help me with my bags, which i snatched off him) and drove off as quick as we could to a hostel damien and helen had heard about.
the you u hotel, where i am now, is one of the cleanest and best-equipped hostels i've been in for a while. there are several working showers with 24-hour hot water. there's internet and a cafe
jiuzhaigoujiuzhaigoujiuzhaigou

one of the first glimpses at the beauty that is jiuzhaigou national park
(both of which were problematic the first couple of days, but seem to be working now. the cafe's ridiculously expensive, though, so we've been staying away from that). this is offset by the fact that a dorm bed is 100 yuan (we managed to get them down to 80, but still) - the dorms are nice, and the beds are the widest i've been on in a while, but it's still pretty exorbitant.

so i thought, until i got to the park.
i have chinese tourism burnout. i've never seen that many tourists in one place at once. so many people it made me feel physically ill. we got there around 7am, and helen very nicely queued up for us and bought the tickets - a pricey 320 yuan. 90 of this was for the bus ticket, which is only valid for one day. the park ticket is valid for two. we queued up again, amidst some pushing and shoving, and eventually got through the gates and into the park. after catching a bus to one of the more scenic stops, we got out and walked for a peaceful while along the track. that was definitely my best experience
waterfallwaterfallwaterfall

one of the many amazing waterfalls at jiuzhaigou
in the park. beautiful views, and not too many people (one of the girls we met at the hostel said that it was best to start from the beginning and walk to the end, instead of getting the bus to the end straight away, cos all the tourists do it that way, and we'd avoid the rush if we did it opposite). on the ticket the park is referred to as "fairyland", and it certainly resembles the sort of scenes i used to imagine when i was little and playing faeries in the sparse garden of our house in karratha. moss-covered trees and rocks, autumnal foliage, deep blue wonderfully clear lakes and waterfalls. very little litter, compared to the rest of china, and a strict ban on smoking. as kt said, it was really "wet-your-pants-kinda-wonderful".

the wonder began to cease when we found ourselves on the wrong side of the trail - we'd gotten onto the left fork, which we meant to leave til the next day. you can't walk along the trail there and have to catch a bus to the top. this was the start of our frustration with the bus system in the park. buses would
washing my facewashing my facewashing my face

continuing the tradition of washing my face in freezing cold mountain rivers and lakes.....i think kanas was colder, though.
not stop for us - we tried to flag down so many of them and at least five went past before a man on the other side of the road told us we had to go about 500m down the road we'd just walked up and maybe we could catch one from there. so we went, and eventually a bus deigned to stop for us. gratefully we got on it, and then tried to get it to stop several times during the journey so that maybe we could walk some of the way. no, apparently you're not allowed to do that - you've got to go right to the top.
i'm so sick of being told i'm not allowed to do things because of some pathetic bureaucracy that i feel like screaming "fuck you!" at anyone who gets in my way. just one of many things i've learned to hate about being a tourist, especially in china. i am quickly losing my patience with this system.
anyway, we got to the top. we were immediately swallowed by a massive herd of tourists. we spent a little while after that thinking of appropriate collective nouns. kt suggested "a barfbag of tourists".
the horror, the horrorthe horror, the horrorthe horror, the horror

the tourist "conveyor belt" at 5-colour lake (or colourful lake, maybe? there were a few of them).
or "a nauseate". i thought maybe "clusterfuck", but that's a little too general. anyway, you get the picture. it was disgusting, and made more so by the fact that there is no kind of etiquette when it comes to walking places or queueing. people jostle you out of the way, and stop to take photos in ridiculous spots (a very chinese habit seems to be stopping at intersections. wherever you are in china, someone is stopped at an intersection. it's infuriating).
we braved this for a while, mostly by walking as fast as we could and doing the chinese thing of abandoning all courtesy. eventually we moved away from the herds and their tour buses and tour groups, and experienced a brief respite. we managed to get to the other trail via a bus (more confusion with where the hell to catch the bus from, but it was ok in the end). we walked and walked, and looked at some more spectacular waterfalls (and ate instant noodles for lunch for the even more spectacular price of 10 yuan). we felt a bit better and kept going.

the next problem came when we decided to head to the top of the mountain to see the primeval forest. we tried to get on a few buses and they wouldn't let us on. we asked a few people, and they pointed at the opposite side of the road to where we wanted to be (the side going down the mountain). we patiently explained we wanted to go up the mountain. it was insane for a while. kt was fuming, and i wasn't far behind. one tour guide suggested that it was "very difficult" for us to see the park without a tour guide. i probably should have told him to piss off, but instead i tried to explain that it was a lot more fun on our own, cos we didn't have to be herded around in a bit revolting tour group. that, and it's ridiculously expensive.

we ended up going a little way down the mountain, in a bus where they told us that we had to go all the way down and then all the way back up again. what? then they dropped us off at the next stop. after a little while, we managed to get a bus from there, which wound up being totally empty. by this
another panoramaanother panoramaanother panorama

so much beauty...... not enough superlatives
point we were past caring and just jumped on it and pointed up the hill. we were the only people on it, and we were totally knackered.

we got to the top of the hill. saw some of the forest. saw a squirrel or two (they're smaller than i expected). came down. went home.
well, actually, going home was craziness too. first, the intense crowds at the gate. we pushed and shoved past people with cameras, uncaring. then practically ran out the gates. of course, there were no taxis, so although we had no energy left, we pulled it out of somewhere and started walking. there was a massive group of people walking in the same direction as us, which was disheartening, but we perservered.
the moment when i actually thought i would completely lose it was when we got to a point where there were two men in uniform directing everyone to go, not along the road, but through a small market. more money-making bullshit. we tried to reason (argue) with them for a bit, but they were unmoveable, so we headed through the markets. i thought that i might start screaming and ripping things off walls and
kt at jiuzhaigoukt at jiuzhaigoukt at jiuzhaigou

i had to grab the camera and take a shot of kt here, looking very picturesque by the lake
turning over tables in my rage, so i put on my best fuck-off face (which is pretty good, i think), and charged through that market as fast as i possibly could. we'd walked more than 15ks already (actually, it may have been closer to 20), but i did it, and got the hell out of there.
after some more exhausted walking, we finally got away from the tourist nightmare and managed to catch a taxi. got back to the hostel, ate dinner, sat around and compared stories with the others (theirs were similar) and slept.

getting up at six this morning wasn't easy, but we did it. we promised ourselves we'd just spend a half-day in the park, cos that was all we could cope with (i actually didn't really want to go at all, but i also couldn't bear to waste that expensive ticket). we went in, got herded immediately down somewhere we hadn't wanted to go, and set a brisk pace along the walkway. no more dawdling and enjoying the scenery (well, kt and i aren't exactly dawdlers anyway, but today was definitely different). we walked and walked, and i felt more and more tired and more and more inclined to just turn around and go home. kt later told me she felt the same.
anyway, the frustrating parts (since they're the most interesting).....
another bus episode. we walked about 7ks, and got rained on and wet and cold and miserable, and more tourists with inconvenient and impolite umbrellas appeared to test our patience, but we finally made it to the bus stop. after not too long, we got on a bus.
this bus took us a k or two down the road and then stopped. ok, fair enough. a woman came on and checked our tickets. the bus stayed stopped. uh-oh, we thought.
it was bad when she checked the tickets, cos technically they were only for one day. we were hoping that they wouldn't check us today (they didn't yesterday), cos there was no way we were paying another 90 kuai (slang for yuan) for another ticket. an english speaker got on the bus and started telling us the tickets weren't valid and we had to get off. damnit, into the rain and so forth! kt argued valiantly with her for a bit, saying that we'd been told the tickets were still valid today (which we actually had, by some dozy lady with a microphone at the front of the bus the day before), but the lady was having none of it. we were kicked off the bus, where they proceeded to try to sell us another ticket. "it's 7ks to the entrance", she told us.
7ks. we were exhausted. still, we stalked off. we tried to get some people in cars to give us a lift. we went up to a little stall with the thought of buying some hot tea, and ended up with a small bottle of clear spirits (we thought if we got pissed the walk back might seem easier, and at 5 kuai it was a hell of a lot more attractive than the 45-kuai brolly). the alcohol was so revolting it made you gag and cough and splutter, so we only managed a sip or two each. we kept walking along the road for a while, until a man in a silly fur hat (ok, it's a traditional tibetan thing i spose, but he was chinese and i was pissed off) told us we weren't allowed to.
there's that phrase again. i was about to crack, i thought. we tried to get around it for a while, but he wasn't having any of it. back onto the path for us.

i guess the path was prettier, and eventually the clouds parted and we were treated to patches of blue sky and sunshine. there's a saying that clear skies are so rare here that the dogs bark when there's a clear sky, so that gives an indication of the weather patterns. certainly it was drizzling and overcast in songpan as well. i don't like getting wet. unfortunately, the clouds chose to part just as we were getting back to the entrance. perfect.

after a quick photo with the constipated-looking fake pandas at the entrance, we were out of there, never to return. kt is composing a "strongly-worded" letter about the bus system being totally crap (especially with no kind of instructions given on where the hell bus stops are and so forth), as well as everything being too expensive and the park generally being very difficult to deal with, especially for foreigners.

we have chinese tourism burnout. we're heading off to chengdu tomorrow, where we're probably going to couchsurf with an irish guy called seadna, and then meet up with mickey (yay!) and not do anything tourist-y for a couple of days. in fact, i think we'll hit the bars, get a bit pissed, and hopefully see some music. sounds pretty good to me.


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