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Published: October 13th 2007
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Snow ride
Snow covered terraces. I got to Songpan after another 5 hours bus ride. The ride was life threatening beautiful - and by that I mean I thought I was about to die. The drive from Wenchuan to Songpan goes through a series of mountains and the road is narrow, very winding, and there are a lot of speeding busses and trucks, and crossing animals. The views were quite stunning but one aggressive turn would mean that the bus would surely flip and fall thousands of meters down. There were lakes, rivers, multi-colored mountains, etc. My fellow bus passengers were terrible - eating apples and leaving the cores in the aisle, smoking, and one woman was eating chicken feet and accidently dropped the bones in the aisle. Aye! This is China... and this is a developing country. I, as well as the couple behind me kindly told the smokers not to smoke. Of course they didn't care. So I opened up the windows, zipped up my parka, and put on my face mask (I use to go into smelly bathrooms and it doubles as a eye/sleeping mask). Of course the lady across from my complained that it was cold (it was really cold), and then
I told her if she thought it was cold, she should tell those men to stop smoking. So then she got into a fight with the men on my behalf. 😊 They didn't stop smoking and she moved to a seat behind the smokers so she could breathe in more second hand smoke and dodge the wind from my window. I really wanted to turn around and yell at the men for being so inconsiderate and selfish and that they have no manners and that they should be embarassed. But I decided to keep quiet since I didn't want to start an uprising on a 3,000 ft high cliff. Oh, and the driver was a chain smoker too and was smoking and driving at the same time. At one point he was smoking and talking on his cell phone and winding around the mountain. This also made me really mad. I thought the drive was beautiful, but I wouldn't do it again.
I arrived in Songpan and went towards a guesthouse listed in LP (Ice Mountain Hostel) and got a dorm bed for Y20 (less than $3 usd) and free internet here! I was the only female guest, so
Drive to Songpan
Very green lakes along the way. I had the room to myself. I also signed up for a day horse-trek around Songpan - the reason why I decided to stay a night here. Y150 for a day, but I asked for only 4.5 hours ride since I wanted to catch a bus to Jiuzhaigou. The Happy Trails guy wouldn't come further down in price, so I settled with Y120. Very expensive, considering a 3 day camping trek, food included is only Y300-400. Anyway, I ate next door at Emma's Kitchen - Emma is a cute young Chinese woman who opened up a Western restaurant six years ago. Her English is good, and so is her restaurant. I ate her homemade french fries which were delicious. Songpan is at 2800 meters - I was a little short of breath. As I left the restaurant it started to rain. Oh no! I already paid for the horse trek. Darn it. As I went to bed I heard the rain come down.
I hopped out of bed and opened the window to see if the rain stopped and it was all white - the first snow of Songpan! I've never experienced this before since I've never lived in
areas where it snows. It was so pretty, but how was I supposed to go horse riding? I go to the horse office and he said, "Rain, snow or shine - we ride!" He obviously wasn't going to give my money back. So i put on another fleece and got some coffee and eggs with toast from Emma's and hopped on my horse! It was just me and the guide. My guide was wearing a sweater and khakis. No gloves. And for the first part he led the horses through the snow. Brrr!!!
It was pretty freaking cold - but it was magical. You could tell that the trees and bushes were yellows and red and greens... it would have been really beautiful without the snow too. I loved the ride, so peaceful, serene and just really special. I've done rides in Costa Rica and Bryce, and this one was just different. I was thoroughly cold after 2 hours and told the guide to cut our trek short and head back. There were parts where the trail was covered in snow so the poor horse was trudging through snow. Parts were steep and slippery too. I'm glad I went
Snow ride
See the snow covered farming terraces? It was really cold at this point of the ride. Brrr... on the ride! I didn't take that many pictures since it was cold and I was clutching onto the saddle.
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non-member comment
he he. weren't you sweating like crazy a few months ago? talk about weather extremes!