Trip to Jiu Zhai Gou (A long overdue post!)

Day 1 (2 April 09)
Flight to Chengdu at night. Overnight at Youth Hostel (which everyone else seems to love but I really detest places with communal toilets). But it was cheap, only 10RMB per person! I enjoyed the plane supper of a bun with ham, with salad and dried fruits as a side. I’ve decided that I like Air China’s food. Haha. Did not bath as the toilet facilities were erm..and we were due to wake up at 5am anyway.

Day 2
Set off at 5.30 a.m. Stopped by at a local breakfast shop and they served 稀饭and 肉包 which I thought was quite nice. Perhaps I’m getting used to China food and starting to enjoy it. Then we spent the rest of the day cooped up in the car, traveling to the mountain area. Stopped for lunch and had 土豆鸡 and some other dishes with rice. The potato with chicken was in a huge pot and had lots of chilli oil. It was yummy and spicy. Most of our subsequent meals were similar and I enjoyed most of them, although the oil was quite a turnoff. Finally we reached 牟泥沟 at around 4 p.m., and paid 50 RMB to see a waterfall (扎ga waterfall) which frankly speaking, was not worth it at all although it’s quite nice. But we weren’t allowed to explore any of the other scenic places cos the park was going to close by the time we entered. Well but the good thing is we started to spot snow. By the time we arrived for dinner, it was snowing quite heavily!! The toilet was gross and I hope I will never have to use such toilets again in my life. It’s all dark and you can hardly see what you are doing. Especially when you are having your thing, it’s really not a pleasant experience. There’s this local bean/nut called 豌豆 which both restaurants served. We saw it at the convenience stall and I bought a packet to bring home. It’s addictive ;) Then we stayed at the hotel behind the place we ate and I bathed in lukewarm/cold water (can't remember) which was OMG. And the whole room was freezing throughout the night and we had to sleep with our hair wet. We even had to wear socks, gloves and jackets to bed. BUT… this is not as OMG as the following day…

Day 3
Woke up to snowy surroundings. Whoa!! The entire scene outside our window was covered in snow. We went out to take pictures of the snow and I touched snow for the first time in my life and made a tiny snowball. I think that’s one of the most redeeming parts of this trip, the snow. We were supposed to go to 黄龙，another mountain (I think) but it was closed due to the snow. So we proceeded to Jiu Zhai Gou immediately but decided that we would stay outside the park itself for the day and only enter it the next day and spend the entire day there. Stopped by the Intercontinental to take photos, and the place is STUNNING. If I had all the money in the world I would definitely make a trip to JZG during autumn and spend a few days in the Intercontinental. But obviously I don’t, so stop dreaming! Then stopped at this 古城 to take photos as it was snowing. It was a beautiful place. Spent quite a long time there taking in the snowy scenes and taking photos. After that, we proceeded to the Jiu Zhai Gou visitors’ centre and the outside of the park. For dinner, we went to a Tibetan house where we had lots of Tibetan food and they entertained us with songs, food and games. It was quite entertaining and a really different culture experience. Weiyang and Layming were very sporting when they were asked to ‘marry’ the Tibetans and perform those marriage rituals. And Yanru started feeling queasy and unwell after the whole thing and she actually ran out to the drain to vomit. I was so freaked! She had a splitting headache and I gave her the po zhai pills and thank goodness, the next day she was fine again. Anyway while she knocked out on the bed, I went to bath and that bath totally breaks the record for the most memorable part of my trip because… I BATHED BY BOILING WATER IN THE ELECTRIC KETTLE AND THEN POURING IT OVER MYSELF. It was the worst ever experience in the world I tell you. I was literally trembling as I waited for the water to boil and I repeated that entire process five times. And the best thing was, the next morning, I found out from the rest that there was actually a switch beside the heater to turn it on. Words cannot express how stupid I felt as the others gave me looks of incredulity upon hearing about my bathing experience the night before. I should have kept my mouth shut. Hah.

Day 4
We entered JZG early in the morning. The admission ticket cost 260RMB! Took the tour bus right up to the top where we saw beautiful snow again. We made our way to the various lakes and scenic places either by bus or foot after that, stopping at each place to take photos and admire the scenery. The places were beautiful but after awhile, all the scenery started to look exactly the same. We had snacks like muffins and biscuits along the way (where I discovered the attraction of a Fei Lun Hai biscuit!) Finished touring the place by evening and left when the park was closing. After dinner, we bought dried Yak meat 牦牛肉 which is I think the most famous food in JZG, as souvenirs. Then spent the night in the girls’ room where we had a Korean drama cum gossip cum sharing about ourselves session, which was fun!

Day 5
Entire day in the car back to Chengdu. The car ride was quite horrible as I felt perpetually squashed. I don’t know why cos we’ve been riding like that for the past few days but on the last day, it was just utterly horrible! I just couldn’t wait to get out of the car. And to make things worse, it started to get really hot when we left the mountainous area. We passed by all the earthquake rubble on the way out and it was really depressing to see them up close. I wanted to take photos of them but was too uncomfortable to move. When we arrived at the airport at 6 plus, we were told that there was some problem with the plane and they were going to switch to a smaller aircraft, and they would pay us 400 RMB each with accommodation and food if we were willing to be delayed to the next morning. So we hastily agreed and they arranged for us to stay at a 2 star airport hotel. The dinner they served was yummy! The hotel had a mahjong room with an automatic table so we rented the place and played till 2 a.m. I got laughed at umpteen times for my poor mahjong skills and poor English. =(

Day 6
We officially left Chengdu after a breakfast of mantou, fried egg and porridge. Goodbye Jiu Zhai and Chengdu! We were back to Beijing which transformed from a freezing to a hot place in the short span of 5 days.

Conclusion: It was a rather fun trip and I miss it, but I highly doubt I will ever go back again unless I strike lottery and can stay in the Intercontinental.
(Photo of entrance to Intercontinental)


At 九寨沟：
The people I travelled with!! :)