Day 4 : Jiuzhaigou - Chengdu

Today, we woke up at 7.00 a.m. It was time to drive back to Chengdu today! We were sure looking forward to going back to the city!

We did not even go to the dining hall for breakfast.We did not bother to, knowing how yucky the food would be like. Instead, we had cup noodles and also shared a can of Eight Grains Porridge.

Eight Treasures Porridge
This was given to us by our tour mates - a group of 3 young boys from Beijing; it was a really nice gesture from them. :))
We liked this concoction of red beans, barley, millet and other ingredients; they weren't sweet at all.  Hmn ... I wonder if it's available in Malaysia because I wouldn't mind having this once in a while! 

Once we are done with breakfast, we checked out from our creepy hotel and boarded our bus .... But meanwhile, here are some pictures of its grounds ...

We departed from our spooky hotel at 8.30 a.m., traveling on rugged mountainous roads.

On the road .... 

It's going to be a long drive as we expect to arrive in Chengdu at 7.30 p.m.

Love the pine trees and the background of tall mountains :)) 

An hour later, we stopped for a toilet break. According to the guide, we were at 3405m above sea level .... and at this stop, the wind was strong and we were shivering cold.

Mountains all around us ... 

Many of our tour mates bought meat skewers from this lady here ... our tour guide was apparently a regular here. He was seen to be helping the lady grill the meats. Each skewer cost RMB2.00. I did not eat any because I thought it was 牦牛 - that's Chinese for yak, although I do not know whether the animal is really a yak or just a furry species of a cow ....

Yak meat skewers a-grilling? The sign said so 

Later on, in the bus, the tour guide told us that the meat was in fact, pork. How misleading .... 

Rugged countryside .... 

We had brunch early that day too. We stopped by here ...

There were snacks and Chinese medicinal herbs sold inside ...

The owner of the restaurant was apparently a successful entrepreneur; but he sold off his business after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. Now, he operated this small eatery. The produce comes from his garden ... 

Fresh vegetables in the garden .... 

And we all agree that this was the BEST meal in 2 days. The vegetables were all sweet, and freshly cooked .... 

We loved the sweet pumpkin and the tomato-egg stir-fry

Shredded potatoes

Cabbage

Sausages

Tofu

Not sure what these are though .... 

Soup

The next stop is at Song Zhou, where we visited the fort.

The visitor's centre

A huge statue at the fort

The entrance

On the fort itself 

I wasn't much interested in the history .... so I merely soaked in the sights. It was a hot, sunny day ... and we walked along the fort under the sun to exit .... and got sunburnt.

We passed by Wenchuan, where the 2008 occurred ....

The clock on top of this building stopped when the earthquake occurred 

2.28 p.m., 12 May 2008

It's been 7 years already.

We took a cab to our hotel from the outskirts of the city where we were dropped off. It was quite far. But this time, the taxi driver was courteous. He praised our Mandarin-speaking abilities too! We paid RMB70.00 for the fare. 

The hotel that we had booked was a 2-stars hotel. My friends and I cringed thinking about how it would compare to Jiuzhai Paradise ..... 

The lobby looked promising 

The room 

We were staying at Han Ting Express Hotel Chunxi .... it was modern and very comfortable compared to our 2 nights at Jiuzhaigou. We were at a shopping district as all around us were malls. The receptionist recommended us to eat at an outlet called 澳洲肥牛 which was within walking distance from where we were.

It's a buffet hot pot meal, at RMB78.00 per pax. Basically, all the ingredients were plated and chilled .... and we could just take what we wanted to eat from the chiller. The ingredients were quite extensive too - there was beef, pork and lamb, seafood, offal, mushrooms, tofu, vegetables and so on. For the soup base, we ordered 4 different types - Sichuan hot and spicy pot, mushroom, herbal, and a hot and sour soup .... of the 4, we preferred the mushroom and herbal broth.

Round 1

Best meal in days .... 

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel slowly ... it was already 10.30 p.m. I wanted my sleep :P

Day 3 : Jiuzhaigou

I woke up at about 6.00 a.m., and discovered that there was actually a heated mattress on the bed. Darn. How silly of me to go to bed freezing cold the night before. Nevermind, AL and I would be warm and comfortable tonight.

The hotel was called Jiuzhai Paradise Jarpo Town Hotel. It wasn't exactly paradise like its name suggested.

The passageway to our rooms

Looking outside from the 4th floor window ... 

This building where we stayed in ... it reminded me of a prison somehow .. 

Some buildings around the hotel .. 

The reception building of Jiuzhai Paradise Jarpo Town Hotel

This hotel used to be managed by Intercontinental in the past, but it now no longer is. It is very rundown and not maintained well.

Upon presenting our breakfast vouchers at the dining hall, we were given a hard-boiled egg each. Sigh. So stingy, eh? I wanted another egg for lunch. So when the staff wasn't there, we managed to sneak a few more hard-boiled eggs into our bags .... :P

Mantou and preserved vegetables for breakfast.

Breakfast sure looked unappetising. Luckily, I had made my own cup noodles in the room and had brought it down to the dining hall with me, I ate that together with a hard-boiled egg. My steaming cup of Tom Yum noodles had never tasted so good!

At 7.45 a.m., we set off for Jiuzhaigou. The drive was about 15 minutes long from our hotel.

Jiuzhaigou is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and also a World Biosphere Reserve. It is part of Minshan, known for its beautiful scenery. The crowd was unbelievably huge on that day! In fact, it would be huge at any day!

Look at the queue!!!  

We chartered a bus .... and so we did not have to be in the public queue. We stuck to our original tour group in our chartered bus. Before lunch, we only managed to visit 3 scenic areas, but then the view was really breathtaking. :)) 

Nuorilang Falls  

Pretty, eh? I loved it here .... I was busy taking photographs .... and then my tour mates were no longer in sight. It was pretty scary. My colleague W, on his trip here, had actually gotten lost! So I was fearful that I would too! But there was only 1 route to walk ... and so I navigated it by myself. Halfway through, I met with a Chinese boy from my tour, and I walked with him to the exit. There, I saw AL .... phew. For a while, I thought I had lost my friends. 

Long Lake

By the time we got here, it was cloudy and started drizzling ..... and hence the dark picture ....

From Long Lake, we walked down to ..... 

Five-coloured Pond  

So beautiful and so clear! We spent some time here taking photographs ...... 

And then it was time for lunch. Lunch wasn't provided, but there were stalls selling instant cup noodles, rice, snacks. I ate bread which I bought on the road yesterday and also another hard-boiled egg which I had sneaked from the dining hall. 

Lunch :))
The bread had red beans stuck on it, quite interesting.

Next we went to ....  

Five Flower Lake, purported the most famous lake in Jiuzhaigou

So beautiful is the blue

Arrow Bamboo Lake
This was where the Chinese epic movie, Hero was filmed.

Pearl Shoals

Tiger Lake

Shuzheng Falls

Shuzheng Falls

Bonsai Lake
Our last stop before we exited the national park at 5.30 p.m.

The view was incredible, the air was fresh and crisp. It was rejuvenating. But my legs ached very much due to all the walking and climbing ....

After Jiuzhaigou, we were brought to watch a show. I think it's entitled "The Romance of the Song Dynasty".

The name of the show?  

 The Face Changing performance

The show with elaborate costumes .... I enjoyed it :))

Dinner was at the hotel and it was unappetising as expected ... The smell of the food made me want to retch. 

Yucky dinner

I did not eat the food and went back to the room to make hot cup noodles and cereal :)).