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
