Northern SICHUAN
0730 bus to
SONGPAN city
pop: 71,650
1500 arrive
Coldest yet, elevation is about 4000, many people speak Tibetan dialect.
I'm here for a horse trek. We check into a place called the Hua'er hotel which is the name of the lady who runs the place. Miranda sees snow for the first time in her life.
No heating, but heated blankets and hot water.
The horse trek is 200 RMB (100) per day more than I expected. So instead of doing a 3 day trek we decide on a two day. It is the middle of winter after all.
I eat yak stew.
Thursday, December 23rd
We meet Omri a fellow traveler from Israel and it turns out he is on the same trek as us. He tells me there is a restaurant in town that serves good Israeli food (shakshuka).
We meet at 1000 that morning and they bring over our ponies. And they constantly fight throughout the whole trek. Trying to bite each other and cut each other off. We travel up into the mountains and come across a local goat herder who sits on the trail feeding the young while the rest graze. We come across a couple of young girls with baskets full of horse apples (manure). We go up, we go down, and finally we make it to our destination.
We get charged for a National Park, and go on a nature walk to some natural hot springs, the waters luke. However Miranda and Omri see ice for the first time and are skeptical about standing on it for fear of breaking through. I show them it's quite safe and traipse out into the middle and begin jumping up and down like a madman, until it spider-cracks and I haul ass back to the walkway.
Back at our one cabin room we have some tough yak chunks for dinner and they begin to feed us baijiou (Chinese white liquor). Drink it slow they say. I'm surprised when a driver shows up with more liquor and a girl who doesn't speak English. At first I think she's a prostitute but that's just my imagination gone wild. The guys joke and say she's their girlfriend but when I ask her in Chinese she says she isn't.
Two of the guys step outside and are gone for a little bit, I hear banging against the outer wall only to find out that they were fighting and one of the guys broke his hand and a couple of ribs. I guess living out there all by your lonesome takes its toll. And then around an hour later they go out and do it again. Ah the joys of liquor. As part of our initiation into the drink we go around the circle and all have to sing a song. I of course sing a Christmas song to my Israeli friends delight. When it comes time for bed we sleep next door on the floor amidst a bunch of animal furs/jackets and tangled sleeping bags. Next door more arguing and yelling ensues and I giggle myself to sleep.
Friday December, 24th.
We head back to the city and along the way my co-pilot Chiao Chiao's horse almost falls into a creek. It turns out horses no matter what kind of shoes they wear can't tread too well on ice. After seeing this Omri and myself quickly disembark our ponies. I don't tell her how close to death she was. And if she survived the fall, she can't swim.
After we arrive back into town we reserve a driver to take us to the beautiful area of Jiouzhaigou for the next day. Then I try the Israeli food. Delicious. We then find a jar with a baby deer inside that you can choose to take a shot of which 'make man strong' good for his libido and all sorts of ailments.
That night we go to a Chinese karaoke bar for kicks and some of the locals give us some meat-on-a-stick and cigarettes to welcome us, very thoughtful. The music they sing isn't.
On the walk back home a blizzard has started. I pretend to enjoy it and tell them Canada is like this all year long.
Saturday December, 25th.
Merry Christmas,
Our taxi to the famous nature preserve is a no-go, he won't take a chance on driving even though we are paying him well. A Chinese turning down money??? Guess he's serious.
We run to the bus station and find out that a bus is leaving back to Chengdu. Now. We ask if he will wait and run back home to grab our bags and pack. We meet him as he's pulling out of the station and jump on-board.
I hope the lady at our hotel doesn't mind that we paid an extra night for a room we'll never use. Shrugs shoulders. (don't worry I left the key in the room)
On the drive back to Chengdu at a road-side pit-stop, we are positioned by a frozen lake and the Israeli guy asks if our hockey rinks in Canada are similar in size, I tell him they're a little bit bigger.
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