Chengdu Week 8 - JiuZhaiGo Day 2

Oct. 24, 2014
九寨沟 Day 2
    So last night it was so cold in our room both Cassidy and I went down to Brennan and Jose’s room to sleep. With four bodies in the room the night was actually tolerable. We all awoke randomly at 2 am and had a sleep delirious conversation. Then 6 am roles around and it was time to get up. Breakfast was as disappointing as dinner, but not matter, we all had brought enough snacks a foods to survive. Then it was off to the national park. There is a saying in Chinese 人山人海, literally people mountain, people sea. Used for when there are a lot of people, too many for anyone to be comfortable. And at the front gate of the Park, there were so many people, there was even a shoving match to get on the buses. I ended up in an interesting group of Jack, Seth, Sean, Crystal, and Dee. We rode the bus up to the top part of the left side.
    Jiuzhaigo is gorgeous, lakes to clear that they are mirrors. The mountains tower all around us, Tibetan prayer flags in the wind, and the autumn coloring the mountainsides. It was was utterly breath taking. My group ended up being really good company, so the conversation was easy as we hiked and bused our way around the Park. I will simply need to show you in pictures, words can not begin to describe the beauty that was Jiuzhaigo. We did all the left side of the park from 8:45 to 12:15ish, most of it was busing and not walking. I forget how bad altitude can affect people. I was doing just fine, in fact my nose cleared up and felt way more energetic than I have in a long while. But some people, Dee in particular, had a lot of trouble. Dee’s asthma was acting up, she ended up needing to go back to the hotel early. She didn’t come with us for the right side of the park.

    I was pleased that I ended up in a fairly fit group, we were able to hike down most of the right side of the valley. We didn’t do the 10 km from the forest to the first major lake but I think that is ok.  The waterfalls and lakes were exquisite. We kept meeting people who wanted to take our pictures or talk with us. Generally people were very friendly to us, though we did had a few confused stares. In total we spent nine hours exploring the park, which simply wasn’t enough time. I wish I could have a few days to explore and just hike the trails. But we needed to head back so that we could get the bus to our hotel. Overall, it seemed that people had a good experience. I realize that we were fairly lucky, our little band of hikers managed to be exactly where the crowds weren’t. Cassidy and Brennan had a very different story to tell about getting on the buses and trying to get pictures. Dinner was a dull affair the food as terrible as the night before. Oh well, we are switching hotels tomorrow (6:30 am leaving time!!), so hopefully the next place we stay at will be better (Or at least closer to decent restaurants.)
    After dinner I went on a small adventure to find batteries for my camera. The batteries almost died on me in the park so I wanted to stock up. The first three stores I tried, no one had batteries. And also no one spoke Mandarin, that was fun. This is a Tibetan area, so only recently has Mandarin been taught in schools. I did eventually find my batteries, and now I have enough to change them twice. It cost me 28 RMB (4.66 USD), but it is a price I am willing to pay for awesome pictures. So I am back in my hotel, hopefully I won’t freeze like a I did last night. We shall see, tomorrow we leave for Yellow Dragon (黄龙) scenic area.