I'm in the fairy tale land

Jiuzhaigou is absolutely stunning. It makes the 12 hour bus ride worth enduring. So, we left Chengdu at 8am on Monday morning on a semi-coach bus. It was the scariest (and longest) bus ride of my life. Remember my rant before about Chinese drivers honking all the time? Well, the reason bus drivers do it even more is because they regularly attempt to pass any vehicle (even another bus) on a two-lane mountain pass. They also take turns in the road at nail-biting speeds, so honking warns oncoming traffic that their lane will probably be occupied by a maniacally-driven bus just around the corner. The reason why the trip is so long is that it's basically impossible to go faster than 40mph through the mountains, especially ones that are regularly threatened by mudslides and falling rocks due to summer rains (we had to wait many times to get through a single open lane in the road). I also had my first encounter with an outhouse that lacked running water. Let's just say, as I told my mom the other night, I don't belong in China. I think, for me, it's not the fact that a place doesn't have running water, or squat toilets, etc., but it's that the people who use it don't clean up after themselves (okay, end of rant). During the ride the driver put on karaoke videos from the 80s as well as an awful Bollywood movie that was dubbed over in Chinese. The other passengers seemed to like them though--I guess there's no accounting for taste. We arrived in Jiuzhai town around 8:30pm. Now, Tiff and I had reserved a room at the hotel run by the park administration, so when we arrived, we went straight there. However, the guy at the front desk said that he didn't have our names (and the price listed for the room was about 3 times the price we had been quoted). He suggested that we might have called the other "grand" hotel--okay, that was possible, so we hopped in a cab. When we got to this place, however, the person there said that all the rooms were occupied and that she had no record of our reservation. She mentioned the hotel we went to first, and then Tiff somehow thought there was another hotel nearby. We hopped into a cab again, but to no avail. Finally, the brilliant Harvard students that we are, we called the place. It turns out that it was located in another town, hence the availability of the room for such a low price (220 kuai).

We were in trouble. Jiuzhaigou is a town based on tourism, and hotels were full by 7pm almost every night (there are literally a billion tour groups that come for 1-day trips). The rooms that are available are either very dingy or extremely expensive. Hoping for the best, we hopped in yet another cab and asked the driver to take us to any place that might have a decent room available. The first place he took us to was a... uh... dump. A dump they tried to give to us for 200 kuai, might I add. We told him that it had to be a clean, rather high-class place, and we resorted to driving along the main road and looking for such a place. Finally, we passed by a rather large hotel, the Jiuzhaigou Ruby Hotel. There were rooms available! Yay! But only deluxe standard rooms, valued at 830 kuai/night! Uh... The following is our bargaining at its best. We had the attention of the front desk person and the assistant manager when we asked for a better price (pian yi yi diar?). The assistant manager nods, and the lady quotes, "550 kuai/night." Tiff and I frown at each other, and I suggest to her (in English), "What if we tell them that we'll stay for 3 nights?" Tiff nods and asks them what the price would be then. The assistant manager pauses, then nods again, and the lady says, "428 kuai/night." I make a grumbly face/noise. The assistant manager quickly moves over, hands a bellhop a key and asks us to take a look at the room before deciding.

The room is actually pretty night--there's even a separate room for the toilet (Western-style, thank goodness... oh yeah, just so you guys know, one of my worst fears is slipping and falling in a squat toilet). Still, 428 kuai doesn't sit well with me (to give you an idea for prices, a decent standard in Jiuzhaigou is usually 400+ kuai/night -- this hotel's was 480). Tiff says the rule of thumb should be getting something for 40% or less of the original asking price. We go back down and admit that we like the room, but that it's still a little expensive. I suggest, "San bai (300)..." but the assistant manager shakes his head, saying that 428 is really the lowest that he can go. We sign, and then I put on my best "pretty please" face and say, "Si bai (400)--wo men shi xuesheng-ah (we're students, man)," taking care not to say that we were Americans. The assistant manager signs and relents. Score! Then we turn around and notice the taxi driver waiting patiently. Man, this guy was pretty awesome, so we gave him a 10 kuai tip (he didn't charge us for the separate trips or for waiting). Oh yeah, when we finally showed our U.S. passports for ID, I could've sworn I heard a disappointed sigh from the assistant manager. Muahaha.

With a place to sleep, we turned our attention to a matter of grave importance: dinner. I think we were ushered/badgered into the hotel restaurant, but we were so tired that eh... Pretty unsure of what to order, we just went along with two dishes that the server suggested. One was yak! The other was some kind of walnut fungus flower?... I have no idea... The yak was pretty good--it's kind of like beef, but chewier and redder. The veggies were good too. However, I think that these dishes also gave us our first gastrointestinal... problems... of the trip. Tiff and I didn't feel too hot yesterday.

What happened after that dinner was one of the weirder experiences I've had in China. We had a few questions to ask the hotel people, so we approached the assistant manager's desk in the front lobby (I think this is common in Chinese hotels). We only have 3 questions, but the guy insisted that we sit down. Then he started talking about Jiuzhaigou and how wonderful it was (ting piao liang, ting piao liang). He goes on about this for 5 minutes before he pauses, and we quickly ask our first question. He rambles for about 3 minutes more before answering the question, plugging some of the hotel services and shows. We ask the other questions. Again more rambling before he comments that we must be tired. Yes. Then he says somethign about going outside and having a look. Bewildered, we follow him. I mean, he's a nice guy, if a little strange (more like the Cantonese, "lou sup"). We follow him outside towards a grill, and he mentions something about cheap and economical. He shows us a shelf of skewers of raw food, which the chef is grilling. OHHH... He shows a skewer of fungus at us, urging us to eat (each one is 5 mao, which really is cheap). We took that lull in his talking to escape, saying that we'd try it tomorrow. Anyway, I'm not sure what my point was... but there are some nice (and a little strange) people here.

Anyway, the point of my whole post--Jiuzhaigou is incrdibly beautiful. Its name means "9 Villages Gully"--there are 9 Tibetan villages inside the reserve as well as many gullies. However, it's really known for its amazingly blue (like cerulean/aquamarine) lakes. We are surrounded by lush green mountains studded with conifers and wildflowers. The reserve is basically explored via a Y-shaped road, with each fork running parallel to a system of connect lakes, rivers and waterfalls. We explored the right fork (18km) our first full day (yesterday) here, which has the most of these blue lakes. You can image Google the place--the pictures really don't do the colors justice. With the exception of passing tour groups (many of whom had guys who don't know to stop staring when they are flipped off), the hike was great, if tiring. Most of Jiuzhaigou is more than 1.5 miles above sea level, and Tiff and I weren't doing too hot on the stairmaster parts. Anyway, the waters of each lake were crystal clear--seen from above, they were a deep blue. I'm guessing that it's something in the sediment that's causing the colow, since the water's pretty clear in rivers. It's rumored that giant pandas live in the mountain forests (hence one lake being named Panda Lake), and the Primeval Forest, the last stop on the right fork, has golden monkeys. To top it all off, the weather was quite comfortable, if overcast for most of the day. Most mountain peaks were shrouded in a white mist. Sigh...

Today (our second day) we went up the left fork, which culminates in the largest and highest lake in the reserve, Long Lake (Chang Hai). Very original, I know. Since the scenic sites are far apart in the left fork, we took a bus in lieu of walking the whole way. It was also raining. Tiff liked Long Lake the best--I found it a little too cold and big for my liking. We also hiked to a Buddhist temple near the entrance to the park--Zharu Temple. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but both of us found the atmosphere a little creepy. There were only the lights of incense burning and the drumming and chanting of a monk in another room. It was a much more relaxing day than yesterday.

Tomorrow we leave for Huanglong, another scenic reserve about an hour away. Tiff says its known for its calcium formations and pools. It'll be hard to leave Jiuzhaigou... We'll get back to Chengdu on Saturday night (I'm really looking forward to the bus ride), and I'll probably be able to update again then. Hope everyone is doing well!

Kudos to Vicky for doing well on her APs (I should smack you for all your moaning and groaning back in May)!