Somehow we managed an extra hour of sleep this morning and got on the
bus up the mountain about the same time as yesterday. Rachel tried
desperately with some solid lies thrown in to avoid paying 80yuan each
for the buses again but park staff were wise to it and despite being
told we would be fine by others online we had to buy them.
Unlike yesterday's random bus destinations we were dropped at the
tourist centre & took the next bus up to long lake which was quite
high an extra 30 mins up, plenty of snow about and a frozen lake which
compared with the stunning clear water elsewhere wasn't so amazing.
We spent 5 hours in the park today the wind chill was solid but
otherwise not too cold. On our walk down the valley we found a
favourite spot-sparkling lake it had the beautiful clear blue water
and a partially frozen waterfall going in to it.
Saw and spoke with our first western person in 4 days not particularly
exciting but just noting we were the only westerners in the park till
this woman arrived.
Being valentines day we had a special dinner and given this is as
close to Tibet as we will get and in a Tibetan village we had a
fantastic meal at a Tibetan restaurant of yak meat in potato
croquettes, parcels of yak mince in foil served on a flaming dish and
flavoured rice with( you mite see a theme here) yak meat. We were also
served what I think was yak milk?? It tasted like milk but was salty
not as nice as the food! Also endless cups of house tea was great
because it was so cold out!

Day 43 Jiuzhaigou National Park

Up and out after delicious instant noodles(joke we are sick of the
pots of instant noodles but we've no option) with a short walk to the
park entrance we were on the mini bus up the valley to the tourist
centre and the classic ooooooww aahhhh is heard as people on the left
look down to a small pristine clear blue lake. This bus stopped at a
site a long way short of the tourist centre and they said we must walk
so we took in a stunning partially frozen waterfall before being told
to get on a bus which took us to arrow lake up one side of the valley,
two more lakes and a forest were up further but after being stopped by
a guard it appeared they were closed and the road did look blocked
with snow. We walked what we could this meant on the narrow road at
times because the paths were closed some for snow others for fire risk
and got the bus where we couldn't sneak away from the stop like many
others did. The views and lakes and waterfalls and shoals were all
just so stunning.
We had dinner in the same place as last night I tried to ask for a few
chillies in my meal but failed a basic but still nice shredded pork,
peppers and rice.

Day 42 Bus to Jiuzhaigou National Park

Our bus left at 8am from the tourist station in the south of the city
so we were up early. After chatting with some Chinese people on the
bus we were happy to discover the trip is 8 not the 12hrs we had
planned for.
Most of the trip was winding roads beside a river and about 2hrs in we
got to the area hit by the '08' earthquake we had read about troubles
with this road after the quake but I was amazed at the damage. The old
road popped out from under massive landslides every now and then and
bridges still lay collapsed into the river. All the houses were
obviously new but the odd foundation or ruin still lay about.
They are building a new highway due to be completed soon and for
kilometres all the landslides into the river are now makeshift
quarries for the new road.
Our next stop we got photos of a yak which tried to charge me twice
when I got too close but the nose ring connected to a concrete block
saved me!
The following stop was a police check the driver pointed to us to get
off(being the only foreigners) thankfully a guy spoke English and said
they just want to record our details(we guess worried we were heading
in to Tibet).
Arriving in Jiuzhaigou the same english speaking guy on the bus helped
us find our hostel but when we discovered they had no hot water and no
heating we stayed in the same place he did with an electric blanket
and yay hot water.
The town is very much in winter lock down it was very quiet most
hotels and shops had locks on the doors but we found a chinese
restaurant with meal pictures on the walls and a bonus English menu.