Lijang was spent having lazy days, walking around the town avoiding puddles,avoiding getting pierced in the head by herds of chinese tourists doning umbrellas, trying to stay upright on the slippery cobbles and getting lost with Ants words of 'I told you we were going the wrong way'.
It was amongst all this fun we visited a tourist attraction called Black Dragon Pool it probably would of been beautiful had it not been grey and raining but we were determined to make the most of it and trekked up Elephant Hill puffing and panting up stairs quite similiar to those in the film 'Labyrinth'. We finally made it to the top and to be honest the view wasnt great of the city but it was enough to watch the rain clouds over the city, grey and murky until we realised that they were closing in on us. After spending five minutes taking silly pictures of ourselves (a new hobby of mine) we headed down umbrella in tow with rain thunder and lightening on our tail. Yes we did live to tell the tale.
One of the highlights for me was meeting a fellow couchsurfer for a few cups of tea. Her English name was Alanis and we shared stories, opinions and lots of laughs sitting in cafe whilst people watching. It was a great afternoon and this was topped off in the evening when Ant and i found ourselves in a little bar playing chess against a chinese man called Victor whilst listening to Dire Straits in the background with a bottle of beer in our hands...what more can you ask for!
Well it was time to move on and we booked ourselves onto a sleeper bus to head to Chengdu (hoping for some well needed sun), we were told that it would take 22 hours....ahhhh! the longest bus trip so far. But as with all bus journeys here i have learnt that you should add at least another 3 hours on to it. So we were looking at about 25 hours. No choice but to build a bridge and get over it! So we bought supplies....biscuits,crisps and all that kind of crap and boarded. Well as i have said before every bus has a story and this was to follow that pattern......It ended up being 36 HOURS due to a truck breaking down on a mountain road and then to top it off just when we thought we were going to be moving on again a truck bashed our wing mirror which resulted in the very angry bus driver getting off crow bar in hand....! Luckily we were spared any kung fu fighting! By this time we were starving - the only option was pot noodles....and being slightly dehydrated (you darent drink too much as you never know when the next wc stop will be) and tired didnt really help our moods! Plus i must mention the loo......worst ever (please stop and put down your cutlery if you are reading this..) it was positioned behind half a wall, inches away from the pig sty, so the smell was increased double fold......two skanky wooden planks were laid over a maggot infestered pit. So needless to say i have learnt to pee so fast....whoosh and i am done, running off to grab my hand sanitiser! After a long sense of humour testing journey we eventually reached Chengdu to my relief at 1am, nice to stretch and find a bed for the night.....hooray.
Chengdu....and the sun blessed us with its presence making the bus seem like a distant memory. We visited the Panda breeding centre which was wicked, arrived at feeding time and watched them inhale copious amounts of bamboo at the rate of knots, play fight, lounge in trees and my highlight seeing the month old babies in incubators. One evening Ant and i walked to Tian Fu square to watch the fountains and lights dance in time with the music, here we decided to play silly buggers.....
Surrounding the square are loads of touts showing you pictures of different poses you can do infront of anything for a price. Well we approached them but with a different plan in mind....they placed several pictures (of randoms) in our hands to look through. So we scrutinised the pictures looking for what we wanted.....and then we bartered for that picture! It gives a new meaning to 'we took a picture'! The touts seemed to be a little confused by the fact that we didnt want OUR picture taken but wanted some stranger but they obliged much to our hysterics! Kept us amused...and now i have a 'chinese mum, dad and sister'!!!!
We sorted out our 45 hour train ticket and permit to Tibet (leaving on the 26th) and in the mean time headed to Songpan to do some horse trekking. We headed off with our day packs and took the 8 hour bus ride there (turned out to be 11hrs-now there is a surprise!). We arrived, booked our trip to Ice Mountain and quickly purchased a scarf, hat and gloves as it was freezing....luckily the hotel we stayed in had electric blankets, and aided with two duvets it was snug and cozy.
In the morning we set off with our two guides and four horses all of which we aptly named. Our guides were 'Smiler' - for obvious reasons and 'Will' -as in the Fresh Prince due to his colourful hat. Our horses were 'Scruff' - mine and Ants was called 'Rocky'. We had wrapped up warm which was a blessing as the first couple of hours it was very crisp but chilly start up the mountain through the clouds, after a couple of hours the clouds began to clear and what had been hidden came to life. We were surrounded by waves of mountains tipped off by bright blue skies. It was amazing and so peaceful bobbing along on the horses however it was regularily interrupted by Ants coaxing of Rocky with the sounds of 'choo choo'. I soon learnt to tune this out.....
After about 7 hours we reached our camp, Smiler and Will set it all up and it gave Ant and i the chance to stretch our legs and take in our picturesque setting. We were camped in the middle of nowhere with a crystal clear river flowing next to us. Here was 'home' for the next couple of days, we were fed well, vegetables, noodles, rice and baked bread all soaked down with green tea. Toilet facilities were vast....you just had to choose the right tree and a good rock to cover up your deposits!......breezy is the word i would chose to describe it (esp at night or first thing in the morning!). We had a tent to sleep in.....now i know why i havent been camping in so long...it was FREEZING! We went to bed fully clothed, hat and all and still woke up chilly.....not surprising though as we were 2850m high and there was ice on our tent! Washing was out of the question unless you wanted hyperthermia, so our clothes were doomed to stay on us for a total of five days!!!!!
On the second day we were a touch 'creaky' from the horses, didn't realise sitting on a horse could be so painful.....i was like an 80 year old, moaning and groaning with each step! We were to set off for Ice Mountain set at a mere 4500m. As soon as i got on the back of Scruff i knew things weren't going to go to plan, firstly he decided to go in the opposite direction to everyone else and then decided to go round in circles with Ants horse. I seemed to be under the control of Scruff as no amount of pulling on the reins or sweet talking to him seemed to make any difference at all. Eventually fiasco over and done with we started up the steepest climb ever over boulders, past some very steep drops up up and up on a mountain covered with a sea of slate. Ant was infront and as cool as a cucumber whilst i was following clinging on for dear life and concentrating on the simple task of 'breath in...breath out!'.
Finally we reached the top after a heart attack provoking climb and i was relieved to get off and walk round to view Ice mountain. It was beautiful and worth the journey, after half an hour i thought i would lay down and promptly fell asleep - think this was due to the altitude. It really does affect you as the simple task of walking leaves you short of breath. Then we had to head down, the horses went first and we trailed after them on foot skidding down the mountain and once it flattened out abit we were back on horse back. Of course what we had come up we had to go down and i can honestly say i have never been so scared in my whole life...it wasn't helped by the scruff tripping every now and again..i couldnt even speak, i could only nod to Ants question of 'are you ok?'. Challenging it definately was! I was ready to write my will!
On the third day we were heading back to Songpan, both of us were quite relieved as we were in pain....something happened to Ant during the night as when we woke up he had disappeared and in his place was Victor Meldrew. The whole way down i heard 'my lips,ankles,knees,back,stomach,sunburn hurts....!' This wasnt helped by our four legged friends....Rocky and Scruff seemed to have some competition going on as to who was going to be first.....if i was infront, Ants horse would try to get past, mine would go into a trot and cut him off! Fine when we were on an open expanse but on mountain paths i think my horse almost sent Ant off the edge several times. This game went on for 7 hours.....quite amusing as long as you didnt need a pee or in Ants case have a very sensitive stomach!
It was a brilliant trip though, actually glad i wasnt totally aware of what it entailed....it was nice to get back to Songpan, have a beer some food and tuck in under a well needed electric blanket!
We headed back to Chengdu for some well needed R'n'R and that is excactly what we have done......now i am really looking forward to Tibet. Heading there by train tomorrow and i can't wait....new adventures to come!
