Juizhaigou, Nicole, Sadie and the Tibetan home stay

We found a mountain, and snow!

So, the next day, we got up super early, headed to the bus station to start on our TEN hour bus ride up to Jiuzhaigou. Jiuzhaigou is a national park in the Sichuan province.  We had heard about it before at brunch with a family friend and his daughter-in-law, and did some research on it. We figured if we're that close, we probably should go.  

A Gorgeous waterfall

Brian was able to find a traditional tibetan home stay that we were going to stay at.  The park was beautiful, really it was.  The water was extremely clear, the waterfalls gorgeous, but you walked around on a wooden boardwalk the entire time.  The most scenic spots were also bus stops where hundreds of chinese tour groups would get out, take a bunch of pictures, make a bunch of noise, and then climb back onto one of the billion buses going by.  We took the bus to the top, and then down a little ways (no where to walk down the side of a mountain) and then walked the rest of the way.  Our favourite moments were those in between bus stops where it was just us.  

The wooden BoardWalk

Although the park, in itself, was gorgeous, it was $50 CAD to get in, which is stupid expensive for a PARK.  And, you can really only do the park for one day, and see it all.  So we both determined we would have hated it, had we gone 10 hours on a bus there and back for one day at the park.  Luckily for us, we were staying in the Tibetan home stay, and that made the whole trip worth while.  

The lakes were so clear

Not sure exactly what made this formation, but it looked cool so we climbed on it.

The water was ACTUALLY that colour!!!

Told you the water was clear. You can see right to the bottom!

Our new british friends Sadie (left) and Nicole (right)

The home stay was just that. We lived in a tibetan family's home. They were so hospitable and nice. Ama, the mother of the home, cooked delicious meals. She showed us her garden, and her 'bee hives', which inevitably were scraps of wood hammered together in a sort-of-box-shaped-way, and we ate her home made honey.  One of the days, we wanted to go horse back riding.  In the morning, Ama called someone... don't know who, but about 15 minutes later, two men showed up with some horses, and guided us for 2 hours, up the mountain, and around through the village, and back to Ama's house.  It was beautiful.  

The Tibetan Home Stay

Me and Ama (the mother/amazing cook) 

Ama and Tibetan prayer flags

Brian, Nicole and Sadie having some tea after at the home stay

Brian feeding a wild horse, or at least a horse that just belonged to the village. 

Us horseback riding through the mountain and village.

When we were in Chengdu, we met a couple of British girls who were going to do the Panda holding too.  They mentioned they were heading up to Jiuzhaigou as well the next day.  I took some pictures for them, holding the panda, exchanged e-mails so they could get the pictures, and we were on our way.  While we were walking down through the park two days later, they were walking up (crazies). But we ran into them and started chatting. They hated the hostel they were staying in, and found the park to be expensive, so were thinking of going home the next day. We told them about where we were staying, and how wonderful the people were, and the food was, and that we were going horseback riding the next day. They were sold.  We were going to call them later, but ended up meeting up with them, and walking the second leg of the park with them.  They are amazing girls, Nicole and Sadie, and quickly became friends of ours. 

They came and stayed at the home stay with us. They went horseback riding with us and we ended up being able to rent a car/driver to drive us back to Chengdu the next day for about $5 CAD more than the bus ticket but it took about 6.5 hours rather than 10.  

The hostel in Chengdu that was just amazing!

Back in Chengdu, we took them to, of course, hooters for dinner. They recommended we stay in a hostel they heard about, with them, so we did.  This hostel was PERFECT.  If we had stayed there before, I would've liked Chengdu so much more.  It was a great place, laid back atmosphere, welcoming and a true travellers hostel.  The main room was a bar, with a few tables, a pool table, ping pong tables outside, and a sort of raised platform with cushions and a Japanese style table.  We all took off our shoes, and sat around the table chatting, and soon it went from 4 to about 10 of us.  We met Patrick from ireland, and a guy from the states, another from Britain.  It was so neat.  We traded stories, we recommended the tibetan home stay to Patrick who was going to head up to Juizhaigou a couple days later.  We had a few drinks, and then headed to bed so that we could get up in the morning and catch our plane home.

*I, of course, have a billion more pictures, but didn't want you all to have to scroll through a million pics just to read the blog, so I'll post more if I have requests for them.

The Post-Panda Post

Our trip did not simply end at the panda sanctuary, although, I'm sure if it did, Brian wouldn't have cared. If he had died while walking gout of the panda sanctuary, he would've died a happy man..... however, luckily for us, that wasn't the case.

That evening, we went back to our hotel, and had a massage in the hotel spa.  That was an interesting experience.  However, after said massage, we hopped in a taxi to go to the bus station to buy our tickets for the next morning.  After struggling a little bit (a lot),  and a little bit of prayer that they were sending us to the right place, we purchased our tickets.  We then headed to dinner. You see, while Brian was finding out where the bus station was, he noticed a 'landmark' on google maps.  It appears that Chengdu is one of the few places in china that has the fine-dining establishment, we have come to know and love, as Hooters.  We, of course, HAD to go.

After, what appeared to be a short walk on the map that turned out to be quite a ways away, we finally manage to find the restaurant.  We walked in to have about a dozen girls scream at us "welcome to Hooters'.  This was done with a severe Chinese accent, and not even CLOSE to being in unison.  I actually laughed out loud a little.  We were seated with Elaine.  Now, Hooters is NOT known for great tasting food, so our expectations were low.  However, it seems that, because of the lack of actual 'hooters' in these chinese franchises, they make it up with excellent food.  And I mean EXCELLENT.  It was, by far, one of the best meals we have eaten since coming to Hong Kong.  I only had a burger, but the meat was tasty, and seasoned, and cooked properly.  It was amazing.  So good in fact, we ended up going back there on our way home, just for a second helping.

While we were sitting in Hooters, Brian and I were having a nice conversation, and all of a sudden... silence. I had lost him.... but to what???? There were no video games around, we're in the middle of China, where almost no one speaks English.  I turn to see the Toronto Blue Jays on one of the tv's, and Brian out of his seat, looming over a table of some sketchy looking 'businessmen'.  He was staring at the tv, with his mouth open, probably with a little salvation coming down from the corner of his lips.  He watched the opening day highlights.

He came back with a giant smile on his face.  I turned to him and said.... so, you got to hold a panda, get rubbed down by an asian girl in a short, tight dress, have the best food we've eaten in a long time.... not a bad day. And his reply was, and I just got to see baseball.

We had a picture of the hooters girls and some other pics of Chengdu, but I'm not sure where they went, how they were erased.... I'm sure it was a slip on my part, but they were there with the panda pictures, and now they're not..so I don't know.

Panda Time!

So after arriving in Chengdu around 9:00pm, our plan was simple. Food, sleep, pandas!  After going to bed a little later than we had hoped, the next morning was one of the few mornings I didn't have to drag a tired, sleep-deprived Brian out of bed.  He was more than willing to get up, there was, of course, pandas in the near future.

We hopped in a cab, and mario-karted (see previous post) our way to the Chengdu Panda Research Centre.  As Brian practically did a tuck-and-roll out of the moving cab, throwing money at the driver at the same time, I waited to get change.  In China, there really is no tipping culture. Sometimes on the bill, they will add a 10% service fee, but other than that, tipping just isn't customary.  So unsure of Bri's intentions, I yelled after him to see if he wanted change.  Bri quickly turned his head, as if just remembering I existed, and told me not to bother.

We had done a lot of research online about the Panda park.  A few things we noted, that were absolutely crucial to the extensive enjoyment we got out of the park, were; go early! At about 10:30 or 11am a number of tours and tour busses filled with people make their way into the park.  These are loud individuals grouped together in even louder groups.  They tend to yell, scream, and block the way for anyone and everyone else.  We were also told to go early because at 8:00-8:30am (right when the park opens) the keepers feed the pandas and the bears are the most active.  This proved to be very true.

One of the full grown Panda Bears

The main reason for us going was so that we could hold a panda.  We got there early, found out where we got to do that, and went to talk to the people about it.  The panda holding didn't start until 9:30, so we wandered around the park first for a while.  We got to see the pandas tearing apart bamboo, and drinking water, and just walking around.  This park was extremely good to the bears. They lay out the food close to the edge where people can see the pandas, but the bears have to go find the food themselves.  Their enclosure also isn't like a typical zoo, it's a habitat.  If the bears don't feel like people seeing them, they can wander a whole 5 yards into the bush and lie there without the hassle of people.  There also isn't chain link fence all around, there is simply a habitat of bush, bamboo, water, etc, and then, imagine, a cement moat without water in it, and a wall.  So both the pandas and their habitat are essentially raised to the wall level, but they can't climb out because there is a 'moat' around them.

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Teenage Panda mowing down with some buddies!

Pssshhh Teenagers... always eating!

It was amazing.  Just seeing the bears, watching them eat. For the first while we were 2 of the 20 people in the park.  It was super nice.  People just took pictures, got excited, but no yelling or pushing.  After about 45 minutes, we went to the nursery (where we were supposed to go to hold the baby bear). We made it known we wanted to go, and I made sure we were first in line.  We signed up, got a complimentary sweatshirt (which came in super handy later) and a certificate thanking us for our 'donation'. We walked 'behind the scenes' of the nursery, where they garbed us in hospital gowns, gloves and booties.  Although dawning such apparel isn't the greatest for pictures, we were more than happy to do so, as it was just another demonstration of the sanctuary trying to protect the panda.

Brian and I got set up, first in line.  As the lighting was surprisingly low, and there was no flash allowed, Bri turned to me and said that he'd go first to make sure that I got the camera all set up for good pictures.  The man came over and told him to sit on this beautiful wooden bench.  Bri sat, and waited..... it was not hard to tell that it was extremely difficult for him to sit and wait without literally jumping up and down.  The amount of excitement I saw in him is equivalent to that of a 5 year old on Christmas morning being told to wait to open his presents, or that of a 6 year old boy getting a new puppy..... He was so cute.... waiting!!!!!!

One of the keepers came around the corner, and of course, with every noise, sound, rustle of paper, Brian jumped, so when the keeper came around the corner, he was alert!  They explained they were just trying to get Zhen Zhen (pronounced Jun Jun) out of a tree.

Finally, just as Brian was about to explode into a billion tiny excited little bits, the keeper (who probably didn't weigh much more than the actual panda cub) comes around the corner carrying this wonderful, adorable, 15kg ball of black and white fur.  Bri just LIT right up.

My favourite picture of Brian ever! This was taken JUST as Zhen Zhen turned the corner.

Brian with Zhen Zhen. (He's playing with Brian's hand, like puppies do)

"oh hey over there! It's just me and my best friend Brian"

We were warned that we may only get about 30 seconds with the Panda.  They basically try to cram as many people in as they can, but the basis being, once the panda doesn't want to sit and cooperate any more, he doesn't.  Brian, going first and all, definitely got the most time. He sat there with Zhen Zhen for well over a minute, playing and making noises as if they were best friends.  Then it was my turn.  I got a hug and a kiss from Zhen Zhen.  I got about a minute, not quite as long as Bri, but definitely longer than anyone else behind us.  It truly was amazing.

A Panda Kiss from my new boyfriend!

Just hugging a panda... no big deal!

Playing around!

There are only about 2000 pandas left in the world.  They are highly endangered. It was an experience I may never have again, and feel so lucky to be able to have held a panda.  There are a lot of facts about Panda's, and my wonderful fiancé has written quite a lot of them out on his blog: http://virtuallylife.blogspot.com/ - facts like female pandas only ovulate once a year for 36 hours.  When they do get pregnant (by miracle) when the panda comes out, it is so unrecognizable, the mother doesn't know what it is or what to do with it.  A baby panda looks, for lack of a better description, like a baby pig.  It doesn't have any fur.   She often bats it with her paw, unsure if it is a threat, and can end up killing the baby bear.

Zhen Zhen 

The experience of holding Zhen Zhen will not be one that is forgotten.  I'm so happy we were able to capture the moment with some wonderful pictures.  My favourite actually being the one just of Brian.

China, Guangzhou and Chengdu... not quite at the panda part YET!

I will preface this blog with a link to Brian's (my fiancé's) blog as he wrote quite a long detailed explanation of the day; http://virtuallylife.blogspot.com/2012/04/china-good-day-part-1.html ... however this post will be my point of view :)

Brian and I took the MTR (subway/metro) from Hong Kong to the boarder of mainland China (Shenzhen).  Once through customs, found our way to the train station, and hopped aboard a train. When I say hopped, I mean, fought our way through crowds, waited in line, and sat on the floor, because there were no seats, for our train.

There is a lot of prejudice in Hong Kong against Mainland Chinese people.  We kept hearing it from students, adults, teachers and people alike.  Half the time, the people telling us that mainland Chinese are dirty and rude, were people who were in fact FROM mainland China, but now identified as Hong Kong-ers.  Every time Brian or I said something about someone cutting us off, or being rude, or dirty, the students would say, "oh they're mainlanders".  We couldn't figure out the blatant hatred.  I think we figured out where it comes from.

While we were waiting for our train in Shenzhen we witnessed multiple actions that would be deemed as rude or dirty. One in particular.... a girl came over, just a ways away from us. She started to eat her sugar cane.  She would bite off a big chunk, awkwardly chew it, as it was too large to fit properly in her mouth, and spit it out into her hand. She would then throw it on the clean marble floors, RIGHT next to a bunch of people who were, in fact, sitting on the floor.  She continued to do this through two sugar canes until there was a large square foot pile of chewed up-spat out remnants. She then proceeded to wash her hands with about 3/4 of a water bottle.  There was now a stream of water, sugar cane, and spit running towards the poor bums of some girls.  As she emptied her water bottle, she threw it on top of the pile and simply walked away.  Brian sat there for a good 20 minutes with his mouth a gawk unable to comprehend how someone could do that.

We boarded our train to Guangzhou.  Guangzhou really is nothing to talk about.  Our hotel was really nice, small, but really nice and clean!!! The rest of the city seemed to be pretty dirty and the people, not overly friendly.  

Our Hotel in Guangzhou

The Hazmat type hoods provided in our hotel!!!! I think it was for a fire, but never quite sure!

After we left Guangzhou we flew to Chengdu.  As previously mentioned, this was our main mission of the trip.  Get to Chengdu, hug a panda.  We arrived at our hotel.  It was ok.  Apparently pretty nice, and appeared pretty expensive (although we had got it very cheap from an online hotel booking thing).  The thing is, just when we walked in there were men smoking in the hotel lobby, men spitting on the ground IN the lobby.  In China, there are no smoking or non smoking rooms... our room had a whole bunch of little burn marks in the carpet where the cigarettes had fallen.  But, it was a room, a shelter, it was cheap, and close-ish to the Panda Sanctuary.

I really had no desire to even go explore Chengdu. It just felt dirty, and grey.  We pretty much went to sleep and got excited for the next morning.

*PHEW* finally.... a chance to catch up on the blogging

So as some of you know, Brian and I decided to venture into mainland China for about a week. The main purpose of this trip? Well Brian discovered a Panda sanctuary that would allow us to hold a Panda...and well, there was no arguing or discussion afterward. That was our mission, everything and anything else was simply secondary. We arrived home about 2 nights ago, but between, catching up on sleep and catching up on e-mails... blogging was unable to be completed. Today I was able to edit a billion pictures so that both Brian and I could finally post some blogs with pictures.... So here we go... To start, a slight rant about the driving in China.


To all Mario Kart enthusiasts,

Have I got the opportunity of a lifetime for you. Have you ever thought... MAN, I wish Mario Kart was real? .... That rainbow bridge looks too cool!!! Go to ChengDu!

After spending a day in Guangzhou, Brian and I flew to ChengDu. We arrived around 9:00 and found a taxi, hopped in, and gave him the address to our hotel. Little did we know we’d be on one (of a few) death defying 40 minute drives. As we zoomed along at god-only-knows-how-fast, we found ourselves on a bridge that had colourful lights everywhere. The lights were all over the outsides of the bridge, spotlights shining up the cables on either side of us, and on the arches above us. Along with the excessive number of lights on the bridge, all of the surrounding buildings were lit up like tacky christmas trees. Every building from banks to office buildings looked like a casino in las vegas. If you are ever wondering about a business to open up, some sort of florescent tube lighting business in Chengdu would be very successful!

The driving in Chengdu is absolute chaos. There is NO order, and no structure. Lines on the road are completely useless and ignored, traffic lights are genuinely a suggestion at best, and there are so many bikes and scooters that, if you are a pedestrian, they are by far more dangerous than the cars... they go on the road, the scooter lane, and the sidewalk if they feel the need. Each side of the road has about 3-4 lanes, which ends up being about 6-8 cars wide. The intersections, then results, in having about 24 cars side by side, and countless scooters and bikes mixed in. As I mentioned, traffic lights being mere suggestion, the chaos that ensues is simply terrifying. If roller-coasters give you an adrenaline rush, you aint seen nothing yet. What I can’t seem to understand is how there aren’t a hell of a lot more deaths-by-scooter or even just accidents. I honestly couldn’t count the number of times we almost sideswiped someone or vice versa.

After a few days away (separate post) we returned to Chengdu yesterday so we could catch our flight home this morning. On the drive to the airport we saw, not one, but two people taking their suv’s onto the sidewalk (with no regard for pedestrians or scooter-ists) to get around MAYBE one car. We saw multiple people drive the wrong way... no no, you heard right... they were driving the WRONG way dodging oncoming traffic and honking as if the other people were in THEIR way..... and then.... WE drove the wrong way. We were driving across a overpass, and in the middle of said overpass was some construction (no signs or anything, just driving along and BAM a hole in the road with a couple blue flags around it), so the traffic, including our driver, thought that it was only fair to take over one of the oncoming traffic lanes.

I seriously wish I had video or something to portray the actuality of insanity that is the driving in Chengdu, oh wait I do... just pop in Mario Kart, and play the rainbow bridge on the hardest level - imagine about 10 times the number of people, and some scooters on the sidewalk, and you’ve got it.

Rugby, Rats and Rinks! (actually it's Ice skating, but I wanted to keep up the alliteration)

Last week, Brian and I headed to the Hong Kong 7's Rugby game with some students... It was a blast! The rugby was fun to watch, especially watching the Canadians win.... but it was more fun just being with a bunch of kids, all hanging out together and having a good time.



There are about 91 pictures that I have edited from that evening, so I won't post them all, but there's one of Brian at the game with his free HSBC hat.

About a week ago now, Brian and I stopped off at our favourite thai food place to get some pad thai for dinner. It's GREAT pad thai and it's relatively cheap (about 6 bucks).... so I often go there for a quick-no-think dinner. I ordered from the not-so-gentle man who 'runs the front'? He's the meanest, rudest man I think we have actually had to talk to.... he does not smile, he will NOT talk to us, even if we try our broken chinese. You'd think that the fact we come into the restaurant about 2-3 times a week, and he clearly knows who we are, he might, just might, crack a smile... but NOPE!.... Anyways, as I'm standing waiting to pay, something catches my eye. I glance over to what looks like a thick wire under the shelving unit by the cash register. I watch as this 'wire' moves, and then darts out of site...... I immediately know it's a rat, and turn around and start walking to where Bri was sitting at the front (near the exit) of the store. Now I understand that most of these restaurants probably back onto an ally way, or that they're probably not quite up to north-american standards.... but i don't want to SEE a rat..... knowing that they MIGHT or could be back there is enough..... I tell Brian I saw a rat. He says "how big?". As I explain that I could only see it's tail, Brian glances over to where I am talking about and jumps. He turns to me and says.... oh, it's a BIG rat. We see Mr. Sunshine himself simply flick his wrist at it, as if it were a pet dog that wandered into the wrong room. There was no panic, no surprise, just a simple.... flick of the wrist to shoo the RAT back into, yes, that's right folks, the KITCHEN!

I cancelled my order, and we walked out as the grumpy man mumbled some sort of rude insulting comment in chinese at us as we left. The worse part about it is... their pad thai was soooo good.... maybe a bit of rat is the secret recipe.... if so, just wish they kept it a secret!

Moving on....

Last week, Brian and I organized some good 'ol North American fun. We took 9 kids (and Dave, one of the other guest teachers) skating. It was a lot of fun. None of the kids (except for one, who had only gone 1 or 2 times years ago) had ever been skating before. They all started by stepping onto the ice and clinging to the boards for dear life. By the end, most of them were getting pretty good, and ALL of them were extremely courageous. They ended up being able to skate around by themselves around the rink. Dave and 2 of the kids left around 6, and by 7:30 (a good 2.5 hours of skating) we had to drag the kids off the ice. Almost all of them made a point of coming up to me and making sure that I would tell them the next time we were coming because they wanted to come again. I also know we definitely broke through to a few of them. A couple of the boys who don't speak much English, made a real effort to talk to us, make sure we invited them back, and to thank us. It was incredible. Afterwards, three of the boys stuck around to try some of this "Canadian Poutine" Brian had talked about. They LOVED it (of course...who wouldn't). It was incredible. The BEST part about all of this, is seeing kids 'come around' and be willing to try to speak English just because they like us and want to communicate with us. I couldn't tell you how good I felt after that day.... I was tired, and beat from standing on skates and holding people up for 2.5 hours, but it felt GOOD.