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.