Noodles in front of color paradise.
Chengdu being famous as "The gate to Tibet" I was discussing with my new traveling group (a Japanese guy, a Japanese woman and two Spanish guys, just to remind you) whether we should go to Tibet or not. The Japanese guy Nori had just been there, so he was obviously against this idea, but the rest of us were having troubles deciding, so we came up with the plan to go to the "Jiuzhaigou" first and decide after that. The "Jiuzhaigou" is supposed to be an amazing nature reservoir. 3 young people from Israel (a couple and a single girl) were heading there as well, and thus we decided to go together.
From Chengdu, we had to take a 10 hours bus upwards to the mountains, and saw some beautiful lakes and mountains on our way. The higher we came, together with the landscapes and temperature, the faces of the locals and the structures of towns also seemed to change. At a certain spot where we got of the bus for a short break, they even had Yaks; animals famous for living in the Tibetan region.
After a long day in the bus, we finally arrived in the town of Jiuzhaigou in the evening. My teeth were chattering because it was so cold.
"So we came to Tibet after all! I'm glad it is not Tibet though, since I just came from there" said Nori, mocking the resemblances this place had to Tibet.
We found a Youth Hostel where we could stay in the same room with the 8 of us. Who takes a shower first was decided by a card-game called "The killer and the cop" and thus, there was only little hot water left for me when I finally won.
The next morning, we woke up at around 6 in the morning, but when I took my first step outside, it was so cold that I immediately noticed I was wearing way too few clothes. I went back in and put on my warmest clothes. I even put my Shaolin Kungfu suit under my jacket.
The entrance fee was again ridiculously expensive, and together with an additional bus fee for inside the nature reservoir (which is a must since the place is over 100 kilometers wide), I had to pay more than 300 Yuan (which is about 30 euros or 3000 yen). Even still, I could still visit the reservoir 10 times without reaching the price of one pot of tea in Beijing!
The bus first brought us all the way to the highest spot of the reservoir, where it was literally freezing. While walking the path downstairs, I played a Japanese word game with Keiko, adding a restriction that only allowed us to use words related to warm things.
After about half an hour, we finally came to the first lake of the reservoir. The most famous aspect of the Jiuzhaigou are the lakes with their incredibly colorful waters. Luckily, it was getting a little less cold now too, thanks to the lower altitude and the sunrise. My frozen toes finally recovered too, and I was now able to fully enjoy my experience. The lakes were amazing, and in between were the most beautiful mountains, waterfalls and forests. Even Nori, who had been to the real Tibet and has been traveling many places of the world, called the place remarkable.
"I have seen many nature parks, but this place is really something special" he said.
Just one more wish, and my day would be perfect. I wanted to eat a cup of instant noodles while sitting in front of one of those amazing lakes. I was not going to give up on this dream, and was getting my cup no matter what. After a few hours of walking, I successfully found a cottage were they were selling noodle cups, and put down 15 Yuan for it, which is a ridiculous price for a cup of noodles in China. Just as I had imagined, in front of this beautiful lake, the artificial taste of instant noodles tasted like heaven.
But no matter how beautiful, every landscape is a landscape you will at some point have seen enough of. For me, that point came after having walked through the park for around 8 hours. I felt "full" and satisfied. The majority of my group agreed on this, and we headed to the exit by bus. Except for one of the Spanish guys that is. He seemed still filled with energy, and kept taking pictures of new lakes hardly even saying goodbye to us.
The Spanish guy arrived back in the hostel about half an hour after we had came back, and with the whole group we went out for dinner to make an end to this great day.
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