Day 25 290506 九寨沟 Part I

Once again, the Sims personnel had arranged a Bread Bus to take us to the coach station early in the morning. This九寨沟 we were about to visit is a famous touristy place which has been deemed as a must-go place for all those coming to Sichuan. But for us, it was just a place to pass time. We didn’t have much interest in anymore scenic view. I had a fair share of mountains and rivers in Tibet already. The only person who was still enthusiastic about the 9VV was Kenneth. After all, he was the professional photographer (wanna-be?) in the team.

We had already bought the ticket for the coach on the day before, but still due to overwhelming response, we could only get a middle-class coach, which was really small and uncomfortable. The ride from Chengdu to 9VV is estimated to be 9 – 10hrs, with occasional breaks in between. It was sure to be a boring ride and there were only 2 things to do on the coach: observe the behaviour of other passengers and sleep.

There was a couple in 情侣装, acting intimately but both with CMI looks. Another young ah-beng and ah-lian couple was sitting in front of me. The guy had a fiery red hair style-do but was very tender towards his partner. Another couple, a middle-aged man and a 姐姐 (a term I always use on women slightly older than me) was the mirror image of the previous couple mentioned. The lady was attentive to the man’s need in all aspect (fwah, sounds a bit dirty), which led to a little conflict between them and us later. This姐姐 caught my eyes not because of her looks (though she had a mole above her lips. Think I had developed a fetish on that) but her gentleness.

Behind the supposedly air-conditioned coach were 1 or 2 bastards smoking. I read a newspaper articles recently on the Chinese government urging its citizens to behave gracefully when overseas: no spitting, no shouting, and no cutting queues. This is to prepare the Chinese society to look presentable when the Olympics commences in Beijing in 2008. I think the government is being hopelessly naïve. This goal of becoming a gracious society can never be achieved in 2 years. People still spit in restaurants, still smoke in air-con places and still talk like hooligans everywhere I went. Maybe another 200 years things would get better.


We stopped at a village at noon for lunch. A sloppy restaurant selling economic rice (for a higher than normal price) with the food in a tray. It reminded us of an inmate’s life while we collected the food. I swore I would buy lots of tidbits for the return trip as I am not going to eat this kind of food again. The 姐姐 I mentioned was caring towards her hubby throughout the trip, so much so that she requested several times to the driver to switch off the air-con. This was because the husband complained about a funny smell from the air-conditioner.


The air-con was turned off throughout the trip and only switched on occasionally. It was really stuffy for me but I thought I might be able to endure till the end. Surprisingly, none of the other passengers really minded. JH, who couldn’t tolerate anymore, requested the driver to turn on the air-con. That 姐姐 immediately asked him to turn it off. That was when JH tried to reason with her. If her husband felt cold, he could put on more clothes. If he couldn’t stand the smell he could open the window beside him. Why should the whole bus of passengers compromise because of his request?

In the end, she gave in and I felt sorry for her. Not because she lost to JH, but because she had such a wimp as husband. Her husband just kept quiet throughout, letting her do the defending. Maybe he was suffering from some illness. Ha, guess I watch too much of Japanese drama recently.

Finally the coach reached its destination, the 9VV coach station which was located beside 交通宾馆. JH had the intention to walk around and look for cheap hostel to stay. But for CCG and me, we just wanted to stay there as we were both exhausted. It was quite a grand hotel with reasonable price. Since Kenneth was neutral in this issue, it was 2 against 1 and thus we stayed there.

After dinner, we walked along the 边边街 where there were some shops selling unique Tibetan items like hats, knifes, scarves, etc. There are Tibetans in this part of Sichuan also. We passed by a hotel which was holding an event outside, along the river. Hotel guests were invited to dance around a bonfire with Tibetan music playing in the background. It was pretty cold at night due to the high altitude and dancing around the fire seemed rather interesting and appropriate.

We returned to the hotel and watched TV and also to discuss about plans for tomorrow. We would enter 9VV tomorrow and Kenneth had the intention to stay inside 9VV alone for a day. The other 3 of us wanted to stay outside in this hotel. He already had a place in mind and he would look at the living condition there tomorrow and then decide.