RANDOM QUOTES, RANDOM THOUGHTS



Wednesday, April 30, 2008

8 MARCH 2008: MO NI GOU - MAOXIAN

Day 5: 8 March 2008
Itinerary: Jiuzhaigou-Mo Ni Gou-Maoxian

Last night we moved back to the original hotel that turned us away the night before. Imagine this hotel got no lift and having to climb to the 4th floor. The room was shabby and there was no toiletries at all and hot water was only available for a couple of hours in the night.

Today we left Jiuzhaigou in the morning to make the journey back to Chengdu. For the night we would be putting up in a small town called Maoxian and for the day we would be visiting Mo Ni Gou, a much smaller valley. Having seen Jiuzhaigou, any other will always be a step backwards. The aura is nowhere near that of Jiuzhaigou and in truth we could have been better off going back into Jiuzhaigou for re-visit, even though it would be only for half a day. I understand that from April 2008 onwards, 2nd day re-entry into Jiuzhaigou will no longer be free, currently you could have your picture taken and printed into a pass and you could enter the 2nd day without paying the entrance fee (you only need to pay for the eco-bus fee). Anyway I was given the option to do the 2nd entry on my own but I would have to catch another tour group's coach for the way back to Chengdu. My heart wanted to do the 2nd re-entry, this time to stay longer and take my time to take in all the beauty of each location, but I disliked the idea of being a total stranger joining another group hence I had to give it a pass because in any case I could only have at best another 3 hours to explore the place and then I had to find my way to join up with the new group. In truth, having known this group throughout the tour thus far it was more like missing your "family" that kind of feeling to break away from them, so I decided against the 2nd re-entry to Jiuhaigou fairyland. Anyway I had missed out on Huang Long for this trip as the place was closed due to the weather condition, I suppose if I were to make another trip next time to take in Huang Long, I would have to come back to Jiuzhaigou anyway.

There were three shopping stops during the journey to Mo Ni Gou and Maoxian, the first was a precious stones & jewellery shop. Some photos taken from its exhibition areas:


Qiang traditional costume.




The hotel where we had our lunch:

Was Huang Long nearby? I do wonder! So near and yet so far!

Here are some pictures from Mo Ni Gou:
Strong currents.

Frozen icebergs on trees.
The highlight of the place.

Next stop a Jade and jewellery factory opened by a Guangzhou businessman. Luckily we had quite a sizable group of people from Guangzhou hence instead of going through the regular introduction and shopping, the owner actually came to greet us in person and to cut the tour short, he took us straight to the exclusive area reserved for Western tourists where the best stuff were on display. He even offered a flat rate for items within each showcase exclusively to our group!

Thereafter was a short drive to Yak meat factory where we got to sample Yak meat in several varieties of flavour, most of them very spicy! It was fun sampling all the different flavours freshly prepared. They will vacuum-sealed for you on the spot as well. They also have those dried Yak meat in factory pre-sealed packs.

Next was the long drive to Maoxian where we would stay for the night before continuing on the way back to Chengdu the next morning.
We stopped by at 沙湾村 again on the way, this time I finally got to ride on a Yak and took several photos with it!
Maoxian is really a very tiny town and basically nothing to do at night. We packed it in early after dinner. Incidentally, the hotel which we were staying was the same one which we had our very first lunch driving out from Chengdu, also the same place where I vomitted from the swaying coach ride sitting sandwiched at the last row of the coach!

View from the hotel room in Maoxian.


1 comment:

uuid said...

看到标题有汉字,没想到内容全是英文,我英文不好,看起来累,索性不看了,既然到这里了就留些痕迹 哈哈