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Subject: When a horse is safer than taking the bus!
Date: Thur, 27 June 2002 21:30:32 +0100
Hello all,
Well, there is nothing like a bus ride (or 2) in China to make you feel
fortunate that you are still alive! ;)
The last few days have been pretty physical and I can definitely say that the horse trek was the easy part! Good job I'd taken a break after the Emei Shan mountain to prepare myself! The horse trek in Songpan was very good (Especially for a complete beginner like me)! The mountain range is truly beautiful and you get a guide all to yourself who even tucks you into bed after putting about half a tons worth of covers on you! I was with an American girl I'd met on the bus there and we took the hot spring trek which took 2 days! The hot spring wasn't exactly hot but the trek and walk to it was well worth it. The next morning we got a bit of a glitch as 2 horses (One being mine) had run away! Maybe something I said! ;)
After 4 hours of search we set off again to come back to the village, all this by going over another mountain, a Tibetan style village and many other beautiful places. I actually never thought China would have landscapes as lush as these! After that it was off to Zuizhaigou, a natural park that is one of the main attractions in China! (That's a 3-hour drive away from Songpan! So far so good on the bus front! We got there (with the American girl still) and then had a
full day to walk about and enjoy the amazingly clear lakes you can find there!
I just have to tell you about the bus journey back all the way to Chengdu because it really was an experience, a frightening one but still an experience! You have to picture the bus, we're not talking about top of technology here, e're talking basics, a metal frame and 4 wheels, the rest seems to come out of miracles! Brakes may exist but we still haven't worked that out yet! Before you set off on a bus, there is always some kind of confusion, it being because they are trying to smuggle some extra passengers or it being because some people are being arssy about their seat numbers (like it fucking matters and like there is a good seat in the bleeding vehicle!). The roads are also like the buses: BASIC. So you put the two and two together and you get the bumpiest ride of your life, occasionally losing sight of you seat or a better look at your neighbour who may just have landed on your lap, along with all his luggage of course!
Then there are the random stops that you really need when you have a 9/10 hour journey ahead of you. A crystal factory for example, very useful! Or a jerky factory for the beef cravings! And then, there are the non-scheduled stops which for me turn out to be a puncture, for the Israeli guys it turned out to be a collision! It's a lottery, you get what you're given! :)
And finally if the ride is supposed to take 9 hours, well what can I say,
does it take that long, does it hell! Forget about time, keep your head
down and only emerge when you know you're at the final bus stop! Hope this
gives you a good idea of what a bus ride in mainland China might be like!
Boy do I regret all those things I said about the tube! ;)
It's all good fun though and we went for more public transport entertainment with the guys yesterday. Chengdu - PangZhihua (14-hour train ride, easy for me I was in hard sleeper, not so easy for them they were in hard seater with about half the population of China!) Then straight into the nightmare bus going Lijiang!
Please refer to the above and add about another 10 random stops, 30 life threatening situations, a 2 hour break for road construction (yes the road
wasn't finished!) and a driver who uses neutral at every opportunity! (yes
the ticket was cheap!)
So you will all be glad to know that a little star is definitely looking after me cos I'm still here and enjoying it still! Lijiang is very touristy but cute, we just got here, more on this soon!
Thanks for all your updates, I won't talk about the world cup :( I bet Mike is gleaming and you just won't be able to shut him up if Brazil wins! :))
Hope you're all well, take care and speak soon!
Mendez xx
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