7:55am
Enter bus. There are no more window seats. This 12 hour ride will not involve sleep. Already wishing I’d at least considered a plane.
8:43am
1st movie started. There is a construction worker with a bullied but ambitious son. The father dies in an accident at work, and the son’s alien pet dog brings him back to life. All rejoice. The alien pet dies. All mourn. The movies ends with a second UFO landing during the son’s school field trip, and a heard of alien dogs rush the young student.
10:30am
The road has gone from pockmarked to unpaved, then to paved but with no guardrail as it twists along mountainsides over an artificial reservoir. I should have at least considered a flight.
1:13pm
We stop for lunch. There is only one option, and the drivers are rewarded free lunch and cigarettes for bringing us here. Well played. The food is not bad, so it is hard to be too upset. After, while using the trough bathroom, I notice the maggots in the bottom. This being unpleasant, I return to the bus.
3:38pm
My afternoon nap disturbed not by motion but by the lack thereof, I awaken. While the sheer drops off of tall mountains over large lakes are the same, the road has been blocked by a mass of rock and dirt taking advantage of the same sheer mountainsides. The girl in the seat next to mine points out that the scenery is very pretty.
6:15pm
Bathroom break. Bathroom is a shack over a ledge that empties down a slope into the river below. Through the hole, the streams from the other bathroom are quite apparent. I find this very mentally disturbing. All very strange.
7:00pm
Reach Jiuzhaigou. Exit bus. Avoid touts and ditch annoying former seatmate. Find hostel, then explore town. This is the standard move for every new city that I arrive in.
Decide to call it an early night. Must get up early to make it to the gates as they open at 7am, to get a full day out of the National Park.
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Though no overnight stays are officially allowed in the National Park itself, there is a great Tibetan Homestay not far away. If price is your main concers, though, check out some of the cheap hostel beds in Zhangzia town just outside the park. Also, be sure to check out GetYourGuide to see travel ideas for the rest of China’s Sichuan province.
