Private: 6th September 2006
September 6th, 2006 - Posted in UK to NZ - by Sarah|
by Sarah & Brendhan
We saw masses of Pandas at the Chengdu Research Institute where they breed them (mostly using artificial insemination). We were really lucky as there had been 9 born in the last 3 weeks and we saw some teeny tiny blind ones with pink skin and some slightly larger ones that were just getting the black fur round their eyes. There were also loads of older ones and we got masses of photos and video. Here are the 5 day old babies:
The next day we left the hotel at 6am to catch the public bus for the 9 hour journey to Songpan, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau (2800m). The ride was relatively comfortable as none of the passengers had brought their livestock with them. The actual distance travelled was only about 350km but the fact that the bus had to keep stopping for water and at the driver’s relative’s restaurants plus all the slowing down to over take Yaks (actually off the side of the road for photo ops with handlers in native costume) meant that our speed averaged 40km/h.
We arrived to our lovely Transport Hotel in Songpan – certified to take international tourists by the government – to find all mod cons such as a large TV that only picks up static, hot and cold running water all over the bathroom floor, and unwashed tea cups (!) plus 4 light bulbs to go round the 7 lights in the room. But all sorted now – after a 10 minute discussion with the hotel staff (our English to their Chinese) we managed to get the cups cleaned and decided to wear our sandals in the bathroom.
Today we got up early again and after breakfast at the traditionally named “Emma’s Kitchen” we climbed aboard a couple of horses for a day’s trekking. Once the locals had finished laughing at our mounting technique we rode over the ridge (a measly 3000m) into the next valley an had lunch at a Tibetan Red Hat Buddhist monastery complete with prayer wheels and flags.
Brendhan was then allowed inside to pay his respects to a photo of the Dali Lama while Sarah waited outside as the monks were fearful that she would lose her fertility if she entered the holy place. Here is a photo of us and the horses just before leaving the monastery after lunch.
The ride down got pretty hairy at times and after Brendhan’s horse tried to eject him from the saddle our guides decided we were too fat to ride down the steep slope and made us walk although they allowed us to get on again on the flat (this is normal, honest).
After a big thunderstorm late this afternoon the air feels a lot clearer and less humid and we’ve just had another lovely meal so will sign off again for now.
