Juizhaigau

Final destination in the 10 day Sichuan Easter adventure. Once again back on the high speed train, back to Chengdu before interchanging for another train to Huanglongjiuhai. A recently built station which allows visitors to access Jiuzhaigou Valley and the Huanglong Area. This time of the year (April) happens to be low season. So it was busy, but not busy busy. Apparently during peak season, they allow up to 40,000 visitors into the Jiuzhaogou Valley per day. Our days were capped at 20,000, but it still felt like a lot. The things about China parks is that there's no opportunity to explore, it's one path, one direction, look at this mountain, take a photo of this lake. With so many people it's easy to understand why they have adopted this philosophy for tourists.

We stayed at the amazing Ritz Carlton Reserve in Rissai Valley. Snow capped mountains in the background, clear star spangled skies at night, beautiful alpine scenery, turquoise lakes and blues of every shade all while surrounded by thousands of Chinese people.

Covid strikes

The last couple of years have disrupted wedding schedules. As such, we've seen a fair amount of virtual weddings, last minute weddings, postponed weddings and even the forfeit of large wedding ceremonies. With things slowly opening up, our cousin decided (rather last minute) to arrange a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur. It's an excuse for people to get together and the first family trip since Cairns, and first time abroad in a long time.

So this trip, had a handful of challenges. 1) mum's passport had expired and had to request an emergency replacement, which unfortunately due to the lack of customer support proved to be quite a nerve wracking race against time. 2) Charlie needed a passport to travel 3) the flights booked by mum and dad did not include check-in luggage, and 4) everybody except me got covid and missed the wedding.

The first three challenges were resolved and we managed to book a couple of serviced apartments for our trip. It was only on the Sunday morning one week after arriving in Malaysia when dad started having a cough, then a fever. We continue to socialise over Sunday until he takes a RAT which turns up positive, and he is forced into isolation. Unfortunately this did little to spread the virus as one by one, fevers and coughs were being reported. Mom, Rio, Auntie, Charlie. Within 2 days everybody was testing positive. All, except me. 

Paranoid that I may have already caught Covid for a second time, I go into isolation 3 days after arriving into Malaysia. I end up dining alone and potting about the hotel deciding when I should take a PCR to ensure I can attend the wedding. On the Thursday I decide to get a PCR and inadvertently whack my foot against the kitchen counter. The PCR comes back negative, my foot hurts, I get an x-ray, slight fracture, I'm given pain killers.

I attend the wedding. Although it felt weird knowing that everybody was stuck inside the apartment. The final day we have breakfast, by now everybody is feeling better. It feels all very illegal to gather as a group. What an unexpected trip.

Pander Panda

We've come to that age where a casual dinner is no longer enough to mark a birthday or farewell. Given the accessibility and access to more disposable income it's not uncommon for milestones to be used an excuse to travel and explore. Traveling forges new memories and reinforces friendships through new adventures and experiences. Chengdu, the Sichuan capital, famous for the apothegm, "Chengdu, can do" and the home of the giant Panda would be the next destination.

Chengdu is a destination that is not high on people's traveling lists with the question of "Why are you going to Chengdu?" being the most common question. The natural answer was of course "Chengdu? For Pandas and hotpot of course!" which meant we had to see pandas and have hotpot.

Due to the last minute nature of the trip and the unintentional coincidence with Mid-Autumn Festival this turned out to be quite a costly trip. We secured flights from Hong Kong to Chengdu for 4200 HKD, corporate rates at the Ritz Carlton for 1200 HKD and a half day tour at the Wolong Panda Club for 3000 HKD.

The first evening was spent carousing Chengdu's own Lan Kwai Fong. Unfortunately the rain and the national holiday meant that the scene was a little weak, none the less, we found late night dumplings, headed to Jellyfish and found ourselves in the psuedo-projects of the Poly Centre which still kept us out until 4 am.

Saturday morning 8:35 am we were greeted by our friendly driver/host who was assigned to give us a tour of the Wolong Panda Club. The astronomical prices (400 USD) for the panda club included entry into the reserve as well as the rare chance to dress up as a surgeon and take a photo with a panda cub. Upon arrival (we were late), we were immediately whisked to an aluminium bench where were we given protective gear and asked to line up 6 others.

The panda was brought out from his enclosure and propped up against the bench. Not the most natural environment but I assume pandas find human furniture just as comfortable. We were issued the following instructions "You can touch him, just don't touch his face" and then the procession started, the cub was busying himself with carrot sticks as the attendant screamed out "next person", each person shuffled in next to the camera took a photo before the attendant screamed "next person" with a sense of urgency that was not reflected on the cub. It lasted 20 seconds. The cutest panda. Over. What a quick but fun experience! The highlight!

The rest of the trip was spent exploring Jinli Street and devouring Sichuan food. So. Spicy. So. Good.

Currently reading "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman!"