January 12: The Bus Ride

My alarm went off at 6 and I of course turned it off and woke up at 7:15. I decided to look at the map to see if the bus station lonely planet told us about was the one next to our hostel. Nope. The chances of the bus station next to our hostel having a bus leaving at 9... Pretty slim. So I woke Henry up, packed my bag and checked out. The guy at the hostel told me the bus at the bus station next to us left around 8. We left the hostel at 7:45 and made the 7:55 bus by 30 seconds. They were about to pull out. Great timing.

So this blog may seem random and not put together since I am writing as we go. But I thought it would be a cool blog.

This bus ride to Jiuzhaigou and is 10 hours long. When we first got on Henry said, "So what's your plan for the next 10 hours?" I told him, "sleep, listen to music, read and snack". Little did I know being blown away was part of my plan. Sleep was thrown out the window once we hit the mountains. Which was only an hour into the drive. We have about 3 hours left of the ride and the past 7 have been breathtaking. I can't describe it. I can show you pictures, but words can't describe what we have seen and what I have felt. I hope that every one of you reading this will one day have the opportunity to take this trip. Some people have no interest in visiting China, and if you don't, you should. You'll find people living in the middle of nowhere, in the mountains, with dirt on their faces working harder than you can probably imagine. One day, if I ever have the money, I will start a school out here.

The sky here is as blue as the sky in America. I love it. I've been missing a good ole American sky. I promise I'm not being crazy. A sunny blue-sky day in China just isn't the same as a sunny blue sky in America. Probably has to do with all the pollution, because where we are now it's gorgeous.

The roads are a mixture of snow and ice now and the bus driver is just honking his horn and zooming on through like it’s nobody's business. I thought you weren't supposed to brake on ice?

九道拐- 9 turns of death (I added the death part). We are on the 7th. Almost there!

We finally made it. 10 hours later. It is freezing! We checked into our four-person room. Of course it's 3 guys and me. Wonderful.

Tonight we got dinner at a little restaurant across the street and then went to bed since we are waking up at 6:30 tomorrow to beat the crowds.