Mumsie Chu: MUMSIE'S HOLIDAY TO JIUZHAIGOU

Mumsie was away for a holiday to Jiuzhaigou, that's why mumsie's blog was not 'updated' for so loooooooong.......and why Jiuzhaigou?????- Well 2 yrs ago when mumsie was in Tibet, mumsie was told about this place ...a very very very beautiful PLACE...Though Jiazhaigou is in China it is actually more "Tibetan" So when 2 of Mumsie's 'little ones' are back mumsie rang up her agent to sort out Jiazhaigou.

We flew from S'pore...Plane supposed to leave S'pore @ 7.10 am and was told to be at the airport 2 hrs before departure...so here we are having our breakfast @ Changi airport's kopitiam...

After B'fast we were still waiting

Still waiting and here dadda is checking the itinerary..just in case cos time is nearly 6.00 am still no sight of the tour leader!!!! Guess what time he came.........6.25 am...excuse is jam @ the causeway....What a start...By the time we check in and through customs and ect ect...we were just in time to board....Mumsie was furious..No time to shop at 'tax-free' and GST FREE shops...At Changi airport 'out-going' flight is GST free and 'IN-coming' flight gotta add 7% GST!!!! This is the beginning of our most "unprofessional" tour!! The place is beautiful but the planning is terrible!!!!!!!

Arrival at Chengdu Airport...This is the 2nd time mumsie and dadda landed in this airport....landed here on our way to Tibet too! Chengdu sometimes called "Land of Milk and Honey"is the capital of Sichuan province. We were supposed to stay one night at Chengdu then we will fly into Jiuzhaigou.

Were taken by our tour leader to our coach

Chengdu airport is located 20 km outside of Chengdu, and it is one of the main air hubs in China, ranked 5th in passenger volume. It is also the 5th largest city in China (Home to 9.2 million people)

We were taken straight to lunch...which comprises of many many small dishes...This is a dish of roast duck

Some sort of Noodles????...but is cold

See all the little little dishes...some are warm but some are cold dishes...and some are sweet...the dishes came out all at once...We are used to being served sweet dishes at the very last not here....

This dish is the only one that mumsie likes...some thing like 'Kung-poh' chicken....

Soup is a MUST in China...so this is it...we see this type of soup every meal.....

Mumsie took a photo of our next table...A wedding feast. The guests had just left...and a lot of 'left-overs' either the dishes doesn't taste nice or they over served!!!

The wedding banguet

The 'chus' testing out the food

This is the 'hot' noodle soup

This is a sweet dish...2 little 'gluey balls'

Dunno what is this...some 'fat' noodle??? in black sauce

This is something like scramble egg in sweet soup

After lunch we were taken to visit Qingyang

Temple, (GREEN RAM Temple) is one of the most famous Taoist temples in China

Waiting for our tour leader to buy the tickets

Here she is getting ready to lead us into the temple

Mumsie is more interested in their Bon Sai

Well kept greens and trees and Bonsai

The most magnificent of these buildings is the Eight Trigama Pavillon. Built on square foundations, with a coloured glazed dome on top, this octagonal building reflects the ancient Chinese philosophy that 'the sky is round and the earth is square' There are eight pillars with dragons drawn in relief in the corridor, and colorful caissons and the symbols of eight trigrams are omately arranged across its ceiling

The temple is still in used..the locals still comes her to pray

There are also paintings for sale

And hand design fans

Thes 2 are busy painting

Some of the palces we visited are also popular with parents or teachers..bringing little children to draw...like here

They are actually looking at thier objects while they draw....

Wandering through the temple, you will find many locals and visitors eating, drinking tea and playing Chess/Mahjong at the temple's teahouse. This is a traditional and extremely popular pastime for the people of Chengdu.

Then we were taken out into the street ..on our way to WENSHU Monastery, the best-preserved Buddhis temple in Chengdu..famouse for its exquiste garden and solemn halls.

In the street they even put a 'merry-go-round'

QUITE A lot of tourists along this street

And a no of stalls selling tourists items

And quite a no. of ancient shops

There is even a bakery

Horse riding tooo!

These poor little turtles...are for sale ...not as pets but for 'food'

This guy in 'blue apron' is selling something...

Grapes....

Kuih....

This is it...we arrive at this monastery

Waiting for our tickets to go in

Inside the monastery

This is a strange creature with a mouse's ears, an ox's nose, a tiger's claw, a rabbit's mouth, a dragon's horn , a snake's tail, a horse's face, a goat's beard, a monkety's neck, a chicken's eyes, a dog's belly and a pig's thighs (should have taken a photo of his whole body)

Something caught dadda's eyes

A closer look at it

Oranges....

This little girl is patiently waiting for her kuih

Dried friuts

These are cute... Take off the lids and you got little seeds ...then you watch thses seeds grow into plants...

Along the streets

Dogs are seen every where ..pets not for food

Big dog

Tiny dog

little ones like this

and still smaller ones like this

The happy 'CHUS'

Remember taking somethins like this in Italy but they are made of ceramics here in China...MADE OF WOOD...and carved out

On our way back to the coach..

This seems to be a very popular biscuits shop..

LONG queue

See their biscuits???

For dinner we were taken to the "local king of kings' - the HOTPOT, basically a big pot of oil, water and spices simmering in a hole in the middle of your table.. something like our 'steam boat' First the 'chunks' of oil were put into this

pot, slowy but surely with the fire underneath the oil melt..for us foreigners not used to their spicy soup we had another small pot in the centre...non spicy soup..we noticed that the locals don't have this centre pot...(at first mumsie thought this is only for Linny) but this is actually meant for all of us cos the spicy soup is 'unbearable' not only is it HOT HOT HOT....IT NUMBS YOUR TONGUE!!!!! Anyway we were given chicken, meatballs and loads of other stuff to put into this pot but those that went into the spicy pot were not taken out....unbearable HOT...

Now the chunks of oil has melted under the heat...see the difference from the above...??? And below????

Look at Linny's expression as she stares at the pot of HOTSTUFF...Danny Boy is more interested in his SMS

A bowl of duck's blood.....yeeeeee Don't think mumsie has to worry about her weight this holiday....

Then this tour leader announced that she will be leaving us....(just after 1/2 a day) cos according to her she gotta return to her office for some meeting....Never before has mumsie been to a tour....when the first thing the tour leader asked as we stepped out of the airport into her coach....was our occupation!!!! Yep she went from one to the other asking everybody's occupation....except the CHUS cos we were seated at the very last row of the coach....seems like the whole coach of 12 (including the 4 CHUS will be 16) works in factories....as factory workers or clerks....and most of them are from the same factory...they came as a group... so the tour leader didn't bother to ask us anymore...thinking that we are all working in the same factory......(now was this one of the reasons that they changed our tour leader?????) Not only our tour leader was changed the itenary for the next day's trip was also changed.....We were supposed to fly to Jiuzhaigou the next morning but was told later that the flight was changed to afternoon...no exact time was given and no reasons given . Any way we were told at first that the local tour leader and our Malaysian tour guide and the bus driver will be leaving to Jiuzhaigou that night on the bus...whilst we will sleep in our hotel and fly in the next morning....But things have changed now the Malaysian tour guide will stay with us and fly into Jiuzhaigou whilst only the China local tour leader and the bus driver will leave for Jiuzhaigou that night by coach..........