#GeraTravels to 四川 (Si Chuan)：Winter Wonderland Exists in Hai Luo Gou Glacier!

 

10-11 December 2014

All you snow-lovers will absolutely adore this post! During this part of my trip, we went to a glacier which was downright AMAZING.

But it was a reallyyyyyy long journey there! Would you believe that we literally almost spent an entire day on the road?

Okay, I might sound like some country pumpkin. But I wasn’t quite used to it… Being in Singapore, you won’t spend a whole day travelling like that.

You would’ve gone around the country quite a number of times. And most of the time when I travel, we usually stick to just one region. However, China is really enormous! So it’s apparently quite normal to spend so much time travelling.

Shouldn’t complain though… The one who was evidently in pain was actually our bus driver.

He’s so humble & awesome! He never once complained about being tired, he just did his job diligently. I made sure to tip him extra before we left! 😀

And of course we stopped now & then to grab some food.

As usual, the food was delicious & warm – a little different in flavouring when you compare to the Chinese restaurants in Singapore, but I enjoyed them thoroughly nonetheless!

After a whole day of bus-riding, my butt was sore and it was great to finally be in our next hotel!

This hotel had is gorgeously immaculate carving right in the heart of its lobby!

There was no real service… Basically we had to lug our luggages by ourselves up stairs and into the lift lobby. I assume the architecture wasn’t thought about for tourists. Which is pretty ironic for a hotel… But oh well.

At least I got some exercise out of it. Weight-lifting, baby!

One thing I really liked about the hotel was that in the dining room, the waitresses were dressed in these military-like uniforms. It felt different!

And I don’t know if it’s part of their work standards, but all of them had really stern & black faces. Like we were some sort of slave-drivers for asking them for more tea… Maybe it was so really bring out the whole military ambience?

Unlike the cold treatment we got from the staff, the food was heartwarming! ❤ 

 

 

The rooms were super minimalistic… Almost like Hotel 81 in Singapore. And the heaters weren’t exactly working… Not entirely ideal to happen in that kind of weather.

On the plus side, our beds had a small heater pad on them! Small… but big enough to cover about half my body? One of the rare moments I’m glad I’m not a tall one. 😀

And the hotel overall had a lovely ambience to it!

So lovely, in fact, that my aunt and I spent hours chatting away in the hotel lobby till we were hounded to return to our rooms.

When morning broke, I was really excited! The hotel lobby looked beautiful as expected…

But the best thing was… IT WAS SNOWING!!!

I felt super blessed, because it just made seeing the glacier even better!

Opening the hotel room window was already a true treat! ❤

Everything was nicely snowed on! I was positively in high spirits just walking around the hotel.

The entire family was utterly thrilled!!!

Super adorable to see my grandparents getting so excited over the snow too! 😀

However going to the glacier was a rather dangerous activity… Only the young & agile could go. Thus our grandparents were strongly advised against going… 😦

But I waved them goodbye countless times & promised photos to make them feel like they were there with us! 😉

And my aunt stayed behind to keep them company. How sweet!

I was tempted to stay as well… Simply because I’m nowhere near agile. I fell soooo many times on those slippery roads. I was almost scared.

BUT I’m glad I went to see the Hai Luo Gou Glacier for myself!

After our own tour bus brought us nearer, we had to board a bus specially for the glacier!

 

The little bus rode up curvy, snowy roads and then suddenly it stopped!

Because of the slippery roads, the tires of the bus had to be metalled-up! 

This therefore created more friction and the ride would be a lot safer! 

 

While waiting for the tires to be fixed up, Fran insisted on a selfie. Tsk, youngesters these days have absolutely no respect for their elders. 

Snow clothed Mother Nature in a scintillating white.

And we arrived!

Of course there was still a really long journey ahead of us… but we were still basking in the excitement of the snow!

The bus rides were quite long, so we made sure to empty our bladders (and rectums, if required) before we moved on.

Everything was just ice. Which was probably better… So the washroom smelt a whole better than usual!

Either the snow just froze it all up, so not much smell left. Or the cold froze my nose up. Either way, my nose was happier.

And pretty soon, Uncle Gary and I started a snowball fight.

There was just so much snow! It all really came down! 

Then Uncle Gary threw one huge snowball at me (no fair, given he has bigger hands) and ran into the building. Out of rage (injected with heaps of fun-loving), I balled together the most amount of snow I could and threw it at him inside the cable car building.

…Which got me a scolding from the staff inside…

Uncle: 呃！不准在里面这里丢！！！(Oei! Absolutely no throwing inside here!!!)

Aunty Demmi (Uncle Gary’s wife): 哎呀，孩子不懂事啦！(Aiya, children don’t know things.)

Uncle: 这个也算孩子啊？？(She’s still considered a child?!)

He had a good point… I’m evidently an adult. But nevertheless, I knew how to handle the situation!

Me: *puss in boots eyes* 对不起，叔叔…… 是他欺负我的…… (Sorry, uncle… He bullied me…)

Uncle: 哈哈！好啦，看你那么可爱！以后不能这样了哦！(Haha! Alright, you’re so cute! Next time don’t do it again!) 

Those Puss in Boots eyes work (almost) every time.

I obviously won the uncle’s heart somehow… He insisted that I go up our cable car first, he said window seats are the best! ❤ Aww~ …or maybe he was hoping that with my childlike nature, I might fall off or something. We will never know.

 

The view in the cable car itself was already breathtaking.

Never mind all the cable car drama – just enjoy the view!

Once we got to the top and it was a tad more secluded…

And once we walked in a little more… It was truly Winter Wonderland!!!

After walking through an entire lane of gorgeous wintery-goodness, we got to the viewing site of the glacier!

Kath, Fran and I tried to make noises – hoping we could see some snow flow down like a mini-avalanche.

I don’t know what we were thinking…

Those with real balls could probably take the road less travelled. It was a staircase that brought you literally right in front of the glacier. And it was evidently not an easy road to trek.

So, nope for me.

Besides, I had some sort of entertainment right there.

Check out these guys… Trying to act all macho.

I failed swoon even a little bit. When Fran told me to look, my natural reaction was, “Omg, ew.” 

And after the photo was taken, they immediately struggled to back on their layers of clothing.

*rolls eyes*

Anyway, while walking and walking… We got hungry. Good thing our grandparents insisted that we packed in some boiled eggs from our breakfast buffet into our pockets!

Grandparents really know best.

The eggs weren’t warm anymore, but they were still totally delicious as we trudged through the heavy snow.

Good thing was, we were soon brought to a really warm little cafe that sat right in the middle of all the snow! It was like finding heaven. 

We filled up with several different snacks! All very welcomed by our cold stomachs. 

And there was this cool uncle who baked large biscuits effortlessly by a burning hot pan.

It was indeed really yummy to the tummy! Totally different from the kind you find in those bakeries in Singapore! I almost miss the taste…

So off we headed down the wet & snowy roads again!

At this part, it felt like I was more in Nepal than in China.

Look at these stunning structures!

And this lady brought me into one of the small structures to pray to a god. It was actually a god having sex… With a few women actually.

She said some things which I didn’t entirely understand… Her accent was pretty heavy and my mind was more entangled in the statue itself. It was… Interesting.

Around here, our tour guide was shouting to us to stop climbing… It was far, dangerous… Something like that.

And he was right. I fell… Again.

I was used to it. I just burst out laughing when I landed on my perky ass.

Around my neck was a cloth that symbolised blessings of some sort, but I had to return it before heading down the mountain. Which was quite a good thing… I was beginning to wonder what in the world I’ll do with it if I brought it home. 

It wasn’t long before we landed back to lower lands. 😀

And I was so happy throughout the whole thing! Yi Cheong caught this image of me smiling away with true happiness.

Last chance to make snow angels! MUST MAKE!

It was a very exhausting adventure, but an adventure nonetheless! 😀

And we took this chance to take a nice walk down back to the hotel, passing by some lovely architecture of the town.

And they had these little stalls selling all sorts of fresh fruits!

By the time we got back, the snow had already disappeared. 😦 

Now we can’t possibly leave a town without getting a taste of what it’s really like, can we?

So we didn’t rest, we decided to take a stroll into the town itself! Get a little look-see of what this place is really about apart from the touristy places.

The streets were flooded with places that sold cooked meat like that.

Along with a stream of hotpot restaurants!

We went to this church that also used to be the residence of Mao Zi Dong! How cool is that! 

I adored the architecture that managed to infuse both Eastern & Western designs together so flawlessly; bringing out the unique beauty of each one without cloaking the other.

It was obvious this was one of the pride & joys of the little town – being so clean and well-ornamented.

The town was quaint – not too developed, but I liked it!

 

It didn’t have the whole urban jungle clutter going on and for someone who grew up in an urban jungle, so much space with that touch of rurality was much appreciated.

It was such a sight-intensive day, my eyes were tired & brain was boggled – but I’d do it all over again if I could. 😉

The entire place was the perfect escape from the hustle & bustle of constantly having to be on your toes; the never-ending rat race we were born into in the urban jungle – everyone’s looking for the cheese but no one is ever satisfied with it.

Yet I found an immense amount of satisfaction just enjoying Mother Nature that day.
Dare I say… More satisfaction than any work project I completed.

😉 Ah, it was such a good day.

XOXO, G.