Jiuzhaigou Review Part II

Day 1 & 2

I bought the flight ticket to Chengdu during AirAsia promo few months ago around RM550/person. It was quite a good catch I guess because I never saw the same/ cheaper price anymore (I re-checked the price a few times for my friends but the price was going higher everytime).

We departed from KLIA2 at 6.35pm and arrived at Chengdu International Airport around 10.40pm (no time different between KUL and CTU). It was easy to get taxi outside the airport, however, try to avoid the ulat ulat ticket yang approach, go straight to the taxi queue.

English is very rare in Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou. I saw a few signboards in English at the airport but  communication in English wass sooo hard. Really talking like alien and human. As I had seen that coming, I prepared flash cards just like my previous trip to Seoul. It was much much helpful this time around. A good tip is to put all the address, instructions, reservation number and hotel phone numbers on the flash card with both English and Chinese font. Flash cards will really come in handy during your trip.

Flash cards. Yes this is what I did with my leftover namecard.

We stayed at FlipFlop Hostel in Chengdu. A good hotel. Great location (10 mins walk to Xinnanmen Station), Staff was good in English and all instructions were written in both languages, clean and cheap. It took about 35 mins from the airport to this hotel (~50RMB). Our journey to Jiuzhaigou started on the next day.

Nice simple room - Flip Flop Hostel Chengdu

Cozy lobby. Boleh lepak2 ade foosball and snooker.
A lot of foreigners stay here.

Xinnanmen Bus Station

Since there are 2 options to get to/from Jiuzhaigou from/to Chengdu, we decided to try both options. We took 10 hours bus ride from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou and domestic flight for the return. There was no midnight bus from and to Jiuzhaigou. The first bus was 6.30am if I'm not mistaken. We immediately searched for the ticket counter when we arrived Xinnammen Station that morning around 6.45am (Walked thru the entrance, the ticket counter was on the left side). We only managed to get 8.30am bus (135RMB per person). They provided quite a lot of buses to Jiuzhaigou (every 15mins), just make sure you come as early as you can.  I swear that was the longest bus ride I've ever had. But the view along the way was Subhanallahhh breathhtakinggg.

Feel like stopping every ten km for pictures.
 Too bad I was sharing the bus with another 30 people. *sigh*

Taken randomly from the bus. Cantikkannn T_T

Experience naik bas 10 jam? Hmmm ours was 11 freaking hours to be exact. It was a longggg one. Pheww. The driver was ok, no crazy driving skills, or speeding etc. The road/ highway development was very impressive. I felt like surrounded by the high mountains everywhere. We crossed at least 6 tunnels with the average of 5.5km each. Helooo macam mana boleh buat tunnel tembus banyak2 gunung ganang sampai 5km??? Perghhh power gila! The majority of the bus passengers were Chinese so you should expect to hear the sound of spitting every 10 minutes of less. Like petuihhh here and there. That was "ok" too.

Howeverrrrr, we had a bad experience with the toilet. Huargh. Me and my husband called it a Nightmare-toilet. The bus stopped 3 or 4 times for lunch/ toilet break. During the 2nd stop kot, we went to the toilet. I've been to anywhere in this world, tapi ni first time jumpe expensive nightmare-toilet. We had to pay 1 RMB okkk almost RM0.70cent. So I expected a very nice comfortable, luxury, clean, candle-light-dinner type toilet (over). Berangan puiii. Skali masukk Oh Oh OH MY GOD. How I'm gonna do my business heree?? I didn't know how they even called it a toilet? It was more like a peepoo-cubicle? the wall was at my chest level around 1 meter, without door. Tak perlu pintu pon as you can clearly see/hear what others were doing. Urghh. As I walked to the very last cubicle, kiri kanan kalau toleh boleh nampak this girl was peeing that lady was .....etc. Like so transparent anddd to make it worse, they didn't even provide the bowl. Yes no toilet bowl. It was just like a longkang panjang. 1/2 meter depth and shared with between whole line. Sad but truth, what the front people discharged will eventually flow just "under" you. Euewww. Like really eeuwww. Andddd I managed to snap a picture of it. curik2 snap sambil tergeli2. Go imagine now. 

Hi orang sebelah orang depan buat apa tu T_T

Anyhow, it was a memorable one :P

3 hours before we arrived Jiuzhaigou, the assistant driver was promoting tour packages and guides to us. He wrote down names and contact numbers for those who were interested. He made the Jiuzhaigou park sounded scary, hard, tiring and all so that you'll be attracted to his tour package. No no obviously he was not talking in English hihihi So macam mana kitorang tau apa die cakap? Jeng jeng jeng. We're lucky we met this guy on the bus who was from Italy but has been working in China for 2 years. He speaks basic Chinese, so he was our translator all the way. So don't take the tour. You're not gonna need it.

The bus arrived at Jiuzhaigou bus station around 7pm. It was already late so the ticket counter was closed by then. We're supposed to buy another bus Ticket to HuangLong, but we bought it the next day. We took taxi, I showed my hotel flash card to the taxi driver, checked-in and we're done for the day wuhuuuu!

p/s: Our hotel in Jiuzhaigou was 15minutes walk to the entrance which was among the nearest one. Try to find the nearest hotel to the entrance to save your walking time and energy. 

Jiuzhaigou Review Part I

Jiuzhaigou is more to love-at-first-sight kinda place for me. When I first saw the pictures, I fell in love right away and immediately booked the flight tickets. But I fell in love even more after my visit. Jiuzhaigou is a really a peaceful, wonderful and beautiful hidden treasure on earth. Here is a few important things you need to know before planning to go to Jiuzhaigou:

1) The nearest International Airport from Kuala Lumpur (by AirAsia) is Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport.
2) There are 2 transportation options to go from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou, one is by 45 minutes domestic flight and another one is 10 hours bus ride.
3) Quite high amount of Energy, Cost and Time are required for Jiuzhaigou trip. I never read this anywhere and just realized it after my visit to Jiuzhaigou, which I think is a good tip to know beforehand, YOU NEED TO BE FIT. Banyakk gila berjalan until I reached to a point where I can't feel my leg anymore T_T. I wonder how the makcik2 can do Jiuzhaigou with formal dress and high heels, excuse me?
4) English is almost none in Jiuzhaigou, and Chengdu is no any better. So be prepared to speak like an alien there.
5) Two main attractions in Sichuan is Jiuzhaigou and HuangLong. Recommended to visit both. However, during my stay in Chengdu, I saw a lot more suggested tour package from Chengdu including 4 sisters mountain, horse riding trip, panda observation etc. You can do more research about them if you have more than 5 days to spend.
6) Peak season to visit Jiuzhaigou is Autumn. But bear in mind you need to fight with the exceptionally large crowd during peak season. But I'm so sure the view is gonna be exceptionally beautiful as well. Life is really about making decision isn't it? hehe
7) Free wifi in China means Free Whatsapp. They blocked all social media facebook, instagram, twitter or even google. So be well prepared, booked everything before hand, google as much as you want before depart.

Here is the quick summary of my trip.

Day 1- KLIA2 to Chengdu (Overnight at FlipFlop Hostel, Chengdu)
Day 2 - Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou by 10 hours bus ride (Overnight at Caiyun Hotel, JZH)
Day 3 & 4 - Jiuzhaigou National Park (Overnight at Caiyun Hotel, JZH)
Day 5 - Jiuzhaigou to HuangLong by 4 hours bus ride (Overnight at FlipFlop Hostel, Chengdu)
Day 6 - JinLi Street, Chengdu. Fly back Chengdu - KLIA2