Thursday Sept 6th
Up at 6.30, down the HOD (ooh go on have a go – its not hard) and took a taxi to the bus station. What a delightful bus! New and clean, TV which really whiled away the time (Gods Must Be Crazy II in Chinese), and sensational suspension which absolutely glided over the bad bits of road. We had been warned to expect 12-14 hours back to Chengdu but we made it in just over 7. Magic. The driver stopped on the 3 lane freeway just after an elevated off ramp to drop off one passenger. It would never happen at home.
The scenery was breathtaking. We had farewell vistas of the snowy mountains and tracked along a massively deep valley until we eventually tunnelled out of it near the top. We emerged into a wall of what might have been cloud but it wasn’t and we have been smogged in ever since. We had brought snacks as always but the lunch break was memorable for the restroom layouts. Each sex got a dark room with a row of 6 holes in the concrete, separated by 2’ high screens and no doors. Fabulous. A lot of the passengers looked fairly middle class and might have been used to better.
The taxi drivers were all delusional about 40 yuan fares without the meter but we happily paid 20 to the fellow whose meter showed 16 on arrival. How nice to get back to Sim’s and take those clothes off.
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