Songpan

When we left the Tibetan Homestay we had about an hour walk down to the bottom of the mountain to meet Andrew for our trip to Songpan. Gemma had such a fabulous time with the kids that she cried half way down the mountain begging me to leave her there.

When we finally arrived at the bottom of the mountain Andrew was waiting for us and we loaded up and went on our way. On the way to Songpan we stopped to look at an old monastery. Gemma wanted to wait in the car while we took a few pictures. Two Tibetan women approached the car, so Andrew started to talk to them. They were very intrigued by little Miss Red Head, so we got a few snapshots of Gemma with her new friends.



Gemma and the two beautiful Tibetan women.

We arrived in Songpan and went to a little Western hangout called Emma's Kitchen owned by Andrew's friend Emma. Gemma and Emma immediately became great friends.



Gemma and Emma



Gemma and I took a little rickshaw ride around the town.

Songpan is known for horse trekking, so we decided to go on a short two hour trek on our last day. The evening before was extremely chilly, so we thought we may need heavier coats for horse trekking. Andrew suggested we buy Tibetan coats for our trek.



Here is Penny, Leslie, and Hillary trying on the coats.

I found both Gemma and Angus gorgeous coats for about $13.



Here is a gorgeous little baby with her Grandmother.

The next day we mounted our horse and headed out for our horse trekking. I was a little hesitant about going with Gemma because she is only 5. I checked out the horse and they seemed quite calm and seemed to walk quite slowly. I asked if I could ride with Gemma for a while until she got the hang of it and they agreed. We brought my horse just in case we decided to ride separately later.

Here we are getting prepared for our ride.

We headed for the mountain and most of us about fell off our horses when we saw how steep and narrow our path was. Hillary decided to go back, but the rest of us continued on. About 15 minutes into our ride we were all getting a bit hot, so we took off our coats. Our guide put the reigns of our horse down and took Gemma off the horse to take her coat off. I proceed to take my coat off on the horse and there seemed to be no problem. Our guide put Gemma back on the horse and then for some reason our horse decided to turn around. Another guide went to bring him back around when the horse started to buck. Gemma started to fall off and I pulled her back up. The horse bucked again and threw me on my back and Gemma on her bottom. As we lay on the ground the horse reared again and I just shut my eyes and hoped for the best. Luckily we were a little scared and bruised. Gemma, Leslie and I decided we were done for the day and walked down the mountain.

The guide felt so bad he carried Gemma the entire way back to the horse trekking office.

Here are our horses coming back from the mountain. Notice the narrow path.

The rest of the day we decided to relax at Emma's Kitchen and do a bit more shopping.

I saw these three Uighur men sitting in the sunshine and thought it was a great photo. Uighurs are Muslim and from the Northwest Province of Xinjiang.

We have been collecting dress-up clothes for Gemma while we have been living in China. She has a traditional Chinese qipao, a Qiang minority outfit and now she has this gorgeous Tibetan dress.

Our trip was a success and we loved the area so much we plan on taking Jonny's parents up to visit in August.

Tibetan Home Stay

After our trek through Jiuzhaigou National Park we moved accommodations to a Tibetan Homestay with Andrew's friend. We arrived around 7 pm and were very impressed with the set up. Unfortunately by the time we arrived I was feeling so ill from lack of caffeine that I pretty much went to bed. I was really disappointed because the owner of the homestay made us dinner of Yak Butter Tea and boiled potatoes. I was so nauseous that I couldn't even drink anything. Hopefully I will get the chance to try the tea again sometime!



Here we all are in the main room before I headed to bed.

The bedrooms were really great. We had two very comfortable beds and a basin with a canteen of hot water to wash up. The bathroom was down that hall and was Chinese-style squatters. I haven't talked too much about squatters as I try to avoid them at all costs. They are basically a porcelain hole in the ground in which you squat on your haunches to go to the bathroom. During that night Gemma and I became professional squatter users!

Gemma had a ball at the house. The owner of the homestay had a 12, 11, and 9 year old who spoke mainly Tibetan. Gemma speaks a bit of Chinese, so she would have been able to communicate with the kids a little bit, but everyone was amazed at how well the kids were able to communicate with each other without even speaking.

Gemma and the kids playing a little pool.

Here is the lodge where we stayed.

The inside of the main room. It was beautifully painted!

More of the interior.

A view of the gorgeous snow capped mountains outside the lodge.

A view of the village across from the lodge. This is a traditional Tibetan Village.

A close-up of the village. The colorful flag are prayer flags.

We went for a little walk outside the property the lodge was on and there were three farmers planting trees. Gemma went to check out what they were doing.

I met some boys who were playing basketball and shot some hoops with them. They were really good players!

This boy was so shy, but I finally convinced him to let me take his picture.

Gemma ran back to the house to play with her new friends. The spent about an hour collecting dandelions from their property.

After our walk and a fabulous lunch of boiled lamb and shredded potatoes we headed down the road to meet Andrew. We took a few snapshots of our new friends and said our good-byes.

Here is me with the owner of the lodge. We are planning on coming back to stay with them again in August with Jonny's parents.

Jiuzhaigou National Park

On Wednesday morning we woke up early and went in the park before the other 25,000 tourists could make their way in. It was quite chilly when we started out, but it was great because we pretty much had the entire park to ourselves!



Here is Miss Gemma getting started. We were all a little underdressed and our hands were freezing! As you can see the park has a lovely boardwalk to walk through the park. This is great for tourist and also great for the park.



The lakes had absolutely clear water. This was a shot I took of the mountain reflecting off the lake.



The beautiful blue water. Notice the snow capped mountains in the background.



More water



Another spectacular lake with the mountains reflecting in it. I just couldn't believe how clean and clear the water is in this park. Most of the large cities in China have horrible air pollutions and they are just plain dirty. It was hard to believe we were still in China.



Gemma and I striking a pose. Gemma had to strike a pose for most of the time we were in the park. There were mainly Chinese tourist in the park and they all wanted their pictures with the little red head. She was a great sport about it and didn't get to annoyed.



This was Peacock Lake, a perfect name for it I thought.



Gemma really wanted to take photos during our trip through the park. I think it made it more interesting for her. Here is a great shot that she took towards the end of our day.



Here is another picture taken by Gemma. We were relaxing in the sun as we had been hiking for 6 solid hours.

After we had our rest we decided to call it a day and try to go back into the park the next day. We went to the Star Cafe, the place we went to the day before for lunch. We relaxed for a while until Andrew was finished with work and was able to take us to our next adventure!

Gemma the hiking star!

Gemma and I flew to Jiuzhaigou on Tuesday afternoon with our friends Andy and Penny plus their two visitors from England. Our friend Andrew, who works in the park, personally tailored our trip and what an incredible experience we had in one of China's best kept secrets.

We took taxis from the airport to the park to meet up with Andrew. It was a little over an hour drive through gorgeous snow capped mountain. At one point in the taxi Gemma asked, "What is the white stuff on the ground?". I was a little surprised she didn't realize it was snow, but I guess that will serve me right having a desert baby!

When we arrived at the park we quickly checked into the lodge and met Andrew out front. He took us to an area outside the park for a little hiking. We hiked up a beautiful mountain for about a 1 1/2 to a deserted Tibetan village. The houses were locked up and Andrew suspected that the families hadn't returned from the winter yet. I was so impressed with Gemma's ability to climb up this mountain, which was about 10,000 feet high. She was a rock star climbing with little trouble.



Here is a view of the valley from the top of the mountain.



Gemma, Penny, Andy and I at the doorway of one of the houses.

It was a great start to our little adventure! After our decent to the bottom, which took much less time. We headed to a Western bar and had drinks and a snack before having dinner. Andrew had ordered a goat for us for dinner from a lady who has her grill in the middle of the street. The goat lady (as he called her) barbequed a goat for us and it was absolutely fantastic! We also had a few barbequed veggies with our meal.

Zaijian Rock, Elvis Style!

This past Monday evening (yes, I know Monday is not exactly a party night, but it was the day before a big holiday in China) we celebrated Chinese Labor Day and the departure of our friend Rock Hardgrove who will be moving to Dalian, China in about a week. The Shamrock threw a farewell party with an Elvis theme and as you can see Jonny was a willing participant.



Probably the most humorous part of the evening was when we left our house and tried to find a taxi or rickshaw to take us to the Shamrock. The looks that Jonny got were priceless! We were able to flag down a rickshaw and we headed to the party. Here is Jonny with our driver.

The costumes actually have dual purposes. Both the men's and women's rugby teams have tournaments coming up in the next few weeks, so the teams like to pick a theme and dress up for the plane ride or for the evening out following the match.

Here are some snapshots of the Elvi from the evening.

Our guest of honor, the King of "Rock" 'n Roll!

English Chris looking a bit more like Elton John than the King!

Our beautiful female Elvis and hostess Isabel Deng!

Jonny with our friend Leslie, who looked a little bit more like "Goldmember" than Elvis.

Penny looking very hot in her costume!

Jussi, the tallest Elvis in the house standing a little over 2 meters!

The two winners from the evening. Pedro, who one the best lip-sync contest and Andy who won the best costume contest.

Mike in the very best colored costume of the evening. I might have to borrow this....

Is it a bird or a plane? No, No, it's, it's............Elvis Kneviel!!!!

Lily, Jonny and me in my outfit. The girls had Poodle skirts made, but with a panda on them. Unfortunately mine is more of a teddy bear, but it turned out very cute!

The guys!

We're off to the Mountains!

Gemma and I are about to embark on our first girl's trip. Instead of lots of shopping and girly things we (or Mommy) has opted to rough it for a few days up in Jiuzhaigou. We are going to be seeing our friend Andrew, who is from Ireland and also works in Jiuzhaigou National Park and World Heritage Site. Jonny went up to the park this past summer and really enjoyed himself. He said it was absolutely beautiful! The first day we are staying in the lodge where journalists and researchers stay while they are visiting the park, the second and third days we will be staying with a Tibetan families inside and outside of the park. I am really excited to have this experience. The Tibetan culture seems to be quite different than the Chinese culture and they speak a totally different language. I am also really happy to give Gemma the opportunity to see how different cultures live within China. I will report more when we return on Friday!

The Enormous Carrot!

Little Miss Sunshine!

Last Wednesday Gemma's 3-4 year old class gave their class assembly for the year. They had been studying a unit on the earth, farm animals and working together. The name of their play was "The Enormous Carrot". The funny thing was that Gemma came home the day before and asked me who I thought was the Enormous Carrot. I thought about her class and thinking it had to be her because she was the only red head in a sea of black headed children she would be the best choice. I guessed wrong and realized that it was her teacher Miss Berry, who had identical red to Miss Gemma. Here are some pictures and videos of the play.

The sunshine helping the carrot grow...

and the rain.

The carrot had grown enormous, so the farmers and their wives had to try and pull the carrot out of the ground.

It actually took the farmers, their wives, the sheep, the pigs and the cats to get the carrot out of the ground. They all worked together!

The working together song!

They also sang us a Chinese song.

We have been so pleased with Gemma's school the past two years. We are really looking forward to another year at QSI. As you can see their is a diverse group of children from all over the world. Gemma has learned such a great deal about other cultures and quite a bit about geography. We are so grateful to have had our experience in China.