The next morning, we received a call at 8am from the hotel front desk, saying we had to check out immediately. "Check out is at 8am? I've never heard of such a thing!" exclaimed Larry. We packed up quickly and headed out in a few minutes.
At the front desk, the manager apologized. "12pm is our normal checkout time, but this morning some people from the local government are coming to do an inspection, so we were trying to get all the guests out of the hotel. I'm sure you understand."
Not really, but we left without asking for much more of an explanation, ready to go on our hitchhiking adventure back to Songpan (松潘). However, once out, we did notice the town had hung banners across the main street announcing the inspection:
There were also soldiers on the street with brooms, apparently ready to clean up the town (literally).
A few members of the police questioned us as we left town:
The only wanted to know where we were going. We said we were leaving town, and they let us continue on.
After just walking a few minutes, we managed to flag down a small oil cart, which was already carrying two people in the back. The driver said we could get on, but it'll be a little tight.
Larry opted to walk separately and try his luck a little later, so only Baba and I got on the cart:
We had to stand up and hold on to the railing while the cart was moving, as there was no room and the cart was quite dirty, covered with black oil. Balance was hard to maintain, but we had only gone a couple kilometers before the police flagged us down. All four of us had to get down from the back and walk instead. There wasn't much of an explanation, though I imagine what we were doing wasn't quite the safest roadway practice.
We continue walking by ourselves, while the other two and the driver head over to a gas station. In a little bit, after being away from the police's attention for long enough, they continued on:
This time they opted not to pick us up. Luckily for us, a few minutes later, an SUV comes by and slows down. We stick out our thumbs, but when we opened the door, Larry was already inside!
"You guys should be more attentive! We would have passed you guys if I didn't tell them to slow down!" Larry chastised.
There were two people in the car: the driver was a young fellow who we didn’t catch the name of, and the passenger was a Mr. He (贺). They picked us up since they were going to Chuan Zhu Si (川主寺), which was really close to Songpan (just 17 km).
We discussed all sorts of topics, especially around Taiwanese politics and Chen Shui Bian (陳水扁), which Mr. He seemed to follow quite closely. After a couple hours, we were at Chuan Zhu Si. We got off and thanked them for their hospitality.
We had traveled 143km for free, and we were almost to Songpan! Just 17 km to go! Indeed, in no more than a few minutes, we caught sight of another SUV. It was occupied by two young men, who were going to Songpan:
They let us hitch as well, though of course it was just a short trip. While riding, we started talking about Huanglong (黃龍), the park close to Jiuzhaigou and Songpan that we passed on visiting thus far.
"So is Huanglong worth going at this time of the year?" Larry asked.
"Oh definitely! It's one of the best times!"
"I thought there wasn't enough water," Baba said.
"No, there's plenty of water still. If you haven't gone, it's definitely worth it."
"What about the altitude and the weather?"
"They said it’s colder, and the altitude is higher, but if you’re fit, it should be no problem."
Since the two of them were locals, we took their advice and decided to make a detour to Huanglong after we get to Songpan but before heading down to Maoxian.
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