Mar 30, Chengdu to Changsha

The Travel Weather Gods continue to play with us.  We were up about 5:00am to go back to the overlook of the valley for sunrise.  Of course, overnight the clouds moved in so instead of some low lying fog allowing the many hills to poke through we had a thick cloud cover.  It finally mostly burned off by 10:00 but was never really clear. 

So we left and took the five hour drive back to Chengdu.  On the way out of the Bamboo Forest area we drove across a bridge with this lovely view.

Veggies drying on the bridge rails.

We were pretty late and the guide had a hard time finding a restaurant in the area as the gas was off and none of the restaurants were cooking.  They tried another area and finally found a place called the Peoples Cafeteria (apparently a very popular chain around the city).  Food was good but facility was nothing special.

Last was a trip to the airport to depart from Chengdu to Changsha for the next stop on our adventure.  The flight had some very unexpected entertainment.  The audio was broadcast over the cabin speakers so no earphones required.  The most memorable film was a series of situations similar to the old “Candid Camera” TV show were improbable situations were set up and passers-by reactions filmed.  Some were pretty hysterical (and really silly).

We are only in Changsha to make connections to Zhangjaijie (sort of pronounced “Chongchachay”).  So we are here only overnight.  However, it seems that they don’t have an airport hotel (or the organizers here decided not to put us up in it).  Instead, they are driving us 40 minutes away to the other side of town to our hotel (arrive at hotel at about 11:00pm and leave at 6:00am – talk about a short night).  The guide insists that all hotels nearer to the airport are not particularly good.  What a bother.