Shit, It's Cold!!!

We had a well deserved sleep in this morning - we needed to replenish our depleted energy.  Plus, our moldy room was way too cold to get up and move about.  When we finally did get up, we headed off for a "breakfast" of mutton noodle soup with bread and sprite (we needed the sugar boost).

 

Our big activity for the day was an 8km (roughly 5 miles) hike into the mountains to a frozen waterfall.  An 8km trek is pretty tough as it is, but given the high altitude, it was even more intense.  It was a good thing that the majority of the trek was through gently ascending path.  We were huffing and puffing by the first hour, but our reward for the trek was everywhere we looked: stunning scenery of shrubs that's splashed with autumnal shades, evergreens, rocky streams, quicksand, and the ever present snow mountain that rose above us.  When we reached the foot of the mountain, I almost had to do a double take - to reach the waterfall, one must climb up huge sets of steps a la Tai Shan.  O well, we were there anyway.  Higher and higher we went and the air turned nippier and nippier.  When we finally reached the first part of the waterfall, we saw that most of the waterfall has been crystallized by ice.  Water still ran, but only below the ice.  Determined to get a picture, Chris and I slipped and slided on the ice covered floor (quite dangerous as well, as one slip can send you over the unprotected ridge down into the valley below).  In a very Three Stooges fashion, Chris and I also managed to plummet our right foot through soft ice and into the freezing water.  Very smooth - all for a picture!

 

The way down was much easier than climbing up (save the stairs part).  We stopped a few more times - once so Chris can try to find a fossil for me (in vain) and another time when we played with some quicksand (smart!).  I've never seen quicksand before, so it was a very interesting experience stepping on a rock that was stuck in the sand and then rocking it back and forth to see how much further it would sink.  We made it back to the village at 3pm and hired a driver to take us back to Zhang Ye so we can make our return bus to Xining. 

 

Upon returning to Xining, we stopped to pick up some snacks for the trip as well as grab a quick dinner before hoping back on a bus.

 

Our bus to Xining, besides providing almost no leg room, also had a bus full of chain smokers.  Great.  But alas, we set up with the last light of the day!