Chengdu, home of the panda and hotpot, but not much else. We did both, but the hotpot was decidedly more painful. After burning our digestive systems, we hit the road to Songpan to go on a three day pony trek. However, this was not quite the fairy tale pony riding we had in mind. Abi’s horse was the most competitive creature of all time. Instead of following the guide like everyone else, he decided that he wanted to win the race at all costs and would carve up the path galloping at a million miles an hour in front of everyone else. This meant barging off other horses on precarious mountain paths about 3inches wide and charging over rivers and up hills that were no where near our destination. About 50 times the guide had to come and rescue her as the horse was running her off to a near certain death.
Meanwhile Heath had the only donkey of the group. He was a right miserable bastard (the horse that is), and tried to buck Heath off his back about 5 times within the first hour. As a consequence the donkey was dragged up the mountain by a rope connected to one of the guides, rather than having free will like the rest of the horses. This didn't stop old donkey face successfully bucking Heath off at least once, though fortunately on not too precarious a slope. However Heath wasn't too happy about his ride at the back of the group!
So eventually we got used to the personalities of our particular donkeys/horses, but then Heath got ill on the second day in addition to us both being mega sunburnt and with little skin left on our butts. The last day was a bit of a challenge to get through but finally we got home, no skin to speak of due to sunburn and horse chaffing, and Heath a quivering feverish wreck, but we were alive at least. To add insult to injury our bus home had no AC, was overpacked with stinking chinese men, and took 14 hours instead of the usual 11, bleurgh!
