since jzg was covered in a day, decided to go to huanglong for the day. wu shifu's quote was 550rmb, while ma shifu's was 300rmb. it sounded too good to be true, which it was. guess it was his thick sichuan accent that led to the miscommunication. first thing he asked when he saw us was where our bags were. when he realised that we were planning to return to jiuzhai paradise, kept harping on the fact that we should have stayed in chuanzhusi, which was much closer to the airport. ok, so maybe he was right, but i wasn't about to concede that. so what if i like being ensconced in paradise? after the cab trundled reluctantly for a while, we struck a deal. told ma that we should compromise at 400rmb, which he tacitly accepted by picking up speed.
enroute to huanglong, we stopped at a scenic lookout for a glimpse of xuebaoding, which topped out at 5580m. was more excited to see a thick sea of clouds (yunhai) which ma claimed was the thickest he'd ever seen as well. we had to dip below the yunhai to reach huanglong, but as the sun rose, the clouds dissipated.
c had remarked that there didn't seem to be any vehicles on the road (which was helpfully bisected by chunks of ice down the middle), not even tour buses. reached huanglong at 9.30 am to find it completely deserted, the ticket booth closed, the visitors centre shut. !!??@#$ was about to enter the park gratis when a minivan came by and casually coughed up a couple of park workers. so we got our tickets after all, 60rmb (off-peak, 200rmb otherwise.) we even ended up with a guide of sorts, a park worker who walked ahead of us, waited when we fell behind and answered our queries. learnt that the mountain was actually closed from 15 nov to 15 mar. which explained a lot. but he added that they would not turn anyone away if they had come all the way to huanglong in the winter months. began to wonder at some point if he would ask for money, but he didn’t. felt small and mean when saying thanks and waving goodbye when leaving the park.
which turned out to be a very pleasant experience. we were wandering in a winter wonderland, with all manner of frosted trees and plants, with the lightly-sugared conifers looking good enough to eat from a distance. in contrast to jiuzhaigou, most of the water remained frozen, including a waterfall or two. but narnia was thawing and the highest pool we reached, multi-coloured pool (wucaichi), was filled with limpid water. except for 2 other tourists, we had the park to ourselves. lunch comprised of desiccated granola bars and biscuits at a pavilion; our guide refused to take anything.
given my first night's experience and ma's scare-mongering, had ended up buying two cans of oxygen for 100rmb, just in case. (they were sold at 20rmb a can at the airport.) ended up not using them on huanglong, though after the trip and the twisty-winding 2hr journey back to jiuzhai paradise, the headache rolled in again. happily, shooting up with oxygen (c's tank appeared to be filled with nitrous oxide instead) and downing a panadol worked.
after a nap, had an early dinner at about 5.30pm. no problems this time as the tour group masses weren't scheduled to be fed yet. 140rmb for hotplate black pepper yak, which was tender, vegetables, soup (bland), and dandan noodles in clear soup. the abysmal food situation in paradise was definitely a drawback. presumably it was less dire during tourist season with more restaurants open, but venturing out of paradise for meals would be both inconvenient and costly given that cabs were the primary means of transport.