Goodbye Tibet - Hello Songpan

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Took us 6 hours bus journey along crazy Chinese roads to reach the small town of Songpan.  The town still has the original city walls (Qing Dynasty).  Its a pretty touristy town with lots of gift shops, but still has an old muslin quarter where you can see fruits and veggies sold and meat slaughtered - nice.

This town is a good base for some hill climbing and horse treks and has good internet and laundry facilities for those on the road for a while.  However, please do not use the laundry facilities at our hotel.  Our whole group were completely overcharged to various degrees.  Ours should have been 41 yuan but they charged us 85 yuan - of course there are no price lists so you just kind of put it down to experience, but when we were all talking it became apparant that the same had happened to us all and the Manager was called.  We all got our money back and I am sure the girl was sacked.

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Highlight of the trip was Lee's purchase of 'Strange Tasting Horse Beans' which are a bit of a local delicacy - and his very strange purchase of a trilby style hat - are you jealous Biff!  He looks a picture with his hat, sunglasses and backpack on.  Must send some photos soon!