What a bummer!! We went to Songpan with the intention of horse trekking for a couple of days and getting out of the big smoke. We had reservations about the horse and Sumo's size but we were assured before we left that it wouldn't be a problem.

Our bus trip there was a long one 2 hours more than scheduled due to some road works. The road needs work.

We stepped off the bus and immediately were inundated with hawkers trying to sell horse trips. Probably the first time ever we were aked for the thing we wanted. We answered sure that would be great and we said the three of us. He said something damn rude in Chinese and laughed as he walked off. He then had the nerve to return and try to convince us in to his hostel. At this stage we were not happy campers standing in the rain and mud we found our own hostel.

About an hour later as we were walking down the street another guy came up to us and said we could go but we'd need to pay double as Sumo would need two horses. We weren't interested anymore. It was such a filthy muddy wet place without friendly people. I know other people who've done the trek and think it's a great place but first impressions for us weren't good.

We decided to cut our losses and return to Chengdu. Next morning we left at 7am for a 9-10 hour bus trip. We arrived in Chengdu 16 hours later absolutely exhausted. We don't know what the hold up was, perhaps a landslide but the Chinese driving did not help. The road is horrendous but instead of staying one car behind the other so there are two lanes flowing we stopped and started the whole way, at times going nowhere for an hour at a time.

A disaster trip - I hope anyone else who goes has a much better time, Songpan and Jiuzhaigou mustbe nice places we just got the blunt end of the stick.