quick post:Checking Boxes

Boxes checked over the past few days：

1. Hiked a glacier (check)

2. Slept at an official "Very High Altitude" (Greater than 3500 meters) (check)

3. Had a bus break down on a moutain pass in rural china (check)

4. Hitchhiked the rest of the way.(check)

So yesterday we hiked up to the Mingyong glacier, a pilgrimage site for many Tibetans (I was going to kowtow in front of the glacier like everyone else, but was too self conscious about my kowtowing ability.). A great hike, and stunning views, only slightly spoiled by the fact that I left my wallet in the car we took to the glacier, but got it back with all the money in it. phew....

This morning at 8:30 we got on the bus for the 6 hour ride from Deqin to Shangri-la, where we are now, about to catch a 7:00 sleeper bus from Shangri-la to Kunming, and from there to some famous rice terraces and rain forests. At about 11:30 on our bus ride, just after we had passed a 4300 meter pass on the mountain, and not within view of any towns or villages, we heard a large crack, a dragging noise, the bus was lifted a little bit, then stopped.Everyone got out, to find the water tank - the one that cools the brakes on the almost all-downhill-from-there ride - had simply fallen off, and there was water leaking from holes throughout the whole thing. And, while the driver removed the mangled casing and put the water tank back in the trunk, I thought to myself, "there is no way I'm getting back on that bus." Somehow, through some providence, about 20 minutes later a "bread-car" drove by - one of those little boxy things people charter to get from place to place - and Hanns and I managed to flag it down, get our gear, and hop in, heading directly where we needed to go. "Why are you leaving" the driver asked me, "马上就好了” "It'll be fine soon...". "That's ok..." I said. Anyways, all is well, and we got to Shangri-la by ways of a car with functioning brakes and a sane driver, which was nice. I really think I would have preferred to sleep outside than get back on that bus... Anyways, that's all.

再见！ Zai jian!

Lugu lake, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangri-la, and Deqin

I'm sitting here in a smoky internet cafe in Deqin, Yunnan (elevation: 3600 meters) surrounded by tibetan 14 year-olds playing shoot-em-up games and the worst foot-smell I've experienced in a while. Deqin is is a small town of 55,000 people in a valley in the northernmost westernmost part of Yunnan, the last stop before "Tibet proper" begins. The town is 80% tibetan, and part of one of the five Tibetan autonomous regions; it is Tibet without the name. But more on that later.

After my last post, Hanns and I headed to a nearby lake (7 hours by windy, mountaneous road) called Lugu Hu, which borders Sichuan province, and had some of the clearest water and most picturesque sunrises I've ever seen, tarnished only by a Chinese tourbus filled with loud tourists that happened to be there the same day we were. Afterwards, we moved north to the "Tiger Leaping Gorge" - a 30 km hike through one of the biggest and most beautiful gorges in the world. We headed off in the morning, and stayed one night in a guesthouse near the gorge, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and and a raging river. The hike, which is pretty well known in the area, is one of the best I've ever done. Also, as you hike there are little houses and villiages along the way selling food, water, chocolate, and, yes, marijuana grown on the mountain. I don't trust Chinese toothpaste, so I don't even want to imagine... After the hike (which I got a million pictures of, really the only way to describe it), we headed off to Zhongdian, or "Shangri-la" as the local party officials claim it to be in an effort to stir up tourism (thanks Lonely Planet guidebook). Shangri-la was actually really cool. It was pretty much Tibetan at this point on the plateau (elevation: 3200 meters), and we headed out of town to one of the 13 most important Buddhist Monasteries in the Tibetan world, which was a bewildering array of stucco buildings, ornate golden temples, chanting monks and incense, and huge hogs running around (some of them had tusks). Really one of the coolest places I've been. We also had some great Tibetan food there, including a Yak stew (which is pretty much the same as a New England boiled dinner), Yak dumplings, Yak yogurt, and Tibetan bread (alas, no yak...). Also, our hostel had electric blankets which were absolutely delightful in the our 15 degree room (F).

This morning we departed Zhongdian on the 6 hour ride to Deqin. The road, which passes a point as high as 4,200 meters (really, really high), is windy and terrifying, and luckily we got a sane bus driver, which is rare in this part of the world, so I only feared for my life a few times. Other than being nauseatingly high, windy, surrounded by sheer drops off of cliffs, I also sat sandwiched between a woman who would not stop spitting the whole time and a guy chain smoking. All of this almost, ALMOST affected my enjoyment, but luckily the views were so unbelievably picturesque I really didn't care. The roads passed mountain ranges and forests, with mountains upwards of 6,000 meters high (everest is 8,000...), snow capped and jutting from the earth almost violently. Also, when we finally arrived, we checked in and took a cap out of town 10 km to a hill recommended by locals where you can see one of Deqin's main attractions: the Meili snow mountain, which is almost 7000 meters high, and absolutely the most amazing thing I've ever seen. We stood on a hill opposite with a direct view down into a little villiage at the base of the mountain, and then the behemouth's menacing, ice covered rock peaks. After dinner in a little restaurant, we watched the sun set behind the mountain. ahhh.

Anyways, that's about all. Tomorrow we're headed to a glacier near here (the southernmost glacier in the world), and after that, the 800 km trip back to Kunming by sleeper bus. The beds one the bus are made for a person about 5'5"; Hanns is 6'9"... Should be interesting. More to come

zai jian!

The past few days

The following was written a few days ago, without access to my blog, in a crowded hostel. Forgive grammar/spelling mistakes and poor writing - it's kind of hard to consentrate...

Yesterday and today were probably the two best days of my time in China. Hanns and I arrived in Dali after an overnight train from Kunming three mornings ago. The first day we saw the touristy sites in this city just at the cusp of the Tibetan plateau. the three pagodas, a pretty beautiful temple, and the "old town" are all nice, but pretty much tourist traps. I won't really go into them that much. But Dali, outside of these places, is really cool. It's a huge valley (that's what the name actually means - i think...) between two lines of mountains with a giant, beautiful lake in the middle, and acres and acres of farmland growing tea, rice, wheat, and flowers. I, an Australian guy I met, and Hanns rented bikes yesterday morning and just went out of the touristy area, and started riding through the fields and villages along the lake. It was absurdly beautiful; really the first "macro-beauty" I've seen in China. Often China is filled with "micro-beauty" - an old temple next to a cement factory, or, for instance, beautiful old gorgest dammed up. But here, the villages just come one after another, with beautiful mountain air. We biked through fields and villages, having to get around cows and bulls and hay piles, passing dogs on the streets, and traditional chinese construction blending into heavenly mountains. This was all wonderful, but what really made the day was that at around noon we passed by a village where we heard some festive music, and wandered in to see what was going on. It turns out we wandered into a 70th birthday party for one of the village elders, and were immediately invited to stay and be guests of honor. It was a Bai village (the bai minority is a common one in this area), and we sat at the head table with the "lao si", or the "old four." They were the four oldest guys in the village, at 79, 81, 81, and 86. They sat us down, and forced us to drink tea, smoke cigarettes, and imbibe the strongest alcohol I have ever tasted (even by chinese "baijiu" standards). Then lunch came. It was a big bowl of soup with tofu and congeled duck's blood, some delicious spiced potatoes and ginger, and a plate of raw meat. Only Hanns and I were polite enough and courageous enough to try it, as it was their specialty food. I'm probably going to have all sorts of parasites, but it was worth it. It really was good. Also, I think anything in the meat was probably killed by the alcohol and chiles in my stomach. Anyways, the sent us along with some prepared fried pork (which was also awesome), and we biked back to catch a bus to our current location - Lijiang.

Lijiang is even more touristy than the most touristy parts of Dali, but again we rented bikes this morning and got out ot town to the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen. We're even further north now, and higher up on the tibetan plateau - and we biked out to the flat grasslands with massive, rocky, 12000-feet-high mountains, and mountain-side, traditional, Tibetan buddhist temples. After biking a ways up one of the mountains, we could see the whole valley, and then rode down, and fell alseep on the plains, only to be woken up by a goat herder and his goats. Also, when we woke up we were even more sunburned than before - because apparently at altitude the sun is stronger than at sea level, and we couldn't find sunblock anywhere. Hanns bought a cowboy hat (which seems to be the hat of choice in the southwest of any country you go to), but I had nothing. Anyways, we made our way back to hostel, and are getting ready for a 6 hour busride in the morning to a nearby lake, which should be beautiful. More to come.

zai jian!