Man Man Zou

It’s been 12 days since I was in warm, civilized Chengdu. I really miss it and feel like I’m about to go crazy because until today, I haven’t stepped out of my clothing in days because it’s too cold and there’s no running water. I’m surviving on mandarin oranges and Snickers because there’s nothing decent to eat wherever the bus stops for a meal, and I don’t have an appetite because of the elevation. After Dege, we continued to visit the Tibetan towns in Sichuan province for 7 days- everyday taking a bus for 5-8 hours to each destination, and then exploring that town for the rest of the day, and then sleeping (not very well because of the cold and high elevation), then waking up 2 hours before sunrise to catch another bus to the next town, only to do the same thing over again.

This was the closest we got to Tibet, it was just across the river:

It was tough, but definitely worth it. Now that I’m in Zhongdian, I’ve hit the easy life and I figure the next month is going to be a breeze after the backroads of Sichuan province.

Our first town was Baiyu, four hours by hired vehicle (350 Yuan) from Dege. There were no buses running to Baiyu from almost any other town so I figured the isolated Tibetan town would be worth a visit, and it’s not mentioned in our guide book which was an added bonus. There was a nice monastery up a big hill, called Baiyu Monastery. It was a nice walk, with lots of people interested in us. The monastery was under construction, though there were still buildings that were untouched and interesting to look through. The pilgrims and monks were nice, but were not nearly as cool as in Dege. With very, very few tourists coming through Baiyu, I was surprised at the difference between it and Dege, which sees much more tourism. I thought that Baiyu would have been much better, but it definitely wasn’t.

In the actual town of Baiyu, we managed to make three enemies in 12 hours. The people were not nice, but it also should be said that they weren’t Tibetans, they were Han-Chinese. Our biggest enemy was made at our hotel. When we wanted to go out, no one would come down to unlock the gate to let us out, so I had to actually go upstairs to the lady and argue with her because she wouldn’t go down to open it. I had to yell, “Immediately go down there and open the door. NOW!” I’ve gotten in a lot of arguments in Chinese, but I’ve never had to yell like that. The hotel people were all ignorant and astoundingly lazy like that, I couldn’t help but make fun of them in front of their face.

Enemy number two was at an internet café, though half of it was our fault. The guy wanted to overcharge us for using the internet- we had to pay more than what the locals were paying. There was nothing we could do, since we needed to use it to check Mark’s SFU application status, so we went on. Half an hour later, the power went out for the third time, so we got up and snuck out of the internet place without paying.

Enemy number three was made at the barbeque stand. When ordering food in China, I always have to ask how much every single thing is, right down to the rice. If I don’t ask how much rice is, for example, then it will be 5 Yuan instead of 1 Yuan. So we were at a barbeque and I asked how much every item was, even though I know it’s always 0.5 Yuan a piece- I just have to do that, otherwise it will be 2 Yuan a piece. When it came time to pay, Mark didn’t have exact change for our meal, which is another disaster because the Chinese people rarely return the correct change to us. Sure enough, she short changed us a couple Yuan. It’s not much money, but it’s the principle of it. After arguing for a long time, she wouldn’t give us our money and there was nothing we could do except snap her skewers in half (which she reuses), throw them down, and walk away. Bizatch.

So we didn’t have the greatest time in Baiyu. I’m sad to say that it wasn’t worth trying to be cool and deviating from the guide book. And our problems didn’t get any better when we tried to leave the town. We walked to the bus station the day before (it was 1km out of town) to make sure there was a bus running to Batang. The guy said there was no bus there -ever- and the only bus running the next day was to a town called Ganzi. Fine. We wanted anything that could get us out of Baiyu.

We went to the bus station the next morning. At 6:30am there were 8 people waiting at the locked gates of the bus station, but no one around inside the station. Finally around 7:15 some lights turned on inside and a woman came out of the building to go to the bathroom. The people waiting with us at the gates started shouting for her attention, and eventually she slowly sauntered over. They asked where the bus was. The woman looked completely indifferent, and actually surprised that there were people at a bus station inquiring about a bus: “Oh. You’re here for the bus… Uhh, yah, there’s, like, snow on the road, so it’s not going today… or tomorrow. Try the day after tomorrow maybe.” And that was that. Apparently we were trapped in a crap town for days.

On our long walk back into town with our heavy bags, we passed a group of migrant workers on their way to the bus station. They told me they were going to Ganzi. I tried telling them that there was no bus, but they insisted that there was, so we followed them back to the bus station. They got the same answer as we did: No bus out of town for a few more days.

I told the migrant workers that I wanted to get the hell out of town because we hated Baiyu, and they said they really wanted to leave as well because they were on their way home to their families. So once we got back into town, we found a private driver to take us to Ganzi, and, thanks to the guys who did the bargaining, the price was about the same as the bus would have been.

The drive to Ganzi was long, and about an hour into it we ran over a rock that sprung an oil leak. The driver wanted to turn back for Baiyu- I couldn’t believe our bad luck- but the migrant workers insisted that it could be fixed on the spot. They didn’t have a jack, so they drove the van part way up the river embankment to raise it. They flagged down a motorcyclist who happened to have a few packs of crazy glue on him to patch up the leak. Then someone drove to another small town to pick up some oil, which was then funneled into the tank with a water bottle and a pump nozzle that was scrounged from somewhere nearby. Somehow, after an hour or two, it was all fixed and we were on the road again. I think I would have cried if I had to return to Baiyu. And as for the bus that was cancelled because of the snow, that was just a big fat lie because there was very little snow on the road. That’s just the Chinese way of saying they don’t feel like driving the bus today.

Ganzi was a friendly town, but we didn’t spend much time looking around. Our hotel was a dump with no running water (the hotel in Baiyu didn’t have running water either), but at least the people running it were very friendly and it was cheap (20 Yuan).

The next day was a bus ride back to Kangding, the town we had stayed at six days earlier. Because there were no buses out of Baiyu, we had to backtrack to Kangding. That was ok because Kangding was a great town to us. Our same hotel lady remembered us and was happy to see us at the bus station, where she waits everyday for tourists. The guy who we bought stuff from at the outdoors store recognized us on the street and welcomed us back to town. And the people in the supermarket even remembered us. It was nice to be able to take a shower again, and be at a somewhat lower elevation. We even ate a decent meal in Kangding.

The next 4 days were rough going, but worthwhile because the towns were so nice. Our next stop was Litang, which was an extremely bumpy 8 hours from Kangding. Litang was a very cool town with great people, and well-touristed with independent tourists. Litang’s elevation is over 4000m, so a lot of tourists get sick from the elevation. We took it easy so we didn’t get sick.

We walked around town and met some awesome people, including a Han restaurant owner who was happy to bitch to (and with) us about all of China’s problems. He really likes Taiwan- even though he’s never been there- just because it is independent from China. We finally found the perfect person to give our 100NT (Taiwan currency) bill to as a souvenir. He was so happy to receive it, and he ran to the back of the kitchen to find something to give to us in return- an apron. So now we have an apron added to our 1000lb backpack :)

We visited a chorten in town, with many friendly people circling it over and over (the kora). In all these small Tibetan towns, no one minds getting their photo taken. Once in a while, when they get embarrassed and don’t want it, they start laughing and run up and hide behind me so I can’t take their picture. I like seeing the really old people inching their way around the circuit. Usually when they see us, they give a long, hard stare. Then the second we say tashi delek (hello), a huge smile breaks out- saying tashi delek works wonders with the Tibetans.

After Litang was a six hour bus ride to Xiangcheng. Xiangcheng was a beautiful town in a valley, with an overlooking monastery up a big hill and farming fields below. We walked through the fields and I took photos of all the people plowing the fields with their yaks- something I’ve longed to photograph for years because in Taiwan it’s not so easy photographing people, especially poor farmers.

We walked up to the monastery and visited some very talkative monks. We went upstairs and spent over an hour trying to understand and answer the many questions that they had for us. Simple questions, like how much money we made in Taiwan, and how much it’s costing us to travel, we could handle. But then he wanted me to say a Christian prayer- in Chinese- for him, which was just impossible!

One more thing about Xiangcheng was the incredible guesthouse that we stayed in. I was too lazy to take photos of it, and I’m regretting that now, but the outside and inside was just 100% Tibetan. I honestly felt like I was inside a palace. We stayed in the dorm, which was actually the nicest because the ornate ceiling was two storeys high and all the walls were covered with gold and colorful paneling. There were only two other people staying at the guesthouse with us- a very nice couple from New Caledonia. They were the first people I’ve ever met from there, so I bombarded them with many questions about it.

Finally, after Xiangcheng came the moment I was waiting for- today’s bus to Zhongdian. I couldn’t stand the cold, crappy food, and lack of running water anymore. The bus to Zhongdian was super long, maybe 10 hours, because the fastest road was closed due to snow.

So now I’ve made it to Zhongdian. It feels nice to be in a touristy city. This city is also officially called ‘Shangrila’, which I think is totally dorky because I’ve seen other places in Asia that claim to be the same legendary paradise. And judging by what I’ve seen so far, the only Shangrila thing about this town is the hour long, extremely hot bath I just took!