From China to Tibet

Southwest China – Yunnan Provence

Where we left off . . . I think I said we were going to chill in Lijiang for a couple days before heading onto Zhongdian to hire a jeep and driver for the beautiful 1,200 km route from Yunnan Provence to Lhasa, Tibet. Well, we made good on the first half of it, not so good on the second half . . . more on that later. Lijiang was a nice little town . . . a bit touristy for our tastes (July/August is the peak season for Chinese tourists and they were amassed in Lijiang by the thousands). After arriving, we met the nicest guy in China . . . Rocky Wang. Rocky helped Megan and I to the old quarter of the town. We were turning circles as I’d unfortunately identified the wrong bus station on the map as our current location. Anyways, each day Megan and I did our own thing, and each evening, we met up with Rocky and his girlfriend, Alice, for dinner and drinks. We eventually gifted our DVD player to Rocky, who was relocating from southeast China to Lijiang to start a business.

I’d have to say our most memorable experience in Lijiang was our epic quest for the Puji Si Monastery. Megan and I decided to play my little Cambodian game (rules: pick destination, no map, ask everybody on the street where destination is, go whatever direction they point you in). I knew the monastery was supposed to be about 5 km out of town, so I figured it wouldn’t be more than a 7 km walk there, even with a few instances of misdirection from the locals. Our 7 km walk quickly, well actually not so quickly, turned into a 17 km hike . . . . fortunately it was very, very flat. Eventually, we made our way to the quiet monastery, perched on the side of a ridge overlooking the valley. We walked through the monastery entrance and were the only folks in site. After a few minutes of roaming around, we were greeted by a Tibetan monk. This was no ordinary Tibetan monk . . . . he was a dwarf Tibetan monk, the first we had ever seen (actually, the only one we’ve seen). He invited us into the main shrine for a blessing, which was pretty cool. I can only assume that a dwarf Tibetan monk blessing contains extra special good luck . . . we’ll see. Following the blessing and a short tour of the monastery, we walked the direct route back into town, about 8 km to finish off the day.

You want to rent a jeep and driver do you?

We took an afternoon bus from Lijiang to Zhongdian . . . piece of cake. We got in around 5:00, checked into a hotel in the old quarter, then met up with Bryan Crosby at the Tibet Cafe. Bryan had posted a message on the Lonely Planet message board (magical method of internet communication) looking for people to do the overland trip to Lhasa. Bryan is a cool, layed back Canadian guy (not the kind with nineteen maple leaf patches stitched between backpack, clothes, and body) and the three of us (Megan, Bryan, and I) were optimistic we could arrange a jeep for the following week (the delay would allow us to backtrack a couple of hours and do a several day hiking trip in Tiger Leaping Gorge). The following day, we hit the streets in search of a respectable travel agency that could arrange the overland trip. We found several agencies, non respectable. In fact, most roads led us directly to Mr. Wu. If the other agents were rattlesnakes, Mr. Wu was a cobra . . . I swear the guy hissed when we entered his office. After dealing with the several agencies who could arrange such a trip, we decided that we’d rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than give business to any of these jerks. We came to the conclusion that we’d forego the jeep trip to Lhasa, opting to fly instead. Besides, we were planning on doing the jeep trip from Lhasa to the Nepal border in a bit, and who really needs two 1,000+ km jeep trips in the span of a month? After the day of frustration, we all decided a few days of hiking in Tiger Leaping Gorge was exactly what we needed. And, we were right. We caught a morning bus from Zhongdian to Qiatiou, about 2 1/2 hours back towards Lijiang. We stopped for a quick bite at Jane’s guesthouse before starting the 30 km trek (split between 2 days). After eating, we met a couple of super cool gals from California, Tanya and Shannette. The five of us teamed up and headed off for the trail around 3:00 pm. About 2 hours into the hike, we encountered the legendary “28 bends” (28 switchbacks, climbing approximately 3,000 ft of elevation). A couple hours and a couple gallons of sweat later, we arrived at the fabled stone where locals had seen the tiger leap the gorge. The scene was breathtaking . . . unobstructed views in both the upstream and downstream direction of the gorge. Picture two 10,000 foot of elevation ranges, both almost vertical, crowned with jagged peaks, sandwiched together with a raging river running between them . . . nice place. We burned up the megabytes for about half an hour before heading on towards our destination for the evening, Tea Horse Guesthouse. We arrived at the guesthouse around 8:00 pm, tired but satisfied form the incredible hike. The five of us enjoyed a great meal and rehydrated (beer and water) before calling it quits a few minutes before midnight.

The next morning, we set off for the remainder of the hike, which ended at Walnut Garden. After another 17 km of unreal views and friendly encounters with local villagers, we arrived at Sean’s Guesthouse in Walnut Garden around 5:00 pm. We showered up, ate a horse, then rehydrated again . . . another terrific day in the books. Our initial plan was to awake the next morning and catch a mini-bus back to Qiatiou along the lower road, which runs along the river, far below the trail. One slight issue was that a massive landslide had occurred on the lower part of the ridge which wiped out the road around 20 km from Qiatiou . . . what this meant was we had to hike back to the mid-way point on the trail, almost back to our first day’s destination, where we could then descend down to the lower road and find transporation back to town. We took our medicine and arrived on the lower road around 1:00 pm, where we caught a ride with a local guy driving his mini-freight truck back to Qiatiou. After consuming obscene amounts of food at Jane’s, we said goodbye to Tanya and Shannette and walked out to the highway to catch a local bus. We lucked out and a minivan driver pulled over and gave us a lift back to Zhongdian in style (just us sprawled out on reclined captain chairs . . . . no shoulder to shoulder, dirty dude next to you chainsmoking, crappy movie playing local bus action). It was heaven . . . God, our standards have really plummeted.

Zhongdian Part II

We checked back into the same hotel in Zhongdian. We had 3 full days to relax and get ready for the trip to Tibet. Our first day was spent doing laundry, catching up on e-mail, and relaxing around town. The second day, we rented bikes and did the short ride up to Napa Sea (lake), about 10 km north of Zhongdian. The roads were empty and the scenery was great. After leaving the lake, we decided to take a shortcut (to avoid the pass we had to cross on our way to Napa Sea) around a ridge towards the big monastery northeast of town. We stopped after a bit for a picnic lunch, then continued onto the monastery. Everything was going well until the road turned into a bumpy, muddy mess, devestated by the various yak herds and occasional freight truck that travelled it. I faired pretty well on the sloppy track . . . . Megan faired pretty poorly. However, she successfully turned both herself and her bike into the 2 muddiest things in China (slight exageration, but only slight). The pictures are great. We got Megan cleaned up, had a good laugh, and eventually cruised by the monastery and made our way back into town. Our last day, we both plopped on a comfy couch next to the fire in the Raven (terrific little bar in Zhongdian, actually owned by a lady from Seattle) and burned through a couple of good books and pots of tea.

Off to Lhasa

The next morning, we caught a 10:35 flight to Lhasa . . . the spiritual center of Tibet. We arrived at the airport (about 100 km from Lhasa) around 12:30, grabbed our bags, and caught a bus to town. The bus pulled up next to the Potala Palace (the former center of the Tibetan government and residence of the Dalia Lama . . . one of the architectural wonders of the world) around 2:30. We found a comfortable place to stay and set off for a walk around the old part of town. Lhasa is an incredible place, situated at 12,000 feet of elevation in the foothills of the Himalayas . . . Bhuddist pilgrims from throughout Tibet and the rest of the world make the long journey here to walk the sacred streets around the many temples and monasteries around town. The people watching here is second to none. I can’t begin to describe all the interesting things/people we’ve seen here.

Up to this point, the most unique ritual we’ve seen is the debating of the monks at the Sera Monastery, a few miles out of town.. Everyday from 3 to 5 p.m., the hundreds of monks that reside within the monastery gather in the debating courtyard. Once there, they split up in pairs, with one seated and the other standing. Each pair had their own unique style of debate, but the general theme was the standing monk would ramble on and on in a very animated fashion, frequently winding up like a baseball picher and slapping his hands directly in front of the seated monk’s face . . . . the courtyard sounded like grease popping in a frying pan, magnified a hundred times, with all those hands continually clapping. It was cultural entertainment at its finest . . . to us at least.

What’s next?

We’ve got a few more days here in Lhasa before we head west. Tomorrow, we’re going to rent bikes and check out the countryside before heading into the Potala Palace (we waited in line this morning for tickets, always issued for the next day, and got 4:20 entry passes for tomorrow). After that, we’ll have a couple days to prepare for what ensures to be a huge highlight of the trip . . . the jeep trip from Lhasa to the Nepal border via Everest Base Camp. Yesterday, Bryan, Megan, Corina (Bryan’s friend) and I arranged an 8 day trip, including 4 full days at base camp, to the border . . . . we can’t wait. Once in Nepal, we’ll catch a bus or taxi to Kathmandu before heading on to Pocera where we’ll start the two week hike of the Annapurna Range Circuit. The next few weeks will be Himalayas, Himalayas, and more Himalayas. Awesome, Awesome, and more Awesome.