Monthly Archives: August 2012

Day 56: Aba (阿坝) – August 12

We popped open our tent door at 6am, the moon is still high up in the sky and the clouds are pinkish from the sunrise – it was very beautiful. But we were still tired, so we just went back into our cozy sleeping bag! At around 8am, we were waken up by the yelling outside of two little nomad boys that live in the mountains with their families.

Boys: “Hello.”
Us: “Good morning.” (not in a pleasant mood being waken up by yelling outside).
Boys: “Trekking pole, can you give?”
Us: “Uhhh, no. If we gave them to you what would we use?”
*boys walk away* Continue reading

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Day 55: Camping (年保玉则) – August 11

We slept in later knowing that there’d be a long walk ahead. The town we stayed in really has nothing going for it except for a rather famous mountain called 年保玉则. It is a sacred mountain in Tibetan culture, and it is also a great place for backpackers to take a 3-4 day trip through the mountains. Its lowest point is 4000m above sea level, high enough to cause most people altitude sickness! Continue reading

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Day 54: Jiuzhi (久治) – August 10

The best part about living in remote areas is that, you’d get spectacular views of stars! The problem was, the next morning when we woke up the clouds came up again… W T F. Fine, we left the village without seeing much of anything and headed into our next destination.

The village we stayed at was too small, so we had to transfer buses. We got dropped off at a bridge, which also serves as a bus stop as proven by the fact that a bench and a snack bar exists. We fueled up with instant noodles and waited for our transfer. One funny thing is, we were actually standing RIGHT at the border of the Gansu province and the Sichuan province!

The bus ride was extremely bumpy and dusty over a dirt road. Some locals stuck their heads out the window to throw up, while us foreigners took a nap! The scenery along both sides though were splendid.

When we got into town, we were blown away by how ridiculously dusty this place is. Seems like a lot of these rural towns are in ‘development’ phase, where every road is being re-paved and new buildings are being put up. This means, extremely horrible air conditions….

We spent the day relaxing, and gathering necessary supplies and information.. Tomorrow we’ll be going into a park to do a 3-4 day hike, with highest altitude levels of over 4800m!

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Day 53: Cairima (采日玛) – August 9

After the morning’s interesting views, it was still early when we got back into town. We took a break, and actually found a buddy to go on the same route as us so we saved some transportation costs by buddying up with him, since it is common here to pay random people with cars to take you to places. It’s surprisingly effective, and so far every driver has been surprisingly nice, despite their sketchy looks! Continue reading

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Tibetan Sky Burial (天葬)

There are many things this temple is famous for, but the main ‘attraction’ here is the fact that this is one of the few places you can witness the Tibetan ritual of sky burial (天葬). I’ll let you wikipedia the details. Continue reading

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Day 52: Langmusi (郎木寺) – August 8

Once again, we get into a monastery-town. The cool thing about this monastery is that, half of it is located in Sichuan province, the other is still in Gansu! Another great thing about these Buddhist towns is that, there is a strange abundance of foreign foods and people. There were 3 coffee shops within 150m of each other! I don’t think you can find 3 independent coffee shops in most large cities….

We took a hike into a gorge, and were joined by two little kids. We got to a nomad tent, which was guarded by three, very very scary dogs! The first two were chained up, but the third and most aggressive one, was in the distance and looked like he was going to break out of his chain any minute! The funny part was, each one had its own territory, so once you got past their territory they would actually ignore you and go back to sleep! Hahaha…we got past the dogs safely. Continue reading

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Dining with our Tibetan Host – August 7

First things first, these people we stayed with should be a ‘normal’ farmer in terms of income, education, family size etc. The family consisted of a grandma, a husband and wife and three kids. Their home was actually quite ‘clean’ considering the circumstances. We arrived back at their home at around 5pm. The kids went out into the fields to collect wheat, and we helped grandma set the wheat out to dry. When dinner time came around, the host was extremely friendly. He brought home some small plums and three bottles of yogurt-drink from the town. The plums were okay, but the kids kept playing with them, rolling them around the dirt-covered floor, and just eating them without bother cleaning them at all…. We each had one just to be courteous….

When dinner time came around, the mother was cleaning the dishes that we left behind from lunch. I was quite surprised at the cleanliness of the place, until I realized that the towel being used to clean was blacker than my car cleaning cloth….ew. Continue reading

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Day 51: Dari Village (达日) – August 7

We finally got a hold of the Tibetan family! Taking a 40min cab ride up winding roads into the mountains, we got into the 3rd village of this mountain range. When we got there, the family’s mother was already waiting for us, literally with open arms. She helped us carry our massive backpack!! When we got past her two family pigs and her guard dog, we got into her humble home. She treated us to some Tibetan specialities, yak-butter tea (酥油茶) and momo (Tibetan bread). The taste… is definitely something you need to acquire. Just imagine, putting about 2 teaspoons of butter into a cup of tea, and about 3 teaspoons of sugar. The strangest part is, they usually drink it with SALT! But as guests, they were used to us foreigners drinking it with sugar. It was very filling, is all I can say.

We wandered around the mountain roads in the afternoon, attempted to climb a ridiculously steep hill and realized going up wasn’t the hard part, coming back down was! Sixty degree slopes and loose rock is not a good combo. We headed back into to our Tibetan guest home just in time for some evening chores and dinner. When we got back, the kids were washing their hands from playing around in the dirt/mud all day. After washing until the water was black, the kid continues to wash his face with the black soapy water….. Oh, and this kid has a cold so for the whole time day and night, he had snot running down his nose. Sorta cute actually until he sneezes in your face…hehe.

The dining experience deserve a post of its own.

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