West China and Tibet in a Month

Its been a long time since I put up some information about China, but I suppose thats because there was nothing I felt was worthy of sharing; perhaps this is still not worthy of sharing because when one sits in front of a computer and reads abstract bits of information and sees random pictures it is obviously impossible to fully interpret the experience, but believe me, the experience was really worth sharing. ie, you should have been there.

Pictures that inspire lucid memories to me may just be random pictures to someone else. Note: some of my pictures are too dark because 1. i got a new camera after I broke mine taking pictures in a hot spring and 2. I think the Tibetan sun played tricks on my eyes. Therefore I tried to put only the creme de la creme up, but still ended up with wwaaaayyyy too many. Also probably the best pictures up were taken by my two friends I was traveling with: gabe and anya. ...for example, Gabe (nicknamed Gaybar shortly before we left Hangzhou for no other reason than that its funny and easy to say) gets credit for the picture above.

This picture is mine though. Introducing Gabe (Gaybar)

Kunming-Stone Forest


The first day we flew to Kunming which is the capital of Yunnan province. Nice place, reportedly one of Chinas best cities, and I believe it. It may have been one of the first places in China where the weather reminded me of California. The sky was blue and there were distinguishable clouds and sunlight, as opposed to the pollution haze in most other chinese cities. It was pretty clean and pleasant, and pinetrees lined many of the streets. Cars were still a bit too many and exhaust too heavy, but it was still good.

I think the main attraction in Kunming, other than the clean air and nice weather, is the Stone Forest. We really only spent one full day in Kunming, so had I more time to explore, I probably would have found much more beneath the surface; but Gaybar and I were working on a limited time frame. 1 day in Kunming = stone forest. It was a bit touristy, but there were not too many people, and if you wanted, you could go exploring in some actually pretty dangerous places.







Ironically, eventhough I said the weather was great in Kunming, it poured rain on us in the Stone Forest. We got soaked, Gabe was freezing, so I recommended he remove the wet shirt, and just wear the poncho, which he ended up doing really self conciously because he thought everyone could see that he wasnt wearing a shirt and would think he was a pervert. I told him no one could really tell...but then in this picture I guess you can. ..

Dali

Dali, if I remember right, is about4 hours north of Kunming, much smaller but probably equally as famous. Its nice, but a bit touristy. There are a few streets that are heavily touristed...but elseware it is very nice, actually even the touristy streets are pretty nice too. This area is home to one of China's ethnic minorities: the Naxi.

One of many cafes of its sort in the touristy section

Introducing Anya (Princess- because she is very accustomed to getting her way. Shes a wicked bargainer) Gabe met her getting off the bus in Dali when she asked if we wanted to share a cab. She bargained the cab down for us better than we could have, so we decided to let here stay with us for the rest of the trip :) Coincidentally, she would also be studying in Germany this next year although on the opposite side.

For the beginning of the trip, Gabe and I had to sleep like this because of the lethal mosquitos. I was guaranteed to wake up in the middle of the night with at least 5 bites...no joke. One night I was awoken at maybe 2:30 because of my new bites and the incessant buzzing in my ear so I was just lying there quietly, swatting at them as they buzzed in my ear. Suddenly gabe sits up swinging his pillow wildly yelling, "@#$% wenzi!!!" (@#$%= something in english, wenzi = mandarin for mosquito) Anyways, random story that hopefully describes the situation.

One of many buddhist alters we would see. This one was very simple.

All the black dots are spiders. Big ones.

Lijiang
Old town in Lijiang reminded me of a kind of Chinese touristy Disneyland, but it is still enjoyable and nice for what it is. The streets, like Dali are cobblestone, and pedestrians only....nice shops, restaurants etc



Lijiang- Lasa hai
A day trip from Lijiang was Lasa Hai, or Lasa Lake, which turned out to be one of the unexpected highlights of the trip, not necessarily because of the location, but maybe just the experience and timing....see the lake pictures.

Two attractions at Lasa Hai, a horse ride up a mountain, and the lake itself. The horse ride ended up being a complete rip off by the locals trying to get money, so we said we would walk despite the horse men saying that we could not. Anya was quite good at ignoring the chinese people who did not give us our way. When Gabe and I would express our concerns about pissing off people she would always reply, "Dont mind them".

The mountain turned out to be quite muddy

I think Princess was right about the horse men being phonies because on the way to the mountain, the guys said we could not go down this specific road. Apparently it was dangerous and we had to pay a fee. Coming down from the mountain we came upon the same road from the other side with a pack of old people sitting at the mouth. We asked them, "Can we go down this road?" and they were all: "Yeah!!!" However, upon arriving at the horse camp they were pissed, and it turned out that they had told our driver who was waiting for us to leave because we didnt buy a horse ride. We were stranded, so we decided to check out the lake, which was by far one of the highlights of the entire trip.


We rented a boat from a local Naxi horse guy (Princess took care of the bargaining) and had one of the best experiences of my life...hard to summarize with words and pictures, but it kind of epitomized peace...the sunset was fantastic, and our boat man seemed like an all-around nice Naxi guy.

Something about the Naxi boat man clicked with me and he came across as really
likable.

In this picture he looks like my Conscious.

Hu Tiao Xia (Tiger Leaping Gorge)

Tiger Leaping Gorge is supposed to be one of the must-do hikes in China. Its 2-3 days and I think it is the beginning of the Yangzi river. This is yet another situation where you just cant catch it all on camera and words cant describe it. It is supposed to be...I think the tallest gorge in the world, which is impressive in itself, but hiking through it at points it would seem incredibly narrow, so you would at times be very close to the opposite cliffs deep inside of the tallest gorge in the world. Actually, I think the 2 days we were there, we never saw the peaks of the mountains because of the clouds...and there is always farming...its crazy.


On the way to the gorge we had a half hour delay when the driver decided to go buy "stuff". Im not saying drugs, we really just dont know what he was trying to buy. It may have been food. Later we stopped for what we think was gas.

Arriving at the gorge, you get off the bus, ask directions and hike. At this point we met Brooke (front) and Vicky (back) from Australia and England respectively.

The first day of the hike was pretty gnarly, so this local with a donkey asked us if we wanted to rent a donkey. We all said "no" so he was all: "ok," but followed us up the mountain anyways.


When we would stop to rest, drink water and eat dried dates, banana chips or peanuts (which we lived on for these days) the guy would relax on the donkey and smoke a cigarette. Finally Vicky broke down...


Later it started raining, so being so well prepared, we donned our raincoats. I just like this picture of Gaybar.
We hiked all day, then stayed at a small guest house for the night. The girls who worked there were very interested in my pictures because they rarely leave the guesthouse.


Later in the second day we came to what the call Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge, where there were hand written signs saying that we needed to pay to use the trail. It seemed like another hoax, but the little old lady who was trying to collect money seemed pretty sincere. Anya was in favor of just going without paying, but this time we thought best not to. The old lady said that these Middle gorge trails were maintained by the local people, not the government. In the beginning of the gorges we paid for a pretty expensive ticket, but it was unrelated to the people here...I dont think the local people see any of that admission money...so we paid it and moved on with a clear conscious to the best part of the Tiger Leaping gorge...via trails and down cliffs that were definitely only maintained by villagers...


Coming down the cliff you come to these little shacks with nice ladies selling things like roots, mushrooms and some fruit. Its really random but amazing because they are so secluded.

There was this crevice on the left carved in the rocks that you could climb through...

Later we came to another point where the villagers collect money, so we gave him an Anya-negotiated reduced rate. When he realized that Anya spoke english, he asked us to help him interpret a message they wanted to put on signs to inform foreigners that this was a local maintained spot. We did so, and also added some marketing flare. The guy turned out to be really really appreciative and really really nice.


Upon climbing out of Middle Hu Tiao Xia we discovered from talking to locals that the roads back to the Lijiang were destroyed from the rain and it may take 10 days to fix. Another option was to go to our next destination (Zhongdian) via private car which again, Anya negotiated.

Negotiations. Old lady by Anya is the initial lady collecting money for Middle Hu Tiao Xia (how can you tell that little old lady no?) and the guy in the brown shirt turned out to be our crazy (but got us there in one piece) driver. Actually there was one point of the drive where Anya told him, "if you kill us, we cant pay you"

At about this time we began to see some rural uses of the roads...

Note the DVD player on the sun visor

Zhongdian
This is a small city that is supposedly Shangri la, the tibetan word for something similar to heaven on earth; however, I'm going to refrain from calling it that purely because I have read that there is a debate as to what place is the true Shangrila, but the motivation is purely financial. The true tibetan buddhist view of Shangrila is not a physical location, but somewhere you reach inside yourself. Regardless of all that, the city was nice.

It was here in Zhongdian that we were supposed to meet our travel agency that would take us on a 7 day land cruiser trip to Lhasa, but upon reviewing the situation we changed plans. There was no problem with the agency, but rather the money, so we modified our plans to go somewhere else while they arranged other permits to fly to Tibet.

Here I had my first taste of yak butter tea. It is tea with yak butter in it, its salty and oily and coats your throat. Its a serious drink and a serious staple of tibetan beverages. It might be a good soup.

One of the cool things about going to the Sticks in China is that the rules are relaxed. Temple under construction? No problem, just dont mess anything up when you go in, and dont hurt yourself.

This is the city square, where one night we came upon one of the largest dances I have seen. It was like a country line dance, but in a circle. Unfortunately I did not get a picture. The music was catchy, it was kind of like a mix between techno and traditional tibetan music, and the people who could dance well really looked good. We tried to join, but the dance was alittle too complicated.

The next day we talked to the girl who i had been in contact with at the travel agency, (Lobsang Dolma) about a good place to eat and if she could teach us to dance. She recommended a restaurant and said that later after the bosses leave, we can clear the floor and she and the staff will teach us. This proved to be another highlight of the trip.


Oh yeah, and coincidentally we ran into Brooke and Vicky at our hostel so we also hung out in Zhongdian. After the Tibetan dance party, Brooke and Vicky took over and everyone showed the staff a western dance party.

This is the hot spring that broke my camera. That guy on the left is our driver, and not shown are the swim suits that gabe and I had to buy that is a two-dollar cross between short shorts and a thin, loose fitting speedo.

Chengdu- Jiu Zhai Gou
This place is perhaps the best known place in Sichuan. It is a national park which focuses alittle on educating the public about conservation and environmental responsibility. Ironically they had environmental slogans written on plastic red banners held up by large red balloons, but at least they were trying, and indeed, I think it was the most environmentally responsible I have seen chinese tourists be. Side note: the water is really this blue.

Many places you go, there will be people trying to rent you clothes to take cheesy pictures, so me and Anya did it...gabe wouldnt. Anya told them to give me girls clothes though, so I think they did.

The first of many yaks we would see with their dignity removed for tourism

11 hours on a bus .

This is a man. Its gabe's idol.

Lhasa

Not much to say I guess, its cool, really high, I had a head ache the first night. You periodically get winded randomly walking on the street. Its really religious and eye-opening. Pilgrims will travel thousands of miles to come to Lhasa, some of which do this thing called Prostrating, where they stand with their hands together, pray up, forward down, then lay out on the ground with their hands stretched out in front of them, touch their foreheads to the ground, stand up, take 3 steps and do it again. People travel for thousands of miles and for years in this fashion to reach Lhasa.

The night of arrival, I had among other things, yak tongue and lamb lungs for dinner at one of Lhasa's older restaraunts. The lung was flavored pretty well, so it was edible...and of course we had yak butter tea.

Inside the Potola Palace, above on the top floor is the Dalai Lama's wing.

Everyday, people will take laps around the temples in a clockwise direction. Either the walk itself or the path is called a "Kora" This seemed to be, by far the most visited of the temples we saw: Johkang, where Tibetan budhism originated, therefore the busiest kora.

Johkang Square, in front of Johkang temple, picture taken from the roof of Johkang temple

Here we started our 7 day landcruiser trip to Mt. Everest

Yamdroktso


This was part of the road to Yamdroktso, one of Tibet's 4 holy lakes. The first of many stops on our trip to Mt. Everest. The water is bluer than shown on the picture.


Gyantse

Road to Gyantse from Yamdroktso

Prostrating Pilgrim, with a long way to go.

The kid not waving is naked, perhaps why he is not waving.
Side note: many tibetans will wave at passing land cruisers. Its nice.

These are prayer wheels, they often times are in front of and all along the koras around the temples. Turn them in a counter clockwise direction. I dont know how that dog got in there.

I figured out one of the things that makes the Tibetan scenery remarkable is the angle the sun comes in at. It could be the altitude or time of year...i dont know, but it makes things look really nice. The clouds also make the scenery shadowed in spots, which is reminiscent of a fairytale.

Shigatse
This is Tibets second largest city, again a series of fortunate coincidences because we came upon this huge festival which happens only 3 times a year. We also happened to be in the right place at the right time and bought VIP seats (on the ground) for like 1 buck.

Yak skull to honor the roll the yaks play in the tibetan's lives. Its located along the Kora of the large monastery in Shigatse. The yak to the tibetan was like the buffalo to the American Indian, before the white man killed them all. ...buffalos and american indians. I dont think they waste any parts of the animal.

One morning, gabe and I woke up to hear Princess messing with the lock on the bathroom door from the inside. It turns out she got locked in, so we had to get the "maintenance guy" to come and kick the door down after he couldnt jimmy the lock open.

Anya providing cover for me so I could sneak a picture of this guy and his donkey.
They had the biggest and baddest looking monk running security around the stage at the festival ...and he was big.

New Tingri

Nothing too significant here, but we made it interesting by killing a night hiking up a random hill. I had to stop all the time because of the altitude, which seemed to be hurting me alot worse than Gaybar or Princess.

Lapa our driver on the left, Pasang our guide on the right.

Its very bright and cold.

Everest

Ok, this was neat, but after hiking from the first to second base camp and back, I thought I might die that night from the altitude and exhaustion... really, i felt i had to concentrate on hyperventilating to live.

Stop on the side of the road on the way to base camp one. Lapa said we were lucky because it was clear today. In the distance thats Everest

This is a dark picture of base camp one, where we slept

The road to base camp 2

Cloud-covered Everest from base camp 2.

Dog resting on a pile of prayer flags

So how I almost died: we hiked to Base camp 2 and it was incredibly tiring for me because of the altitude, we stayed for sunset then walked back. When i got back to the tent we were staying in (it was a big tent with these beds and a stove that they burnt sheep and cow poo in for fuel) I had this killer head ache and my breathing was really really fast, I couldnt eat and just went to bed while everyone stayed up and played tibetan game. I never really slept that night, but occasionally i could doze off then wake up with a start because it occured to me that i forgot to breathe so then I would conciously hyperventilate to get my needed oxygen. My mouth got so dry that sometimes I had to peel my tongue off the roof of my mouth and it made a peeling noise. Anyways, it was a good experience though.

Funny story, maybe you had to be there: In the middle of the night I got up to go to the bathroom. When i came back in the tent/yurt-like thing, I closed the door and layed down. Lapa (who by the way, appears to be a Tibetan Ladies man, not from behavior, but just as we imagined it) woke up and ...well,l I will paraphrase the conversation as pasang later translated it for us because it was in tibetan.

Lapa- "Pasang, I think there is someone in the tent"
Pasang- "No one is in the tent, go back to sleep"
Lapa- "No I think i heard someone come in. Theres a bad man in the tent."
Pasang- (sigh) "No it was just Craig, dont worry"

(30 second silence)

Lapa- "Pasang! theres someone in the tent get a light"
Pasang- "aw god... Gabe, do you have a light?"

anyways, its funny for us, maybe not for you. Funny also because Lapa looks like a stud and is about 6 foot, and pasang is like 5'5". Use your imagination.


Return to Shigatse

On the way back to Shigatse, Lapa stopped the car suddenly and we were all: "what?" and he was all: "Mushrooms." There was a lady (there are many ladies along the way) selling things on the side of the road, but this is really different, because you are really in the middle of nowhere. When the lady came up, he drove away and was all, oh they are not mushrooms, its cheese. We were all: cheese? we want cheese! so the next lady we saw we stopped and bought yak cheese. Its alittle dry and not too tasty, but good enough and it comes in strips as long as your forearm. It kind of tastes like other yak products...

That night we didnt have anything to do, apart from joke about anya possibly locking herself in the bathroom again, so Pasang took us to this bar, where they have this kind of bastardized tibetan song and dance show, but it was entertaining.

Namtso
One of Tibets other holy lakes, it was actually one of the nicest places on our trip. We were able to sleep in a small tent lake-side. The lake was probably the cleanest I have seen in China, actually... in the world. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Road to Namtso

Now at Namtso

Out with the Old, in with Tourism

Here are some prostrating pilgrims in front of Johkang TempleHere are some tourists disrupting a prostrating pilgrim.
Everyone wanted a picture with him.

Great Wall

Its hard to speak about Beijing after I flew there from Lhasa and after a month in west china and tibet...all I can say is that my throat actually burnt from the pollution. However, I had to see the Great Wall before I left china because I still had not seen it and Mao said you are not a real man unless you climb the Great Wall. I went to the unrestored section between i believe Jintang??? and Si Ma Tai, which is famous because it is not yet bastardized...no guard rails and lots of sections crumbling. Quite amazing.





Favorites

Lhasa sunset