10/11 Now I know I am on a real expedition. Sitting in Kathmandu (as opposed to base camp, though I would much rather be in base camp in the mountains waiting) waiting out storms. Bad weather has forced the last 3 days of flights to Lukla (the staging areas for the treks to everest, mera, ama dablan, etc) to be cancelled. So spent the whole day at my hotel basically so that my guide could reach me in case they decided to let flights fly. Luckily there were a few decent movies (I love you man) to keep me a bit occupied.
Eric came back this afternoon from Chitwan. He had a good trip. Saw some rhinos and crocs. He wasn't expecting me to be there, so he was happy to see me
10/12 Flights to Lukla were flying! So we headed to the airport. Problem was the flights are always booked up and there had been a 3 day back up, so the tiny airport (complete with troops of wild monkeys roaming through the waiting room) was just one huge mess. Things weren't helped by the fact that one of the first flights had a minor crash. Landed a bit hard and the nose of the airplane rebounded onto the tarmac, so that that stopped flights for a couple hours. And there is only a narrow window of time that the flights can go with the weather, so no many got out. This meant we sat on the floor of the airport for the entire day in total chaos waiting for flights. I met the other two people I am trekking with. A nice couple living in Argentina, Collin and Andrea, though Collin is a kiwi and a mineral exploration geologist. They have climbed several 6000m peaks including Aconcagua, so they seem quite competant. Problem is that they have only one more day to spare before they will be too late for their flight to Delhi. So I don't know what happens if that happens. So I pray that tomorrow the flights go out and we get one one. You can pay an extra 300 per person to take a fancy chopper, but that is too steep for me.
Interesting blurb on Lukla airport considered one of the most dangerous in the world. http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/1/22/163551/923/travel/World%27s+Most+Dangerous+Airports%3A+Lukla+Airport,+Nepal,+LUA
Recent addition of the world is small place:
When I worked at the health club, there was an older guy doing strange leg and knee strengthening exercises. I overheard him mention once about the himalayas and an expedition, but the time of day he came in I was usually busy so didn't talk to him. Well I saw this guy the other day walking with this strange walk that I remembered. Ran up to him and asked if he was from Estes Park, he smiled and pointed to my shirt (I was of course wearing my Rocky Mountain Athletic club shirt). Turns how he's climbing the same mountain as me and then doing a 7000m peak. Think is name was Robert, or perhaps Richard. Kathmandu is the one place I have been where when locals ask where I am from I can say "Colorado" instead of "America" Nepal is quite a popular place for Coloradoans to come on vacation and has many people trying to do the big peaks. Also a lot of the raft and bike guides here know Nepalis who work in Coloardo for part of the season.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Mounting and Expedition
10/10/10 Met my Sherpa Guide today and we set off to outfit the expedition. It’s a bit difficult to do the shopping here bc of the fakes and such. There are 3 actual legit stores here: North Face, Mountain Hardware, and Lowe Alpine. They are of course normal US prices, if not more. So you want to buy the fakes, but you want to make sure that they are good quality still. The guide took me to one place, but the prices were a bit higher and he quality didn’t seem as good as a place I had visited the previous day. The place I had been before was a bit outside of Thamel, so the rent was cheaper, and it was also managed by a guy who had climbed Everest 15 times (5 times with Colorado clients including a kid from Boulder with lung cancer). You really have to be careful around here with buying and booking things etc so you don’t get ripped off or not get what you wanted. When I took my laundry in, the guy weighed it on his scale and it was 4kgs. This seemed quite heavy as I am usually at 1.5 Since they charge by the kilo, that can add up. So I took my liter of water and weighed it on the scale…sure enough it weighed 2.5kilos. 1 liter of water at sea level should weight 1kilo! So you can be assured I went somewhere else.
Anyways, we did most of our shopping there. I managed to buy a -20 down sleeping bag, an expedition down jacket, a pad, gore tex gloves, and snow glasses, and a fleece long underwear set and rent a zumar, new harness, crampons, ice ax, plastic boots (similar to alpine ski touring boots), ice screws, stove, gaiters, and a few other things for a grand total of about 230 dollars. Not bad to fully mount an expedition. I have most of the stuff at home, but it would have been a pain to have carried all that stuff around.
10.11 Today I fly to Lukla (if the weather holds). I am then doing a roughtly 25-30 day trek first up to Mera Peak (6470m/21220ft), then over amphu labtsa pass, then up to everest base camp, then climbing Kala Pattar (5500m) then over another pass to Gokyo Ri (5300m) then down to Lukla again. I am very excited, but still a bit nervous about the health issues. But I am hopeful that it all turns out great. Cant wait to get up their hiking in the snow and big Himalayas!
Anyways, we did most of our shopping there. I managed to buy a -20 down sleeping bag, an expedition down jacket, a pad, gore tex gloves, and snow glasses, and a fleece long underwear set and rent a zumar, new harness, crampons, ice ax, plastic boots (similar to alpine ski touring boots), ice screws, stove, gaiters, and a few other things for a grand total of about 230 dollars. Not bad to fully mount an expedition. I have most of the stuff at home, but it would have been a pain to have carried all that stuff around.
10.11 Today I fly to Lukla (if the weather holds). I am then doing a roughtly 25-30 day trek first up to Mera Peak (6470m/21220ft), then over amphu labtsa pass, then up to everest base camp, then climbing Kala Pattar (5500m) then over another pass to Gokyo Ri (5300m) then down to Lukla again. I am very excited, but still a bit nervous about the health issues. But I am hopeful that it all turns out great. Cant wait to get up their hiking in the snow and big Himalayas!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Great Firewall of China Part 20: Two of the scariest things ever (and into Nepal so the firewall is now broken...I am free from censorship!)
After this posting, I will go back to using
www.travisjguy.blogspot.com Of course I will be pasting all of these
emails into the blog as well. I will miss the great food of China,
the very friendly people, the tremendous beauty, and how alive China
is. I went into China with negative feelings towards the Chinese govt
bc of environmental issues and the tibet issues. I sort of forgot
about these as I travelled through China and really enjoyed the
Chinese people. They made me forget about the govt. But after going
through Tibet, I disliked the chinese govt even more than I did coming
in. What they are doing to the Tibetans is terrible. How they lie to
their own people about what is going on in Tibet is terrible.
Interestingly, but not surprisingly I saw a television broadcast here
in Nepal about that they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to a person in
Chinese prison. They were saying that the chinese govt was angry for
this and they also mentioned that every tv station, radio station,
internet site that mentioned anything about this guy getting the peace
prize had been instantly blocked. The guy from CNN, who was
broadcasting in china, was saying how he was already completely
blacked out in china. So crazy!
10/5 We crossed the border and said a said goodbye to Dolkar and her
friend (and guide for the Japanese doing the similar trip) Dekyi. At
Chinese customs (yep customs for leaving the country) they asked all
tourists to show their books. I was glad I had hidden my chinese
guidebook in my dirty underwear as they did not find it which meant I
could save 20 bucks and trade it for the Indian lonely planet. Some
other tourists in the line werent so fortunate and got their lonely
planet taken away. The lonely planet has a map in it that shows
Taiwan as a separate entity (China claims that it owns it) and also of
course sheds a bad light on the chinese in Tibet. To get into Nepal,
you cross something called the Friendship Bridge (we had been on the
friendship hwy in tibet). that goes over the gorge and river. Halfway
onto the bridge is a red line: the border. On the chinese side there
are about 20 soldiers on the bridge fullly armed. On the nepal
side...no soldiers in site. After crossing the river, we found a few
of the Nepali soldiers...drinking tea in a tea house and laughing and
smiling and not caring about any of the tourists milling around. I
bought the 90 day visa for nepal (100usd), though as we laughed later
there was no need to really get a visa bc there was no border check no
nothing. It was sort of voluntary to walk to the visa office and buy
one. Though I think you would probably need one to get out of the
country, so I am glad I got one. After going through the formalities
of the border, we hired a land cruiser for the 120km drive to
Kathmandu. The drive was bumpy on a washed out and landslid road.
But it was a cool drive with nice green scenery, rice terraces, the
raging river, and the gorge and of course the infamous Nepali
suspension bridges everywhere. The nepali bungee jump spot was only
10km from the border and we hoped to do it that day, but unfortunately
they do it every other day and that wasnt one of the days. Arie and I
had to cross the suspension bridge high above the gorge to ask someone
about jumping, so unlike everyone else that would jump the next day
with us, we had actually seen what we were going to jump off of. We
knew at that momen when we decided we would still pay the 55 euros,
that we were crazy.
We arrived into Kathmandu late in the afternoon and we wondered around
a bit and got some nice indian/nepali food. It was that evening that
I started to notice that my left leg felt a bit funky and weak and my
left arm was a bit weak (like you had fallen asleep on it) and tingly.
I was also a bit lightheaded. I had hoped this would all pass by the
next morning.
10/6 Arie and I left at 6am to take the ride back up to the Last
Resort where the bungee jumping was. There was no way Erik would ever
jump he said and Leon had already jumped, so it was just us two from
our little group. The rest of the people going up were mainly
Israelis and actually 3 Americans, which is a high number for
us...goes to show we are an adrenaline junky country. Unfortunately I
still had a bit of the tingly, weak feeling in my left side of the
body, though I didnt notice it too much as I was quite scared for the
bungee jump. The jump is the highest in Asia at 160m/525ft (The one
over the Royal Gorge bridge in Colorado is the highest). You jump for
a suspension bridge stretched wide between the gorge with the raging
Bhote Kosi river below. Just walking across the suspension bridge
scares lots of people I think. When you get to the resort, there is a
briefing and you get weighed to see what category of bungee you will
be on. I was in the middle catergory at 76kilos. The under 70kilos
crowd of mostly girls and some asian guys went first. So we had to
sit and watch from one side of the gorge as they all went. Of course
my stomach was in knots during all of this. Finally my group got
called. Arie got called first, and he went. One of the employees
would come out and call your number as we all stood on the suspension
bridge looking down hundreds of feet below you. It is so scary to be
standing on the bridge looking down, let alone to watch others go
before you. I was about the 5th or 6th to go. All of us guys
(supposedly tough) stood on the bridge, squirming, whimpering, bonding
before the jump. Everytime the employee would come out (we called him
the grim reaper), we all got quiet and extra nervous. One guy a
couple before me, got suited up, got onto the platform and stood up
there for a while and despite our cheers of encouragement and the
spotters whispering in his ear, turned around and didnt jump. That
made us all even more tense. I got called up finally. As you are
being harnessed in you have a video camera in your face and are
supposed to make some comments. I think I managed to mutter some sort
of shout outs to dad and bro and say sorry to mom for not listening to
her on this one. Once you are suited up, you head for the platform
and you slowly walk to the edge until your feet hang over the gorge
with the river 160m below! I remember waving to the camera on the
left, the girls who had gone already on the right and then I dont
remember much else. I dont remember the countdown or how I managed to
jump, but all I know is that I had given a big 50 freesytle type dive
and was soaring down at incredible speed, and then all of a sudden
slowing as the bungee kicked in and then bungeeing up and down for a
bit. Once I had jumped there was no fear...all the scaredness was
right before...but I still have no idea how I managed to just jump.
And I really dont remember the count or any of it. Must have almost
blanked everything out in the flight or fight response mode you learn
about on physiology. It was a great relief to just be hanging there
upside down over the blue river with waterfalls falling all around and
knowing you were done. The crew eventually pulls you in and back to
dry land. Arie and I celebrated with a few dutch beers on the ride
home, but I was still feeling weird on my left side and wasnt in too
much of a mood for celebration
10/7 In the morning my left hand was quite tingly and I still had all
the weird feelings. I spent the whole day looking for a trekking
company and group to hike the Mera Peak. All the tour companies and
tour things are in Thamel, a neighborhood of Kathmandu. Kathmandu is
quite crazy. It really is like how you imagine India to be like.
Full of life, crazy traffic, crazy busy, smells everywhere (most of
good curry, masala, etc) but some not so nice. Its quite dusty,
dirty. Narrow and crowded streets. Tiny cabs and rickshaws
everywhere But lots of friendly people and all know english quite
well. Women dressed in Hindu style for the most part with colorful
clothes and red dots on their foreheads As I was trying to find a
trekking company I was wined and dined (well more like had lots and
lots of milk tea and momos) as the companies tried to impress me. I
bargained and questioned and checked safety and reputations and
knowledge and all that. Eventually I decided on one that I think was
good. Leon, Arie, Erik, and I went out for a fancyish nepali dinner
as a goodbye as the Dutch Dudes were heading to Pokhara the next day.
I had been very lucky and had such a great group on the tibet trip.
We all really bonded and had great times and jokes together. Dolkar
was also great bc she joined in on the jokes. Erik had a birthday
during the trip in which he turned 27 (I was actually the oldest with
Arie and Leon being 22 and 24, but Erik complained about turning 27
and was depressed about it) so Dolkar called him Old man, and we all
started calling him that and even the other guys did. Dolkar had a
nickname for everyone...Arie was Pee Boy bc he was always asking to
stop for pee breaks. Leon was Pretty Boy bc she said he was very good
looking but also soft. I was Crazy Man bc, well, I guess I had a lot
of energy especially considering the altitude and am a bit crazy I
guess.
That night we bought (for 2 bucks) 7 years in Tibet and watched it.
Made us even more mad at the chinese govt. After they left, my left
side was still feeling quite strange and I was quite scared and
worried about what was happening and so was my mom and dad
10/8 I took a rickshaw to the hospital near the british and french
embassies. I had to wait 3 hours before I could be seen so I had some
tea and dumplings at the Ambassador hotel. I actually enjoyed this bc
the whole area felt so fancy british commonwealth style like you see
in the movies with nice lawns and buildings and food and proper
waiters all in the middle of a big poor and dusty city. The doctor
checked me out and performed all kinds of tests and didnt notice
anything too unusual. My blood work came back normal. I then took a
cab to get an MRI at a different clinic. The LONG 30 minutes as the
machine whirred over my head was perhaps scarier than the bungee. I
worried about cancer, tumors, blood clots, strokes, not having my
normal life again. The results of the MRI came back normal. This was
all good, though I still have quite a worry and fear as we dont know
what is causing the weird feeling on the left side of my body, though
it is getting better as time goes on
10/9 Just wondered around Thamel and Kathmandu a bit. Went to a
crazy and crowded market and past a few streets with hidden temples.
Then did some errands like buying some hats and gloves, having a
colorado and USA flag made to hopefully hold on the summit of mera
peak, writing some postcards, looking in used bookshops, etc, etc
Said goodbye to Erik today as he was off to Chitwan NP.
Tomorrow I meet with the guide to go shopping to buy and rent some
things I need like a -30 sleeping bag, down jacket, plastic alpine
boots, crampons, ice ax, snow glasses, etc
www.travisjguy.blogspot.com Of course I will be pasting all of these
emails into the blog as well. I will miss the great food of China,
the very friendly people, the tremendous beauty, and how alive China
is. I went into China with negative feelings towards the Chinese govt
bc of environmental issues and the tibet issues. I sort of forgot
about these as I travelled through China and really enjoyed the
Chinese people. They made me forget about the govt. But after going
through Tibet, I disliked the chinese govt even more than I did coming
in. What they are doing to the Tibetans is terrible. How they lie to
their own people about what is going on in Tibet is terrible.
Interestingly, but not surprisingly I saw a television broadcast here
in Nepal about that they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to a person in
Chinese prison. They were saying that the chinese govt was angry for
this and they also mentioned that every tv station, radio station,
internet site that mentioned anything about this guy getting the peace
prize had been instantly blocked. The guy from CNN, who was
broadcasting in china, was saying how he was already completely
blacked out in china. So crazy!
10/5 We crossed the border and said a said goodbye to Dolkar and her
friend (and guide for the Japanese doing the similar trip) Dekyi. At
Chinese customs (yep customs for leaving the country) they asked all
tourists to show their books. I was glad I had hidden my chinese
guidebook in my dirty underwear as they did not find it which meant I
could save 20 bucks and trade it for the Indian lonely planet. Some
other tourists in the line werent so fortunate and got their lonely
planet taken away. The lonely planet has a map in it that shows
Taiwan as a separate entity (China claims that it owns it) and also of
course sheds a bad light on the chinese in Tibet. To get into Nepal,
you cross something called the Friendship Bridge (we had been on the
friendship hwy in tibet). that goes over the gorge and river. Halfway
onto the bridge is a red line: the border. On the chinese side there
are about 20 soldiers on the bridge fullly armed. On the nepal
side...no soldiers in site. After crossing the river, we found a few
of the Nepali soldiers...drinking tea in a tea house and laughing and
smiling and not caring about any of the tourists milling around. I
bought the 90 day visa for nepal (100usd), though as we laughed later
there was no need to really get a visa bc there was no border check no
nothing. It was sort of voluntary to walk to the visa office and buy
one. Though I think you would probably need one to get out of the
country, so I am glad I got one. After going through the formalities
of the border, we hired a land cruiser for the 120km drive to
Kathmandu. The drive was bumpy on a washed out and landslid road.
But it was a cool drive with nice green scenery, rice terraces, the
raging river, and the gorge and of course the infamous Nepali
suspension bridges everywhere. The nepali bungee jump spot was only
10km from the border and we hoped to do it that day, but unfortunately
they do it every other day and that wasnt one of the days. Arie and I
had to cross the suspension bridge high above the gorge to ask someone
about jumping, so unlike everyone else that would jump the next day
with us, we had actually seen what we were going to jump off of. We
knew at that momen when we decided we would still pay the 55 euros,
that we were crazy.
We arrived into Kathmandu late in the afternoon and we wondered around
a bit and got some nice indian/nepali food. It was that evening that
I started to notice that my left leg felt a bit funky and weak and my
left arm was a bit weak (like you had fallen asleep on it) and tingly.
I was also a bit lightheaded. I had hoped this would all pass by the
next morning.
10/6 Arie and I left at 6am to take the ride back up to the Last
Resort where the bungee jumping was. There was no way Erik would ever
jump he said and Leon had already jumped, so it was just us two from
our little group. The rest of the people going up were mainly
Israelis and actually 3 Americans, which is a high number for
us...goes to show we are an adrenaline junky country. Unfortunately I
still had a bit of the tingly, weak feeling in my left side of the
body, though I didnt notice it too much as I was quite scared for the
bungee jump. The jump is the highest in Asia at 160m/525ft (The one
over the Royal Gorge bridge in Colorado is the highest). You jump for
a suspension bridge stretched wide between the gorge with the raging
Bhote Kosi river below. Just walking across the suspension bridge
scares lots of people I think. When you get to the resort, there is a
briefing and you get weighed to see what category of bungee you will
be on. I was in the middle catergory at 76kilos. The under 70kilos
crowd of mostly girls and some asian guys went first. So we had to
sit and watch from one side of the gorge as they all went. Of course
my stomach was in knots during all of this. Finally my group got
called. Arie got called first, and he went. One of the employees
would come out and call your number as we all stood on the suspension
bridge looking down hundreds of feet below you. It is so scary to be
standing on the bridge looking down, let alone to watch others go
before you. I was about the 5th or 6th to go. All of us guys
(supposedly tough) stood on the bridge, squirming, whimpering, bonding
before the jump. Everytime the employee would come out (we called him
the grim reaper), we all got quiet and extra nervous. One guy a
couple before me, got suited up, got onto the platform and stood up
there for a while and despite our cheers of encouragement and the
spotters whispering in his ear, turned around and didnt jump. That
made us all even more tense. I got called up finally. As you are
being harnessed in you have a video camera in your face and are
supposed to make some comments. I think I managed to mutter some sort
of shout outs to dad and bro and say sorry to mom for not listening to
her on this one. Once you are suited up, you head for the platform
and you slowly walk to the edge until your feet hang over the gorge
with the river 160m below! I remember waving to the camera on the
left, the girls who had gone already on the right and then I dont
remember much else. I dont remember the countdown or how I managed to
jump, but all I know is that I had given a big 50 freesytle type dive
and was soaring down at incredible speed, and then all of a sudden
slowing as the bungee kicked in and then bungeeing up and down for a
bit. Once I had jumped there was no fear...all the scaredness was
right before...but I still have no idea how I managed to just jump.
And I really dont remember the count or any of it. Must have almost
blanked everything out in the flight or fight response mode you learn
about on physiology. It was a great relief to just be hanging there
upside down over the blue river with waterfalls falling all around and
knowing you were done. The crew eventually pulls you in and back to
dry land. Arie and I celebrated with a few dutch beers on the ride
home, but I was still feeling weird on my left side and wasnt in too
much of a mood for celebration
10/7 In the morning my left hand was quite tingly and I still had all
the weird feelings. I spent the whole day looking for a trekking
company and group to hike the Mera Peak. All the tour companies and
tour things are in Thamel, a neighborhood of Kathmandu. Kathmandu is
quite crazy. It really is like how you imagine India to be like.
Full of life, crazy traffic, crazy busy, smells everywhere (most of
good curry, masala, etc) but some not so nice. Its quite dusty,
dirty. Narrow and crowded streets. Tiny cabs and rickshaws
everywhere But lots of friendly people and all know english quite
well. Women dressed in Hindu style for the most part with colorful
clothes and red dots on their foreheads As I was trying to find a
trekking company I was wined and dined (well more like had lots and
lots of milk tea and momos) as the companies tried to impress me. I
bargained and questioned and checked safety and reputations and
knowledge and all that. Eventually I decided on one that I think was
good. Leon, Arie, Erik, and I went out for a fancyish nepali dinner
as a goodbye as the Dutch Dudes were heading to Pokhara the next day.
I had been very lucky and had such a great group on the tibet trip.
We all really bonded and had great times and jokes together. Dolkar
was also great bc she joined in on the jokes. Erik had a birthday
during the trip in which he turned 27 (I was actually the oldest with
Arie and Leon being 22 and 24, but Erik complained about turning 27
and was depressed about it) so Dolkar called him Old man, and we all
started calling him that and even the other guys did. Dolkar had a
nickname for everyone...Arie was Pee Boy bc he was always asking to
stop for pee breaks. Leon was Pretty Boy bc she said he was very good
looking but also soft. I was Crazy Man bc, well, I guess I had a lot
of energy especially considering the altitude and am a bit crazy I
guess.
That night we bought (for 2 bucks) 7 years in Tibet and watched it.
Made us even more mad at the chinese govt. After they left, my left
side was still feeling quite strange and I was quite scared and
worried about what was happening and so was my mom and dad
10/8 I took a rickshaw to the hospital near the british and french
embassies. I had to wait 3 hours before I could be seen so I had some
tea and dumplings at the Ambassador hotel. I actually enjoyed this bc
the whole area felt so fancy british commonwealth style like you see
in the movies with nice lawns and buildings and food and proper
waiters all in the middle of a big poor and dusty city. The doctor
checked me out and performed all kinds of tests and didnt notice
anything too unusual. My blood work came back normal. I then took a
cab to get an MRI at a different clinic. The LONG 30 minutes as the
machine whirred over my head was perhaps scarier than the bungee. I
worried about cancer, tumors, blood clots, strokes, not having my
normal life again. The results of the MRI came back normal. This was
all good, though I still have quite a worry and fear as we dont know
what is causing the weird feeling on the left side of my body, though
it is getting better as time goes on
10/9 Just wondered around Thamel and Kathmandu a bit. Went to a
crazy and crowded market and past a few streets with hidden temples.
Then did some errands like buying some hats and gloves, having a
colorado and USA flag made to hopefully hold on the summit of mera
peak, writing some postcards, looking in used bookshops, etc, etc
Said goodbye to Erik today as he was off to Chitwan NP.
Tomorrow I meet with the guide to go shopping to buy and rent some
things I need like a -30 sleeping bag, down jacket, plastic alpine
boots, crampons, ice ax, snow glasses, etc
Great Firewall of China part 19: On the Roof or the World and a Glimpse of the Tallest Mountain in the World!
10/2 This was day 1 of Hairy Himalayas, which will continue into No
shave November and then No shave Nepal. Drove in our Land Cruiser
from Lhasa to Shigaste. We had a driver, 6ft 6 Leon in the front, and
Arie, Erik, and I in the backseat. Poor Dolkar, our guide, was stuck
in the way back with our backpacks. The drive of course was amazing.
Huge snowcapped mountains everywhere and over some huge and crazy
passes. Something that makes the scenery even more unique is how
absolutely dry the Tibetan plateau is. Its basically a desert. More
arid and desolate than many deserts we are used to at home. Theres
absolutely no tress, very little plant life (no cactuses or shrubs or
anything. Makes the sonoran desert look like a rainforest). So this
stark desert contrasted with gleaming white glaciers and snowcapped
peaks set below a deep blue sky is really quite amazing. I love
Deserts and really, really love Mountains, so this is like perfect for
me. And of course everynow and then you pass these little mud/brick
house villages with a spattering of tibetans, loads of yaks, and some
donkeys. It always amazed us just how there could be people surviving
in some of the places. Our first big stop was Yamdrok Tso Lake. We
looked down on it from on top of a huge pass. It gleamed a surreal
turquoise far down below us with snowcapped peaks behind it. We
eventually made our way down to waterlevel where we had a great time
skipping stones. Momma D (Dolkar) had to pull us away. It had to
have been the best skipping lake I have ever been to. I would tell
you how many times I got my best rock to skip, but you wouldnt believe
me, so I wont, but it was witnessed by all. The rocks there were
perfectly flat, must have had the right density or something, throw in
the the thin air, the fact that the lake was completely still, and
that it was salt (things float better in salt water) and the lake was
the ultimate skipping lake. From Yamdrok Tso we went over a couple
more passes, a few complete with glaciers coming down near the road
before we arrived at another gorgeous lake...another amazing turquoise
color. We made a stop in Gyantse where we saw a big temple/monastery
and also a castle type thing built up on the cliffs of a hill. We
ended the night by arriving in Shigaste. We had rushed to be there in
time before the office closed to get our permit for Everest. We made
it in time, but what we didnt realize was that it was Chinas national
day (of course non of the tibetans were celebrating!) so the office
was closed. This meant that we couldnt leave until the 11 the next
day instead of 7. I was cursing the Chinese thinking we wouldnt make
it in time to see Everest the next day. Its fine to have a holiday,
but all this permit junk. Why cant you get the permit at Everest or
in Lhasa, why in this tiny town. So I went to bed with fear that we
would not make it to Everest as we had a long and rough road to get to
Everest the next day and weather often comes in in the afternoon
10/3 We spent the morning visiting the temple/monastery in Shigaste
and then just watching the people pray as we sat in the square facing
the temple. As soon as Dolkar secured the permit, we took off. Do I
need to even mention that the drive was gorgeous? A couple hours into
it we got to see the huge himalaya range and Everest from a distance.
It was a bit cloudy and you couldnt quite see the top of Everest...but
hey we had seen it. We went over some more big passes and, lets see
at least 5 millitary guarded Everest National Park checkpoints where
we had to show passports, permits, etc. Time was getting short and
we were getting frustrated with all the checkpoints. First the Permit
in shigaste. Then like 5 stops on the way before entering the park.
Then the park entrance stop, then 2 more stops before reaching where
we would camp. Then there was a passport check there and then another
passport check at the end of the road to everest base camp. It would
be like if in order to get to the base camp of Longs Peak (Longs Peak
ranger station) you had to get a permit in Denver...then show it and
passports in Boulder, Lyons, Pinewood, the entrance to Estes, Estes,
and then the park headquarters, before driving to Allenspark to show
it again and then showing it again at the ranger station and then
gobblins forest campground. Really insane. And there was only one
dirt road, so it seemed like once you were in, that should have been
it.
Once on the dirt road in the park, we went over a really huge pass
full of winding switchbacks. From the top we got Nice views of
Everest and Cho Oyo (also above 8000m). Fro the pass we descended
into a high valley with a fairly big tibetan village. We then climbed
a bit out of the valley following a river and into a glacial valley.
The sun had completely set on everything around us and of course we
had another checkpoint. But after leaving the checkpoint, we drove
around a bend in the glacial valley...and...BOOM, right in front of us
stood a flaming orange snow covered mountain...EVEREST! It was so
high that the sun had not yet set on it. It was absolutely
breathtaking. Everything else long in the shadows, but Everest lit up
by the setting sun. That night we slept in some tents made from Yak
hide at about 5150m (17,000ft). It was of course quite cold and we
had a Yak dung fire to keep us warm.
10/4 Watched a cold and icy sunrise on Everest. It was quite cold.
Id estimate about 10F. The reason I think it was so cold was bc I
tried to cross the now frozen river to get some better pictures (it
wasnt frozen that night) and fell through the ice, which was no big
deal as the river was less than a food deep, but the splashed
instantly froze to my pants and jacket and I had solid ice on the
outside of my shoes and pants even though there was obviously heat
coming from underneath. After watching the sunrise we took the hour
hike to the actual Everest base camp at 5200m. This is China, so you
can obviously take a bus to it (cant wait til there is a gondola and 5
star hotel on the Chinese summit side of Everest). Dolkar and Erik
did this, but me and the dutch guys chose to walk. The road had a lot
of switchbacks, so we decided to cut them by taking a trail we saw on
the left side of the valley. The trail rose much higher than the road
and we decided to stay on it, figuring that it would crest over and
into basecamp again. It did, though we were a 100m or so above and a
bit past the chinese post of basecamp. As we were coming down, Dolkar
ran up towards us with obvious worry on her face. In the route we had
taken we had gone 100m past the chinese checkpoint, which meant we
could all get in trouble. We didnt bc the chinese guard was sitting
in his warm tent and not really looking at the mountains behind us.
But how were we to know taking a marked trail would lead us a bit past
some checkpoing, bc of course we werent thinking that there would be
yet another checkpoint. At this point our blood was roiling at the
chinese for their extreme checkpoint measures. There was still a huge
and cool glacial valley before us that could be explored, but for some
reason, even though we had paid the 60 dollar each fee for the
national park, we were only allowed to stay on this one little road
and be checked with our passports and permit every couple of
kilometers. Quite rediculous to us. We couldnt understand why you
dont just pay the fee and then have all access to the park. Oh well,
this frustration did not stop us from really enjoying the view of
Everest from Base camp and wishing a bit we could go for the climb up
Everest. Back at our Everest base camp, I mailed a postcard to the
parents from the highest post office in the world and we toasted a 3.2
percent beer from 17,000 feet.
From the base camp we took a really, really sweet 4WD road over some
passes and high plateaus in utter desolate desert to Old Tingri. If
youve seen 7 years of tibet, some of that desolate scenery could have
been filmed here. The road just snaked around moutains, glacial river
beds, and desert plateau. On this road we had some really great views
of Cho Oyo. After Old Tingri and back onto a newly paved chinese
road, we went up to 5000m again on the high desert plateau. If you
looked ahead, it looked like the road was going straight into the high
himalayas. You could see great views of the high himalayas and some
famous peaks you may have heard of like Shisgapangma (8000+m). Just
when you thought the road would go straight into the himalayas, it cut
down sharply into a steep and narrow gorge. At the bottom of the
gorge was a rushing river. The gorge soon became quite lush with
waterfalls falling down everywhere and many actually falling onto the
road. We followed this gorge on a precipitous, windy road clinging to
his gorge. At times you could see that the wheels of the landcrusier
were less than a foot from the edge of a cliff that dropped down 2000
feet. That evening we reached the strange border town of Zhangmu
built on the steep gorge itself. So all there was was one road
winding through it. No flat land for a soccer pitch or parking or
anything. Really crazy.
shave November and then No shave Nepal. Drove in our Land Cruiser
from Lhasa to Shigaste. We had a driver, 6ft 6 Leon in the front, and
Arie, Erik, and I in the backseat. Poor Dolkar, our guide, was stuck
in the way back with our backpacks. The drive of course was amazing.
Huge snowcapped mountains everywhere and over some huge and crazy
passes. Something that makes the scenery even more unique is how
absolutely dry the Tibetan plateau is. Its basically a desert. More
arid and desolate than many deserts we are used to at home. Theres
absolutely no tress, very little plant life (no cactuses or shrubs or
anything. Makes the sonoran desert look like a rainforest). So this
stark desert contrasted with gleaming white glaciers and snowcapped
peaks set below a deep blue sky is really quite amazing. I love
Deserts and really, really love Mountains, so this is like perfect for
me. And of course everynow and then you pass these little mud/brick
house villages with a spattering of tibetans, loads of yaks, and some
donkeys. It always amazed us just how there could be people surviving
in some of the places. Our first big stop was Yamdrok Tso Lake. We
looked down on it from on top of a huge pass. It gleamed a surreal
turquoise far down below us with snowcapped peaks behind it. We
eventually made our way down to waterlevel where we had a great time
skipping stones. Momma D (Dolkar) had to pull us away. It had to
have been the best skipping lake I have ever been to. I would tell
you how many times I got my best rock to skip, but you wouldnt believe
me, so I wont, but it was witnessed by all. The rocks there were
perfectly flat, must have had the right density or something, throw in
the the thin air, the fact that the lake was completely still, and
that it was salt (things float better in salt water) and the lake was
the ultimate skipping lake. From Yamdrok Tso we went over a couple
more passes, a few complete with glaciers coming down near the road
before we arrived at another gorgeous lake...another amazing turquoise
color. We made a stop in Gyantse where we saw a big temple/monastery
and also a castle type thing built up on the cliffs of a hill. We
ended the night by arriving in Shigaste. We had rushed to be there in
time before the office closed to get our permit for Everest. We made
it in time, but what we didnt realize was that it was Chinas national
day (of course non of the tibetans were celebrating!) so the office
was closed. This meant that we couldnt leave until the 11 the next
day instead of 7. I was cursing the Chinese thinking we wouldnt make
it in time to see Everest the next day. Its fine to have a holiday,
but all this permit junk. Why cant you get the permit at Everest or
in Lhasa, why in this tiny town. So I went to bed with fear that we
would not make it to Everest as we had a long and rough road to get to
Everest the next day and weather often comes in in the afternoon
10/3 We spent the morning visiting the temple/monastery in Shigaste
and then just watching the people pray as we sat in the square facing
the temple. As soon as Dolkar secured the permit, we took off. Do I
need to even mention that the drive was gorgeous? A couple hours into
it we got to see the huge himalaya range and Everest from a distance.
It was a bit cloudy and you couldnt quite see the top of Everest...but
hey we had seen it. We went over some more big passes and, lets see
at least 5 millitary guarded Everest National Park checkpoints where
we had to show passports, permits, etc. Time was getting short and
we were getting frustrated with all the checkpoints. First the Permit
in shigaste. Then like 5 stops on the way before entering the park.
Then the park entrance stop, then 2 more stops before reaching where
we would camp. Then there was a passport check there and then another
passport check at the end of the road to everest base camp. It would
be like if in order to get to the base camp of Longs Peak (Longs Peak
ranger station) you had to get a permit in Denver...then show it and
passports in Boulder, Lyons, Pinewood, the entrance to Estes, Estes,
and then the park headquarters, before driving to Allenspark to show
it again and then showing it again at the ranger station and then
gobblins forest campground. Really insane. And there was only one
dirt road, so it seemed like once you were in, that should have been
it.
Once on the dirt road in the park, we went over a really huge pass
full of winding switchbacks. From the top we got Nice views of
Everest and Cho Oyo (also above 8000m). Fro the pass we descended
into a high valley with a fairly big tibetan village. We then climbed
a bit out of the valley following a river and into a glacial valley.
The sun had completely set on everything around us and of course we
had another checkpoint. But after leaving the checkpoint, we drove
around a bend in the glacial valley...and...BOOM, right in front of us
stood a flaming orange snow covered mountain...EVEREST! It was so
high that the sun had not yet set on it. It was absolutely
breathtaking. Everything else long in the shadows, but Everest lit up
by the setting sun. That night we slept in some tents made from Yak
hide at about 5150m (17,000ft). It was of course quite cold and we
had a Yak dung fire to keep us warm.
10/4 Watched a cold and icy sunrise on Everest. It was quite cold.
Id estimate about 10F. The reason I think it was so cold was bc I
tried to cross the now frozen river to get some better pictures (it
wasnt frozen that night) and fell through the ice, which was no big
deal as the river was less than a food deep, but the splashed
instantly froze to my pants and jacket and I had solid ice on the
outside of my shoes and pants even though there was obviously heat
coming from underneath. After watching the sunrise we took the hour
hike to the actual Everest base camp at 5200m. This is China, so you
can obviously take a bus to it (cant wait til there is a gondola and 5
star hotel on the Chinese summit side of Everest). Dolkar and Erik
did this, but me and the dutch guys chose to walk. The road had a lot
of switchbacks, so we decided to cut them by taking a trail we saw on
the left side of the valley. The trail rose much higher than the road
and we decided to stay on it, figuring that it would crest over and
into basecamp again. It did, though we were a 100m or so above and a
bit past the chinese post of basecamp. As we were coming down, Dolkar
ran up towards us with obvious worry on her face. In the route we had
taken we had gone 100m past the chinese checkpoint, which meant we
could all get in trouble. We didnt bc the chinese guard was sitting
in his warm tent and not really looking at the mountains behind us.
But how were we to know taking a marked trail would lead us a bit past
some checkpoing, bc of course we werent thinking that there would be
yet another checkpoint. At this point our blood was roiling at the
chinese for their extreme checkpoint measures. There was still a huge
and cool glacial valley before us that could be explored, but for some
reason, even though we had paid the 60 dollar each fee for the
national park, we were only allowed to stay on this one little road
and be checked with our passports and permit every couple of
kilometers. Quite rediculous to us. We couldnt understand why you
dont just pay the fee and then have all access to the park. Oh well,
this frustration did not stop us from really enjoying the view of
Everest from Base camp and wishing a bit we could go for the climb up
Everest. Back at our Everest base camp, I mailed a postcard to the
parents from the highest post office in the world and we toasted a 3.2
percent beer from 17,000 feet.
From the base camp we took a really, really sweet 4WD road over some
passes and high plateaus in utter desolate desert to Old Tingri. If
youve seen 7 years of tibet, some of that desolate scenery could have
been filmed here. The road just snaked around moutains, glacial river
beds, and desert plateau. On this road we had some really great views
of Cho Oyo. After Old Tingri and back onto a newly paved chinese
road, we went up to 5000m again on the high desert plateau. If you
looked ahead, it looked like the road was going straight into the high
himalayas. You could see great views of the high himalayas and some
famous peaks you may have heard of like Shisgapangma (8000+m). Just
when you thought the road would go straight into the himalayas, it cut
down sharply into a steep and narrow gorge. At the bottom of the
gorge was a rushing river. The gorge soon became quite lush with
waterfalls falling down everywhere and many actually falling onto the
road. We followed this gorge on a precipitous, windy road clinging to
his gorge. At times you could see that the wheels of the landcrusier
were less than a foot from the edge of a cliff that dropped down 2000
feet. That evening we reached the strange border town of Zhangmu
built on the steep gorge itself. So all there was was one road
winding through it. No flat land for a soccer pitch or parking or
anything. Really crazy.
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9/30 In the morning (and again in the late afternoon) we did some
more rounds around the bokhor circuit doing some people watching and
looking at all the unique outfits and hair styles. Really cool. I
like the tibetan cowboy with colored wool braided into their long
hair. In the afternoon we visited the massive Potala Palace, the
previous home to both the Tibetan king and Dali Lama before they were
forced to flee in 1959. The outside of the palace is quite impressive
and inside is cool too. Lots of incense, yak butter candles, and some
massive things of solid gold.
In the evening we went in front of the palace to see it lit up at
night and watch a music and fountain show and have some beers
In front of the palace, the chinese have made a huge square and built
a huge monument...a freedom monument to commemorate how the chinese
gave the tibetans freedom...haha...totally the otherway around.
Hmm...Tibet went from a free independent kingdom to being controlled
by China (extremely atheist china at the time, so religion which is
the most important to Tibetans was banned and monks and others were
persecuted) and now China has imported 2 million of their Han people
into Tibet and their customs and rules. Not to mention all of those
soldiers going around. You can definitely feel that the chinese feel
quite superior to the tibetans and treat them as less. Perhaps a bit
like the segregation of blacks in America. We thought it was quite
the slap in the face to the tibetans to have this huge "freedom"
monument built in front of their most important religious building and
have a huge chinese flag waving in front of it and now on top of the
palace. We would love to ask the Tibetans what they really think of
the chinese occupation, but we can't bc we could get them in trouble.
As we sat having our beers and looking at the palace and then back at
the huge tall, white freedom monument we thought it would be great to
spray paint "F China, Free Tibet!" on it, but thought better of it.
But all those hippy/yuppies back home that have the free tibet
stickers really know what they are talking about. You can't help but
feel sorry for the Tibetans and being occupied by China and having
their culture removed by moving in all the Hans and by scaring them a
bit by bringing in all the soldiers.
10/1 Got up early for the 4 hour drive to Namtso Lake, the highest
and either largest, or 2nd largest salt lake in TIbet. The road there
went through some amazing scenery, along some snow clad mountain
ranges and yak filled valleys. We even went by a big 7000m (23,000ft)
peak that was not hidden by the clouds and shimmered white amongst the
blue sky. We also stopped at one of the many ricket old suspension
bridges that the tibetans and their sheep and goats use to cross the
glacial blue rivers. We had a lot of fun and made the locals laugh
quite a lot by using the suspension bridge as a trampoline. Also on
the road, a 245km drive one way, we had to stop about every 20 to 30
minutes for security checks, police checks, millitary checks. Really
crazy. To get to the lake we went over a 5190m pass (17,025ft). From
the top of the pass you could look down on the lake shimmering an
irridescent blue. Bc the air is so thin and the sun so bright, the
lake shimmers especially brilliant. And to add to the unreal blue of
the lake is the blue sky above it and the snowcapped peaks all around
it. It's a huge lake and you can't really see the end of it. We
drove down to the lake where Leon, Arie, and I took a hike along a bit
of the shore and then up a hill to get a better view of the lake and
to hike amongst the prayer flags strung out everywhere. The lake was
at about 4200m and the hill at 4700m, so Aries and Leon got a bit
sick. Luckily I have still not had any problems. I guess a bonus of
growing up in Colorado is my red blood cells respond quickly. I was a
bit winded climbing, but not bad at all. Just like I would feel back
home at 13,000 feet or something. A couple of the Japanese in our
hostel that are doing the same itinerary as us are really suffering.
They are using Oxygen bottles and stuff even at the hostel to try to
get over the AMS.
Tomorrow we leave for Shigaste and then the Everest Base camp the next day.
more rounds around the bokhor circuit doing some people watching and
looking at all the unique outfits and hair styles. Really cool. I
like the tibetan cowboy with colored wool braided into their long
hair. In the afternoon we visited the massive Potala Palace, the
previous home to both the Tibetan king and Dali Lama before they were
forced to flee in 1959. The outside of the palace is quite impressive
and inside is cool too. Lots of incense, yak butter candles, and some
massive things of solid gold.
In the evening we went in front of the palace to see it lit up at
night and watch a music and fountain show and have some beers
In front of the palace, the chinese have made a huge square and built
a huge monument...a freedom monument to commemorate how the chinese
gave the tibetans freedom...haha...totally the otherway around.
Hmm...Tibet went from a free independent kingdom to being controlled
by China (extremely atheist china at the time, so religion which is
the most important to Tibetans was banned and monks and others were
persecuted) and now China has imported 2 million of their Han people
into Tibet and their customs and rules. Not to mention all of those
soldiers going around. You can definitely feel that the chinese feel
quite superior to the tibetans and treat them as less. Perhaps a bit
like the segregation of blacks in America. We thought it was quite
the slap in the face to the tibetans to have this huge "freedom"
monument built in front of their most important religious building and
have a huge chinese flag waving in front of it and now on top of the
palace. We would love to ask the Tibetans what they really think of
the chinese occupation, but we can't bc we could get them in trouble.
As we sat having our beers and looking at the palace and then back at
the huge tall, white freedom monument we thought it would be great to
spray paint "F China, Free Tibet!" on it, but thought better of it.
But all those hippy/yuppies back home that have the free tibet
stickers really know what they are talking about. You can't help but
feel sorry for the Tibetans and being occupied by China and having
their culture removed by moving in all the Hans and by scaring them a
bit by bringing in all the soldiers.
10/1 Got up early for the 4 hour drive to Namtso Lake, the highest
and either largest, or 2nd largest salt lake in TIbet. The road there
went through some amazing scenery, along some snow clad mountain
ranges and yak filled valleys. We even went by a big 7000m (23,000ft)
peak that was not hidden by the clouds and shimmered white amongst the
blue sky. We also stopped at one of the many ricket old suspension
bridges that the tibetans and their sheep and goats use to cross the
glacial blue rivers. We had a lot of fun and made the locals laugh
quite a lot by using the suspension bridge as a trampoline. Also on
the road, a 245km drive one way, we had to stop about every 20 to 30
minutes for security checks, police checks, millitary checks. Really
crazy. To get to the lake we went over a 5190m pass (17,025ft). From
the top of the pass you could look down on the lake shimmering an
irridescent blue. Bc the air is so thin and the sun so bright, the
lake shimmers especially brilliant. And to add to the unreal blue of
the lake is the blue sky above it and the snowcapped peaks all around
it. It's a huge lake and you can't really see the end of it. We
drove down to the lake where Leon, Arie, and I took a hike along a bit
of the shore and then up a hill to get a better view of the lake and
to hike amongst the prayer flags strung out everywhere. The lake was
at about 4200m and the hill at 4700m, so Aries and Leon got a bit
sick. Luckily I have still not had any problems. I guess a bonus of
growing up in Colorado is my red blood cells respond quickly. I was a
bit winded climbing, but not bad at all. Just like I would feel back
home at 13,000 feet or something. A couple of the Japanese in our
hostel that are doing the same itinerary as us are really suffering.
They are using Oxygen bottles and stuff even at the hostel to try to
get over the AMS.
Tomorrow we leave for Shigaste and then the Everest Base camp the next day.
Great Firewall of China Part 17: 7 years...err..9 days in Tibet
9/26 In the evening I met up with Erik (sweden) again as I had met
him in Lijiang and then Leon and Arie-Jan (Holland) at Sims cozy
hostel. They would be the 3 people on my tour to tibet. I was very
lucky bc they are all great guys who have lots of travel experience
and we all get along great. I especially like the Dutch guys as they
are quite a lot of fun. The thing with Tibet is that you have to have
a permit to go into the TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) and in order
to get a permit you must join a tour group. Of course this makes
things more expensive; however, the hostels in Chengdu have helped
backpackers out a lot by making budget oriented trips that don't
included staying at nicer hotels and eating nicer foods that most
chiense tour groups include
We boarded the train at 9pm for a 46 hour train ride through Sichuan
then Qinghai and into Tibet.
9/27 All day on the train of course, past some nice scenery that was
steadily drying out. We had 4 bunks in the 6 bunk cabin (shared with
2 chinese), and we had quite some fun listening to music and playing
cards, escpecially a Swedish game called Plump that Erik taught us.
Eventually we climbed out of the mountains into empty grasslands, then
some nice lakes, and then finally some snowcapped mountains!! I'd
been waiting so long to see some in china.
9/28 We woke up early to watch a gorgeous sunrise under crystal clear
skies. The light lit up the fresh snow all around a magnificent pink.
And of course there were some larger mountains in the distance. As
we went further along the snow on the ground eventually ceased, but
the scenery was still spectacular with rivers running through barren
valleys and huge glaciated peaks (one over 7000m) in the distance. In
some of the valleys were tiny tibetan villages, and you had to wonder
how people could live there. There were of course thousands of yaks
all around. The train is the highest train in the world with a top
elevation of 5100m (about 16,700 ft) at the border of qinghai and
tibet. The train is so high that the pump oxygen into the train when
you are above 4000m and even ban smoking from the city of golmud onto
lhasa...something unheard of in China, though not really followed.
You can also plug up oxygen from you cabin with tubes to go straight
into your nose. I am fairly used to the altitude so had no problem
especially since I made sure to stay hydrated, a key to beating
altitude sickness. I stayed hydrated by drinking a fair amount of
beers, typically a no no as alcohol is bad for altitude, but most
chinese beers are 3%, so they are bacially water, and also cheaper
than water.
In the evening we arrived in Lhasa and were picked up by our tour
guide Dolkar: you are supposed to have your tour guide with you at
almost all points in tibet. Our permits were quickly checked by
police before we were taken to the Tibetan part of the city to find
our accomadation and go out for food. We explored a bit of the square
and bokor area near where our hostel was before going to bed.
9/29 We first visited the Jokhor temple, which is the holiest place
for tibetan buddhists. It is crammed with pilgrims bringing yak
butter to keep the candles burning and turning prayer wheels and doing
other religious things. Inside the temple there is thick incense,
lots of buddhas, and plenty of monks. Outside, there are lots of
pilgrims performing prayer rituals where they go onto their stomach,
slide forward, and then stand up. It looked a little like the
calisthenic drylands we did for swimming. It was quite amazing to see
the old people doing this. I know my parents couldn't walk the next
day if they even did a few of these, let alone most of the day.
Outside the temple is also the bokhor circle in which the pligrims
walk clockwise around the temple turning their hand held prayer
wheels, making prayers, buying incensce and prayer flags and other
suck things. It's a huge mass of a crowd going in the circle.
After visiting Jokhor, we stopped by the potala palace to reserve our
tickets for tomorrow. The palace is way way more impressive than I
thought it would be. It's huge and stunning, sitting on top of this
little hill. It was where the dali lama used to reside before being
forced to flee. It was just impressive sitting up there in all its
whiteness against the bright blue sky.
After lunch (yak noodles of course, yak is the only meat to be found
here), we walked around a bit. There are loads of places to buy very
cheap and of course fake, but seemingly good quality outdoor gear. I
bought a sun hat as the sun is intense here (lhasa sits at 11,750 ft)
and my malaria medicine makes me more susceptible to sun burn. I
might buy my sleeping bag and down jacket here for my treks in nepal,
though I may just wait til I'm there bc I think it will be similar
prices and quality.
In the afternoon we took the bus (no foreigners on a bus without your
guide) to the Sera monastery. There are 800 monks (used to be 5000
before the chinese took over) studying here. We saw the amazing salt
and sand "paintings" that they make as well as saw their library
filled with "books" of wood. We also saw how they now use these books
to make texts out of paper. The last thing we saw was the debates.
They all gather in a shady area and debate each other. They sit in
separate groups and most monks are sitting, but a few will be standing
and really debating hard...clapping and jumping and moving all around.
It's quite cool to see, just wish I knew what they were debating
about...figured who would win the next world cup, but I guess I could
be wrong...haha
Went out for yak at night of course and then Aries, Erik, and I had
some beers for Erik's birthday. Leon was feeling a bit under the
weather likely from altitude and also sun. They hadn't bought sun
screen before so had to buy the chinese stuff...they got spf 30 from
Loreal...though spelled Leroal...so obviously fake and probably not
spf 30. I'm using some 100+spf, so I was ok.
Lhasa is actually a really great city. It feels small, especially
when you are in the tibet portion. THere is no reason to go to the
han chinese portion as it is just typical boring chinese city. The
tibetans here are so colorful, where some crazy outfits, and do their
hair in unique ways. It is really a great place for people watching.
There are some extremely ancient people walking around too. Lhasa is
actually quite dry and the mountains around are very arid. No trees
at this altitude and with the dryness of course. A lot of the people
actually dress and look like cowboys. The dutch think of them as
people from the wild west. To me they look and dress a whole lot like
a mixture of peruvians, mayan mexicans, and navajos, if you can
imagine that. They also speak Tibetan here of course even though the
chinese want them to speak Mandarin. One of the surprising things to
me is the heavy, heavy Chinese military presence here. I didn't
expect that, especially since the tibetans are quite peaceful. If you
have seen 7 years in tibet, they wouldn't even harm worms to build a
temple. There are chinese millitary with big guns, riot gear and all
that everywhere. It's the biggest millitary presence I have ever
seen, and I have been to Papua, Burma, Mindanao, and Kenya. It's a
bit unnerving, and strange to see the military of china everywhere
WITHIN China...just goes to show tibet is still not really part of
China. Our guide laid out a few rules for us such as no photos of
police or army, pants at all temples, and that we are not allowed to
ask her political questions. I think that is to ensure her safety, bc
she could get in trouble if she says anything bad about China.
Tomorrow we will visit the Potala palace. Then the next day is a day
trip to Namtso lake and then after that we leave Lhasa on the
friendship hwy for Nepal going through Gyantse, Shigaste, and everest
base camp
him in Lijiang and then Leon and Arie-Jan (Holland) at Sims cozy
hostel. They would be the 3 people on my tour to tibet. I was very
lucky bc they are all great guys who have lots of travel experience
and we all get along great. I especially like the Dutch guys as they
are quite a lot of fun. The thing with Tibet is that you have to have
a permit to go into the TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) and in order
to get a permit you must join a tour group. Of course this makes
things more expensive; however, the hostels in Chengdu have helped
backpackers out a lot by making budget oriented trips that don't
included staying at nicer hotels and eating nicer foods that most
chiense tour groups include
We boarded the train at 9pm for a 46 hour train ride through Sichuan
then Qinghai and into Tibet.
9/27 All day on the train of course, past some nice scenery that was
steadily drying out. We had 4 bunks in the 6 bunk cabin (shared with
2 chinese), and we had quite some fun listening to music and playing
cards, escpecially a Swedish game called Plump that Erik taught us.
Eventually we climbed out of the mountains into empty grasslands, then
some nice lakes, and then finally some snowcapped mountains!! I'd
been waiting so long to see some in china.
9/28 We woke up early to watch a gorgeous sunrise under crystal clear
skies. The light lit up the fresh snow all around a magnificent pink.
And of course there were some larger mountains in the distance. As
we went further along the snow on the ground eventually ceased, but
the scenery was still spectacular with rivers running through barren
valleys and huge glaciated peaks (one over 7000m) in the distance. In
some of the valleys were tiny tibetan villages, and you had to wonder
how people could live there. There were of course thousands of yaks
all around. The train is the highest train in the world with a top
elevation of 5100m (about 16,700 ft) at the border of qinghai and
tibet. The train is so high that the pump oxygen into the train when
you are above 4000m and even ban smoking from the city of golmud onto
lhasa...something unheard of in China, though not really followed.
You can also plug up oxygen from you cabin with tubes to go straight
into your nose. I am fairly used to the altitude so had no problem
especially since I made sure to stay hydrated, a key to beating
altitude sickness. I stayed hydrated by drinking a fair amount of
beers, typically a no no as alcohol is bad for altitude, but most
chinese beers are 3%, so they are bacially water, and also cheaper
than water.
In the evening we arrived in Lhasa and were picked up by our tour
guide Dolkar: you are supposed to have your tour guide with you at
almost all points in tibet. Our permits were quickly checked by
police before we were taken to the Tibetan part of the city to find
our accomadation and go out for food. We explored a bit of the square
and bokor area near where our hostel was before going to bed.
9/29 We first visited the Jokhor temple, which is the holiest place
for tibetan buddhists. It is crammed with pilgrims bringing yak
butter to keep the candles burning and turning prayer wheels and doing
other religious things. Inside the temple there is thick incense,
lots of buddhas, and plenty of monks. Outside, there are lots of
pilgrims performing prayer rituals where they go onto their stomach,
slide forward, and then stand up. It looked a little like the
calisthenic drylands we did for swimming. It was quite amazing to see
the old people doing this. I know my parents couldn't walk the next
day if they even did a few of these, let alone most of the day.
Outside the temple is also the bokhor circle in which the pligrims
walk clockwise around the temple turning their hand held prayer
wheels, making prayers, buying incensce and prayer flags and other
suck things. It's a huge mass of a crowd going in the circle.
After visiting Jokhor, we stopped by the potala palace to reserve our
tickets for tomorrow. The palace is way way more impressive than I
thought it would be. It's huge and stunning, sitting on top of this
little hill. It was where the dali lama used to reside before being
forced to flee. It was just impressive sitting up there in all its
whiteness against the bright blue sky.
After lunch (yak noodles of course, yak is the only meat to be found
here), we walked around a bit. There are loads of places to buy very
cheap and of course fake, but seemingly good quality outdoor gear. I
bought a sun hat as the sun is intense here (lhasa sits at 11,750 ft)
and my malaria medicine makes me more susceptible to sun burn. I
might buy my sleeping bag and down jacket here for my treks in nepal,
though I may just wait til I'm there bc I think it will be similar
prices and quality.
In the afternoon we took the bus (no foreigners on a bus without your
guide) to the Sera monastery. There are 800 monks (used to be 5000
before the chinese took over) studying here. We saw the amazing salt
and sand "paintings" that they make as well as saw their library
filled with "books" of wood. We also saw how they now use these books
to make texts out of paper. The last thing we saw was the debates.
They all gather in a shady area and debate each other. They sit in
separate groups and most monks are sitting, but a few will be standing
and really debating hard...clapping and jumping and moving all around.
It's quite cool to see, just wish I knew what they were debating
about...figured who would win the next world cup, but I guess I could
be wrong...haha
Went out for yak at night of course and then Aries, Erik, and I had
some beers for Erik's birthday. Leon was feeling a bit under the
weather likely from altitude and also sun. They hadn't bought sun
screen before so had to buy the chinese stuff...they got spf 30 from
Loreal...though spelled Leroal...so obviously fake and probably not
spf 30. I'm using some 100+spf, so I was ok.
Lhasa is actually a really great city. It feels small, especially
when you are in the tibet portion. THere is no reason to go to the
han chinese portion as it is just typical boring chinese city. The
tibetans here are so colorful, where some crazy outfits, and do their
hair in unique ways. It is really a great place for people watching.
There are some extremely ancient people walking around too. Lhasa is
actually quite dry and the mountains around are very arid. No trees
at this altitude and with the dryness of course. A lot of the people
actually dress and look like cowboys. The dutch think of them as
people from the wild west. To me they look and dress a whole lot like
a mixture of peruvians, mayan mexicans, and navajos, if you can
imagine that. They also speak Tibetan here of course even though the
chinese want them to speak Mandarin. One of the surprising things to
me is the heavy, heavy Chinese military presence here. I didn't
expect that, especially since the tibetans are quite peaceful. If you
have seen 7 years in tibet, they wouldn't even harm worms to build a
temple. There are chinese millitary with big guns, riot gear and all
that everywhere. It's the biggest millitary presence I have ever
seen, and I have been to Papua, Burma, Mindanao, and Kenya. It's a
bit unnerving, and strange to see the military of china everywhere
WITHIN China...just goes to show tibet is still not really part of
China. Our guide laid out a few rules for us such as no photos of
police or army, pants at all temples, and that we are not allowed to
ask her political questions. I think that is to ensure her safety, bc
she could get in trouble if she says anything bad about China.
Tomorrow we will visit the Potala palace. Then the next day is a day
trip to Namtso lake and then after that we leave Lhasa on the
friendship hwy for Nepal going through Gyantse, Shigaste, and everest
base camp
great firewall of China part 16: Kung Fu Panda
9/25 Visited the Chengdu panda breeding center. I had wanted to go
to Wolong Nature center where the pandas were in more of a wild
setting, but it had been mostly destroyed by the earthquake, so most
pandas had been moved to the chengdu breeding center. We went early
in the morning on a cold and drizzly day (think seattle weather in the
winter). This was actually good for seeing pandas bc it meant that
they were out and about in their pens as opposed to hiding in the air
conditioned rooms. The temp had dropped from 90 degrees to 60 degrees
since the last time I had been there. We of course saw lots of the
cute guys sleeping, eating bamboo, and walking around. We also saw
some newly born pandas and some 2 or 3 month year olds in the nursery.
We visited the museum and saw a film on them and unfortunately I
would say there is little hope for the giant panda to persist in the
wild. Their habitat has become so fragmented and they are one of the
least reproductively sucessful mammals, so combine major habitat loss
and fragmentation and the inbreeding it causes to poor reproduction
and things don't look good. But it looks like they will at least keep
them alive in zoos and breeding centers.
At the museum they had a big picture of Bill Clinton holding a Panda.
They seem to mention at all the places i have been to if one of the US
presidents has been there. Actually saw an article in the (year old)
paper before Obama's visit that showed where the US president's that
had visited ended up going. Most didn't leave Beijing and the great
wall, but old Clinton appeared to have done quite the tour. In the
minivan that Lukas, me and crew took to the great wall, the driver had
something advertising the Mutianyu section of the wall. It had
several pictures of what you could see: the great wall in the summer,
the great wall in the winter, the views, the renovation, and the cable
car. The last big picture was one of Clinton smiling from the cable
car. I asked the driver that if I paid to go there would I see Bill
in my cable car. "Yes" he assured me. "Are you sure?" "Yes, I take
you now?" I believe it was probably a good thing I didn't go bc I
would have been disappointed.
But it was nice to walk around and see the cute little pandas lounging
around like Pandas do. (Po in Kung Fu panda is accurately
represented). I have a special interest in Pandas because my teddy
"bear" when I was growing up was a Panda. Either my parents lack
considerably in their zoological knowledge or they have an ironic
sense of humour, but both my brother and my teddy bears were not bears
at all: A Giant Panda and Koala. At the end of the trip to the
breeding center, you can pay 150 bucks to hold a panda. It was
tempting, but way to expensive. My parents had chosen to give my
brother the "bear" that was much cheaper to hold--the photo and
holding of the koala in Australia was 35 dollars!
Back in Chengdu, I explored the city a bit including it's big new
square and giant Mao Statue. I looked for a Catholic Church to go to
mass. Had a bit of trouble. Finally tracked some down, but one was
closed. Amazingly the next one not only had a perfectly timed
Saturday evening mass, but it was in English. I met 2 nice law
student gals there that wanted to practice english, so they took me
through the people's park and then treated me to a tea shop, which are
famous in Chengdu, for their help in practicing english. That night I
had some amazingly amazing tasty street bbq. When I was going back
for round two I met some more students wanting to practice english and
ever so impressed that I was not at a western restaurant or hostel but
eating street food. After we had talked for a while they left, and
when I went up to pay, I found out they had already paid for me.
9/26 A day of shopping and stocking up in Chengdu as it would likely
be one of the last places with big western style supermarkets and
such. Bought a new watch as my band had broken. Got some listerine
not only for the teeth but to try and stop a foot fungus. Got some
centrum a-z for the treks in nepal where nutrition could be lacking
but physical exertion definitely not. Tried to find some baking soda
to use as a cure for smelly shoes... the problem of having
non-breathable gore-tex in a hot and humid climate, though I will
appreciate them when i'm in the snow and cold of the himalaya. I had
some english speaking chinese write down in chinese what baking soda
was. Apparently they were thinking of something different bc what the
lady at the supermarket showed me was yeast...think that maybe would
have made my shoes even more stinky. My favorite part of the
supermarket was the MSG aisle.
I also explored a bit more of chengdu and went to the Tibetan section
and a bit along the river.
to Wolong Nature center where the pandas were in more of a wild
setting, but it had been mostly destroyed by the earthquake, so most
pandas had been moved to the chengdu breeding center. We went early
in the morning on a cold and drizzly day (think seattle weather in the
winter). This was actually good for seeing pandas bc it meant that
they were out and about in their pens as opposed to hiding in the air
conditioned rooms. The temp had dropped from 90 degrees to 60 degrees
since the last time I had been there. We of course saw lots of the
cute guys sleeping, eating bamboo, and walking around. We also saw
some newly born pandas and some 2 or 3 month year olds in the nursery.
We visited the museum and saw a film on them and unfortunately I
would say there is little hope for the giant panda to persist in the
wild. Their habitat has become so fragmented and they are one of the
least reproductively sucessful mammals, so combine major habitat loss
and fragmentation and the inbreeding it causes to poor reproduction
and things don't look good. But it looks like they will at least keep
them alive in zoos and breeding centers.
At the museum they had a big picture of Bill Clinton holding a Panda.
They seem to mention at all the places i have been to if one of the US
presidents has been there. Actually saw an article in the (year old)
paper before Obama's visit that showed where the US president's that
had visited ended up going. Most didn't leave Beijing and the great
wall, but old Clinton appeared to have done quite the tour. In the
minivan that Lukas, me and crew took to the great wall, the driver had
something advertising the Mutianyu section of the wall. It had
several pictures of what you could see: the great wall in the summer,
the great wall in the winter, the views, the renovation, and the cable
car. The last big picture was one of Clinton smiling from the cable
car. I asked the driver that if I paid to go there would I see Bill
in my cable car. "Yes" he assured me. "Are you sure?" "Yes, I take
you now?" I believe it was probably a good thing I didn't go bc I
would have been disappointed.
But it was nice to walk around and see the cute little pandas lounging
around like Pandas do. (Po in Kung Fu panda is accurately
represented). I have a special interest in Pandas because my teddy
"bear" when I was growing up was a Panda. Either my parents lack
considerably in their zoological knowledge or they have an ironic
sense of humour, but both my brother and my teddy bears were not bears
at all: A Giant Panda and Koala. At the end of the trip to the
breeding center, you can pay 150 bucks to hold a panda. It was
tempting, but way to expensive. My parents had chosen to give my
brother the "bear" that was much cheaper to hold--the photo and
holding of the koala in Australia was 35 dollars!
Back in Chengdu, I explored the city a bit including it's big new
square and giant Mao Statue. I looked for a Catholic Church to go to
mass. Had a bit of trouble. Finally tracked some down, but one was
closed. Amazingly the next one not only had a perfectly timed
Saturday evening mass, but it was in English. I met 2 nice law
student gals there that wanted to practice english, so they took me
through the people's park and then treated me to a tea shop, which are
famous in Chengdu, for their help in practicing english. That night I
had some amazingly amazing tasty street bbq. When I was going back
for round two I met some more students wanting to practice english and
ever so impressed that I was not at a western restaurant or hostel but
eating street food. After we had talked for a while they left, and
when I went up to pay, I found out they had already paid for me.
9/26 A day of shopping and stocking up in Chengdu as it would likely
be one of the last places with big western style supermarkets and
such. Bought a new watch as my band had broken. Got some listerine
not only for the teeth but to try and stop a foot fungus. Got some
centrum a-z for the treks in nepal where nutrition could be lacking
but physical exertion definitely not. Tried to find some baking soda
to use as a cure for smelly shoes... the problem of having
non-breathable gore-tex in a hot and humid climate, though I will
appreciate them when i'm in the snow and cold of the himalaya. I had
some english speaking chinese write down in chinese what baking soda
was. Apparently they were thinking of something different bc what the
lady at the supermarket showed me was yeast...think that maybe would
have made my shoes even more stinky. My favorite part of the
supermarket was the MSG aisle.
I also explored a bit more of chengdu and went to the Tibetan section
and a bit along the river.
great firewall of china: part 15: Sneaking into parks
9-23 I woke up early to find cloudy skies, so I didn't head to
Jiuzhaigou (pronounced Jo-zy-goh by the way). Instead I played around
on computer. I wanted to watch the first episode of Glee, but Hulu
can only be watched in the US due to copyright stuff, so I settled
with The Daily Show and Colbert Report Around noon, there was some
blue sky, which was exciting. So I headed towards the park entrance
to see if they had any half day fee. Paying 35 bucks plus the 15 for
the bus for the afternoon when there were still plenty of threatening
clouds around wasn't worth it to me. It was a no go though. I was
considering trying to do the sneak, just like you can do legally at
Rocky (think of all the trails you can access by foot into rocky for
free: lower beaver meadows, ymca, twin owls, black canyone, mcgraw
ranch, dunraven, allenspark), so I was thinking perhaps I could just
walk across into the park from some other area. I was debating this
as I was visiting the visitor center, and I made up my mind when I saw
a figure in the visitor center of how much PROFIT the park had made
for the chinese government. 467 million RMB...that's 69 millon
dollars. Although I felt a bit guilty for sneaking into the park, I
figured I had already paid my fair share in what I think is a super
expensive fee for 1 day and in my 5x more visa fee and than 5x more
visa extension fee. Plus, I didn't want to give too much to a
government that is doing ethnic "cleansing" on the tibetans and other
minorities and that doesn't allow for freedom of religion nor speech
and blocks many public websites. Not a government I necessarily
approve on and want to keep giving lots of money to. So I decided I
would increase my donation to the World Wide Fund for Nature and
Greenpeace this year instead: a much better place for my money. I
also made sure to buy some fruit at the little remaining tibetan
village in the town. The tibetans used to farm and raise animals in
the valley where all the fancy hotels, airport, shopping centers, etc
are now before they turned jiuzhaigou into the big tourist destination
that it is. So I walked a bit down the river, forded the river,
climbed up a steep rocky area where their fence was not built,
reforded the river, and snuck in that way. It still was not full
sunny, but it was much brighter, so I went back to some of the
highlights and some them sparkle even more in the better light. I
then hiked some trails I had not been able to get to before because I
had run out of time before.
Tomorrow I catch the early bus for the long journey back to Chengdu
via the landslide and earthquake damaged road. This is the area of
china that had the huge 8.0 earthquake back in 2008. I hope to make
it back in time for the dumpling party that my hostel in Chendu is
holding.
9/24 Bus to Chengdu. We went a different route than we came,
presumably bc the other route was closed by landslides. I later read
that 4000 people in an area of sichuan not too far from me had been
evacuated bc a landslide dammed a river and their was a whole town at
risk if the landslid dam were to break. Of course the route was very
scenic through the mountains and steep canyons (tibetan prayer flags
hanging everywhere). Lots of landslides and collapsed roads. We
often had to take the bus on a very narrow dirt road avoiding the mud
or collapsed road. Had lunch at a town that had obviously been
majorly hit by the 2008 earthquake, but they were busy rebuillding it.
A chinese couple on the bus that spoke good english took me to a
different restuarant than the one the bus dropped us off at. They
said it was better and cheaper...and then treated me to lunch. They
said it was in thanks for the girls' brother who had moved to
California and had been treated quite well there.
That night I made it back in time for the dumpling party. We first
made the dumplings, then cooked them, then stuffed ourselves with
them. The hostel I stayed at (mix hostel) in chengdu was awesome and
one of the best I had stayed at so far (makes sense as it was rated as
the #2 hostel in asia by hostelbookers) and it only cost 5 bucks for
an aircon dorm. That night I chilled with a couple americans who were
fresh on the start of a year long journey. They were sort of typical
americans complaining about the food (wouldn't touch street food and
had been frequenting kfc and mcdonalds). They were in for a surprise
when they got to other parts of SE asia where there would be no
western food to be found. But they were nice and we had a good time
talking and a couple british girls and a dutch gal also joined.
Jiuzhaigou (pronounced Jo-zy-goh by the way). Instead I played around
on computer. I wanted to watch the first episode of Glee, but Hulu
can only be watched in the US due to copyright stuff, so I settled
with The Daily Show and Colbert Report Around noon, there was some
blue sky, which was exciting. So I headed towards the park entrance
to see if they had any half day fee. Paying 35 bucks plus the 15 for
the bus for the afternoon when there were still plenty of threatening
clouds around wasn't worth it to me. It was a no go though. I was
considering trying to do the sneak, just like you can do legally at
Rocky (think of all the trails you can access by foot into rocky for
free: lower beaver meadows, ymca, twin owls, black canyone, mcgraw
ranch, dunraven, allenspark), so I was thinking perhaps I could just
walk across into the park from some other area. I was debating this
as I was visiting the visitor center, and I made up my mind when I saw
a figure in the visitor center of how much PROFIT the park had made
for the chinese government. 467 million RMB...that's 69 millon
dollars. Although I felt a bit guilty for sneaking into the park, I
figured I had already paid my fair share in what I think is a super
expensive fee for 1 day and in my 5x more visa fee and than 5x more
visa extension fee. Plus, I didn't want to give too much to a
government that is doing ethnic "cleansing" on the tibetans and other
minorities and that doesn't allow for freedom of religion nor speech
and blocks many public websites. Not a government I necessarily
approve on and want to keep giving lots of money to. So I decided I
would increase my donation to the World Wide Fund for Nature and
Greenpeace this year instead: a much better place for my money. I
also made sure to buy some fruit at the little remaining tibetan
village in the town. The tibetans used to farm and raise animals in
the valley where all the fancy hotels, airport, shopping centers, etc
are now before they turned jiuzhaigou into the big tourist destination
that it is. So I walked a bit down the river, forded the river,
climbed up a steep rocky area where their fence was not built,
reforded the river, and snuck in that way. It still was not full
sunny, but it was much brighter, so I went back to some of the
highlights and some them sparkle even more in the better light. I
then hiked some trails I had not been able to get to before because I
had run out of time before.
Tomorrow I catch the early bus for the long journey back to Chengdu
via the landslide and earthquake damaged road. This is the area of
china that had the huge 8.0 earthquake back in 2008. I hope to make
it back in time for the dumpling party that my hostel in Chendu is
holding.
9/24 Bus to Chengdu. We went a different route than we came,
presumably bc the other route was closed by landslides. I later read
that 4000 people in an area of sichuan not too far from me had been
evacuated bc a landslide dammed a river and their was a whole town at
risk if the landslid dam were to break. Of course the route was very
scenic through the mountains and steep canyons (tibetan prayer flags
hanging everywhere). Lots of landslides and collapsed roads. We
often had to take the bus on a very narrow dirt road avoiding the mud
or collapsed road. Had lunch at a town that had obviously been
majorly hit by the 2008 earthquake, but they were busy rebuillding it.
A chinese couple on the bus that spoke good english took me to a
different restuarant than the one the bus dropped us off at. They
said it was better and cheaper...and then treated me to lunch. They
said it was in thanks for the girls' brother who had moved to
California and had been treated quite well there.
That night I made it back in time for the dumpling party. We first
made the dumplings, then cooked them, then stuffed ourselves with
them. The hostel I stayed at (mix hostel) in chengdu was awesome and
one of the best I had stayed at so far (makes sense as it was rated as
the #2 hostel in asia by hostelbookers) and it only cost 5 bucks for
an aircon dorm. That night I chilled with a couple americans who were
fresh on the start of a year long journey. They were sort of typical
americans complaining about the food (wouldn't touch street food and
had been frequenting kfc and mcdonalds). They were in for a surprise
when they got to other parts of SE asia where there would be no
western food to be found. But they were nice and we had a good time
talking and a couple british girls and a dutch gal also joined.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Great Firewall of China Part 14: More sparkling jewels in the mountains
9-22 Shared a taxi with 3 Malaysians for the 3 hour drive to
Huanglong NP. The drive there went over several big passes and
climbed up onto the beginnings of the Tibetan Plateau. It was a
pretty misty and cloudy drive, but at times you could see some of the
mountains as we went over the passes, several which were above
tree-line and reminded me a bit of going over trail ridge in a fog.
Most of the communities we went by were Tibetan, so there were plenty
of brightly painted houses, women adorned in bright clothes, and yaks
and goats jamming the road
This national park wasn't as big and much less crowded, which was
nice. It was also quite cold at first, which I wasn't too prepared
for b/c I didnt' know how high it was, but fine once I got hiking.
The base of the park is at 10,000ft and the highest point at the end
of the trail is 11,000ft or a bit less. There is of course a cable
car that runs to the top for quite the fee and all the chinese told me
it would be impossible to hike to the top in less than 3 hours, so I
should take the cable car, so I could be back to the bottom by 3:30
when it closed. The chinese aren't the most active or adventurous, so
I rarely listen to them on such things...it ended up taking me 1 hour.
The other funny thing about Asians, I seem to have noticed, is that
they are easily coerced into buying things that they probably don't
need (I think this is why they try so hard, usually in vein to get
western tourists to buy or hire certain things...though in china the
touts usually don't pay attention to western tourists and only the
chinese tourists bc they know they only get business from the
chinese). Anyways, back on the subject, on the way there before some
of the bigger passes there were signs to get high altitude medicine.
The malaysians of course had the taxi stop so they could get some
traditional chinese medicine (made from some sort of high altitude
rose and herb) for the altitude. At the park, you could also buy
oxygen canisters for the short 1km walk up from the cable car to the
main attraction. I found this absolutely hilarious! I somehow doubt
the need for oxygen at below 11,000 feet especially when you have
taken a cable car up, have had to spend at least one night in
Jiuzhaigou (7500 ft). How many people come to estes straight from sea
level to go over trail ridge (12,000+ft) and do the short hike up
there, or even hike to one of the alpine lakes or fly in from new york
and are on the slopes of breck or a-basin at nearly 13,000 feet within
the day. Maybe there is some altitude symptoms (headache, quesiness,
usually caused by dehydration or alcohol), but no need for oxygen.
But there was everyone carrying it up.
The park itself was very gorgeous. It was a canyon that ended up at
the top above treeline. So I liked that, I always enjoy being up in
the alpine. The reason the park is special is because limestone and
calcium deposits have formed all these little pools (that look a lot
like terracing) and waterfalls. The majority of the pools are a very
clear and cool aqua and turquoise color; however some were greenish
and yellowish and other shades of blue. At the very top was something
called multi-coloured pools guarded by a tibetan temple. These pools
had such vibrant blues, turquoise, and aquas they almost appeared to
be computer enhanced or something. Even in the cloudy and misty
weather it was like that...I can't imagine what it is like in clear
weather. But the good thing was that the pools still shimmered in
their cool colors even in the clouds. I think the only thing I really
missed out with it being cloudy (and it's easy to see what it looks
like when it is clear bc all of the photographers offereing to take
and print out pictures for the chinese (I think I mentioned that the
chinese are obsessed with having pictures of themselves in front of
everything) have examples of their best pictures) was some of the big
snowcapped 16,000 feet mountains that sit in the background. It was
also the beginning of fall colors, so there was some nice reds and
yellows around too. The hike down went by several more series of
turquoise and emerald pools and some waterfalls. There was also a
huge yellow limestone/calcium deposit "waterfall". It was like an
immovable river of yellow limestone.
Something I forgot to mention in the last post regarding the Chinese
gov't using the national parks as money makers as opposed to education
and protection involves the Panda. In the 70's and 80's when the
pandas plight looked bleak and the international community was
pressuring the chinese to save this species that has become one of the
headlining animals of wildlife protection groups, such as the world
wildlife fund, the chinese responded by making a few reserves and
setting up several breeding centers. They found at that the breeding
centers made lots of money bc it brought in loads of tourists wanting
to photograph and be photographed with the pandas. So they developed
more breeding centers and didn't set aside anymore reserves, thus
allowing a huge area of their habitat to be loogged out and built up.
In the end this has been quite terrible for the pandas bc the breeding
centers are actually hardly sucessful (the most successful one is
actually in san diego), and to this date no panda that was born in a
breeding center has actually be sucessfully released into the wild.
And of course since they failed to protect their habitat, there is not
much space to release them anyways. All this bc the reserves set
aside for pandas were not a tourist draw bc it would be as likely to
see a panda as it would be to see a mountain lion in RMNP, so tourists
didn't go. The other problem with this strategy is that pandas are
known as a "sexy" species as good ole Todd Palmer would say. It's a
species people like and thus want to save and by protecting it and
it's habitat it ends up protecting a whole load of other species
important for an ecosystem that most people could care less about.
With the panda, however, since they ended up not saving its habitat,
the other species in the pandas habitat have also become quite
endangered. And something else relating to money making by the
government, many of the touristy towns like Lijiang, the government
actually charges about 15 dollars to enter. This would be like
charging 50 bucks to enter estes or aspen or stanley. Crazy! They
were just starting to set up the barriers in both tiger leaping gorge
and in Yangshuo, so luckily I avoided that. But the chinese gov't is
really taking off with the middle and upper class tourism boom to make
money.
I also forgot to mention that I thought that Jiuzhaigou would be the
ideal and perfect national park for my mother and grandma. Mainly bc
they really love streams and rushing water and mountains, which this
park is just full of rushing water and the majority of the trails are
actually on planks over the tumbling water and waterfalls. The other
thing that is sort of ideal for them at the moment with their hip
surgeries is that there is that bus system so you can ride up to the
top and walk down and if you get tired you can simply catch a bus to
the next attraction or lake.
Tonight, I was feeling a bit bad in my stomach, but I went to the same
little restaurant-to get plain rice (mei fan)-- I have been going
everynight since I have been here since it is cheap. The tibetans
that run it, and don't speak a lick of english, just think I am the
funniest to be a westerner and coming there. They are so sweet and
nice. The men are always offering me cigarettes and the women
constantly pouring me more tea and bringing out more rice. Today they
took a shot glass and took some liquid from a jar with strange things
in it. I kept trying to say no, no, no. But they wouldn't hear it.
I smelled it and decided it was strong asian type whiskey, and said
what the heck, maybe it can kill anything bad in my stomach.
Tomorrow I was supposed to go back to Chengdu where I was looking
forward to a day with nothing to do. I haven't relaxed in a while. I
was probably going to sleep in (I haven't slept past 6am in probably
over 3 weeks now), watch some dvd's at the hostel, turn in some
laundry, and do some shopping at the big wal-mart style shopping
center nearby (they actually do have a walmart in chengdu, but I
definitely wasn't planning on going there) to get some supplies for
the upcoming himalays trip. But I decided to delay my bus by one day
in case it is sunny here tomorrow (forecast is for no rain, so maybe
that means sun), If it is sunny, I will suck up the expense and go
check out Jiuzhaigou again. If it is not, then I'll just stay at the
hostel and enjoy the cool air. They have free internet here and I
have 20,000 leagues under the sea and 1984 with me. It still gives me
the next day to go to the panda breeding center (yes I don't
necessarily agree with it, but it's the only chance to really see
pandas in China) and the next day my train isn't until pandas in China) and the next day my train isn't until late, so I have the time to finish up my errands
Huanglong NP. The drive there went over several big passes and
climbed up onto the beginnings of the Tibetan Plateau. It was a
pretty misty and cloudy drive, but at times you could see some of the
mountains as we went over the passes, several which were above
tree-line and reminded me a bit of going over trail ridge in a fog.
Most of the communities we went by were Tibetan, so there were plenty
of brightly painted houses, women adorned in bright clothes, and yaks
and goats jamming the road
This national park wasn't as big and much less crowded, which was
nice. It was also quite cold at first, which I wasn't too prepared
for b/c I didnt' know how high it was, but fine once I got hiking.
The base of the park is at 10,000ft and the highest point at the end
of the trail is 11,000ft or a bit less. There is of course a cable
car that runs to the top for quite the fee and all the chinese told me
it would be impossible to hike to the top in less than 3 hours, so I
should take the cable car, so I could be back to the bottom by 3:30
when it closed. The chinese aren't the most active or adventurous, so
I rarely listen to them on such things...it ended up taking me 1 hour.
The other funny thing about Asians, I seem to have noticed, is that
they are easily coerced into buying things that they probably don't
need (I think this is why they try so hard, usually in vein to get
western tourists to buy or hire certain things...though in china the
touts usually don't pay attention to western tourists and only the
chinese tourists bc they know they only get business from the
chinese). Anyways, back on the subject, on the way there before some
of the bigger passes there were signs to get high altitude medicine.
The malaysians of course had the taxi stop so they could get some
traditional chinese medicine (made from some sort of high altitude
rose and herb) for the altitude. At the park, you could also buy
oxygen canisters for the short 1km walk up from the cable car to the
main attraction. I found this absolutely hilarious! I somehow doubt
the need for oxygen at below 11,000 feet especially when you have
taken a cable car up, have had to spend at least one night in
Jiuzhaigou (7500 ft). How many people come to estes straight from sea
level to go over trail ridge (12,000+ft) and do the short hike up
there, or even hike to one of the alpine lakes or fly in from new york
and are on the slopes of breck or a-basin at nearly 13,000 feet within
the day. Maybe there is some altitude symptoms (headache, quesiness,
usually caused by dehydration or alcohol), but no need for oxygen.
But there was everyone carrying it up.
The park itself was very gorgeous. It was a canyon that ended up at
the top above treeline. So I liked that, I always enjoy being up in
the alpine. The reason the park is special is because limestone and
calcium deposits have formed all these little pools (that look a lot
like terracing) and waterfalls. The majority of the pools are a very
clear and cool aqua and turquoise color; however some were greenish
and yellowish and other shades of blue. At the very top was something
called multi-coloured pools guarded by a tibetan temple. These pools
had such vibrant blues, turquoise, and aquas they almost appeared to
be computer enhanced or something. Even in the cloudy and misty
weather it was like that...I can't imagine what it is like in clear
weather. But the good thing was that the pools still shimmered in
their cool colors even in the clouds. I think the only thing I really
missed out with it being cloudy (and it's easy to see what it looks
like when it is clear bc all of the photographers offereing to take
and print out pictures for the chinese (I think I mentioned that the
chinese are obsessed with having pictures of themselves in front of
everything) have examples of their best pictures) was some of the big
snowcapped 16,000 feet mountains that sit in the background. It was
also the beginning of fall colors, so there was some nice reds and
yellows around too. The hike down went by several more series of
turquoise and emerald pools and some waterfalls. There was also a
huge yellow limestone/calcium deposit "waterfall". It was like an
immovable river of yellow limestone.
Something I forgot to mention in the last post regarding the Chinese
gov't using the national parks as money makers as opposed to education
and protection involves the Panda. In the 70's and 80's when the
pandas plight looked bleak and the international community was
pressuring the chinese to save this species that has become one of the
headlining animals of wildlife protection groups, such as the world
wildlife fund, the chinese responded by making a few reserves and
setting up several breeding centers. They found at that the breeding
centers made lots of money bc it brought in loads of tourists wanting
to photograph and be photographed with the pandas. So they developed
more breeding centers and didn't set aside anymore reserves, thus
allowing a huge area of their habitat to be loogged out and built up.
In the end this has been quite terrible for the pandas bc the breeding
centers are actually hardly sucessful (the most successful one is
actually in san diego), and to this date no panda that was born in a
breeding center has actually be sucessfully released into the wild.
And of course since they failed to protect their habitat, there is not
much space to release them anyways. All this bc the reserves set
aside for pandas were not a tourist draw bc it would be as likely to
see a panda as it would be to see a mountain lion in RMNP, so tourists
didn't go. The other problem with this strategy is that pandas are
known as a "sexy" species as good ole Todd Palmer would say. It's a
species people like and thus want to save and by protecting it and
it's habitat it ends up protecting a whole load of other species
important for an ecosystem that most people could care less about.
With the panda, however, since they ended up not saving its habitat,
the other species in the pandas habitat have also become quite
endangered. And something else relating to money making by the
government, many of the touristy towns like Lijiang, the government
actually charges about 15 dollars to enter. This would be like
charging 50 bucks to enter estes or aspen or stanley. Crazy! They
were just starting to set up the barriers in both tiger leaping gorge
and in Yangshuo, so luckily I avoided that. But the chinese gov't is
really taking off with the middle and upper class tourism boom to make
money.
I also forgot to mention that I thought that Jiuzhaigou would be the
ideal and perfect national park for my mother and grandma. Mainly bc
they really love streams and rushing water and mountains, which this
park is just full of rushing water and the majority of the trails are
actually on planks over the tumbling water and waterfalls. The other
thing that is sort of ideal for them at the moment with their hip
surgeries is that there is that bus system so you can ride up to the
top and walk down and if you get tired you can simply catch a bus to
the next attraction or lake.
Tonight, I was feeling a bit bad in my stomach, but I went to the same
little restaurant-to get plain rice (mei fan)-- I have been going
everynight since I have been here since it is cheap. The tibetans
that run it, and don't speak a lick of english, just think I am the
funniest to be a westerner and coming there. They are so sweet and
nice. The men are always offering me cigarettes and the women
constantly pouring me more tea and bringing out more rice. Today they
took a shot glass and took some liquid from a jar with strange things
in it. I kept trying to say no, no, no. But they wouldn't hear it.
I smelled it and decided it was strong asian type whiskey, and said
what the heck, maybe it can kill anything bad in my stomach.
Tomorrow I was supposed to go back to Chengdu where I was looking
forward to a day with nothing to do. I haven't relaxed in a while. I
was probably going to sleep in (I haven't slept past 6am in probably
over 3 weeks now), watch some dvd's at the hostel, turn in some
laundry, and do some shopping at the big wal-mart style shopping
center nearby (they actually do have a walmart in chengdu, but I
definitely wasn't planning on going there) to get some supplies for
the upcoming himalays trip. But I decided to delay my bus by one day
in case it is sunny here tomorrow (forecast is for no rain, so maybe
that means sun), If it is sunny, I will suck up the expense and go
check out Jiuzhaigou again. If it is not, then I'll just stay at the
hostel and enjoy the cool air. They have free internet here and I
have 20,000 leagues under the sea and 1984 with me. It still gives me
the next day to go to the panda breeding center (yes I don't
necessarily agree with it, but it's the only chance to really see
pandas in China) and the next day my train isn't until pandas in China) and the next day my train isn't until late, so I have the time to finish up my errands
Great Firewall of China Part 13: Jewels flowing in the mountains
9/19 Went out for a fancy dinner of spicy sichuan hot pot with Sally
and Richard. Sichuan is famous for it's hot pots (boiling, spicy oil
in which you cook meat and vegetables like a fondue) and it's SPICE.
And it didn't let us down. So tasty, and so spicy. We were sweating
like we had been playing a hard game of b-ball. We wondered why we
had been given napkins for the first time since we were in china...to
wipe the sweat off. Richard asked me if I had seen all the graffiti
on the toilet about how people were feeling the day (and two and
three) after the hot pot. Made me wonder if I should be hopping on a
12 hour bus ride the next day!
9/20 Took the bus from Chengdu to Juizhaigou in the very northern
part of Sichuan right up against the tibetan plateau. The drive of
course was beautiful. Over mountain passes, through deep canyons,
along raging rivers, some massive reservoirs, and tiny villages full
of life. Basically drove the whole south north of Sichuan in one day.
Of course just like in the rest of Asia, chinese driving is crazy.
And sure enough, about 50km's from our destination, we were in an
accident. A minivan was trying to overtake our bus around a blind
curve when a big dump trunk was coming the other way. The bus driver
tried honking reapeatedly, but apparently the minivan thought it could
still overtake us. It tried to squeeze between the two big vehicles,
but got smashed between the two. Both large vehicles just had
scratches, but the minivan was squished. The driver was ok though.
An interesting note. As soon as the accident happened, everyone piled
out of the bus. I was in the back, so I came out at the end. The
first thought of all the chinese on the tour bus was to take photos of
the accident as if it was a tourist site as opposed to check if the
guy was hurt. Luckily he wasn't, and by the time I got out he was
crawling out through the smashed windshield. Strange though...my
first thought would have been to run and see if he was ok as opposed
to take my photo in front of the accident while giving the peace sign.
9/21 Visited Jiuzhaigou national park, a world biosphere reserve and
one of the premier national parks in Asia. It's a large park
incorporating several mountains just under 15,000 feet, many valleys
and canyons and even some rare wildlife such as the giant panda and
red panda. The crown jewel of the park, and pretty much the only
part open to visitors is two glacial canyons that have a multitude of
shimmering and multi-hued lakes separated by sweeping waterfalls.
Typical of chinese national parks I have been to so far, it's not some
alone in the wilds of nature experience, but one that is full of
chinese tourists and very easily accessible. Visiting national parks
in Asia always makes me proud of our own national parks back in the
States. With as much problems as I realize they have (from working in
one and with people that dealt with more of the beauracracy), our
parks are really great. Our parks our there for protection,
education, and for the average American to enjoy and get in touch with
nature. Sometimes I feel like the parks here are set up to appease
those around the globe putting pressure on a country to protect
something and then using it as a money making enterprise for the
government. For example with this park, it costs an unbelievable 35
bucks to enter (valid for only 1 day 7am-6pm) plus a mandatory 15
dollar shuttle bus fee. This may not seem like a lot but consider the
price of entering say RMNP or Zion. I can't quite remember the
current prices, but it's something like 25 bucks for the day, 50 bucks
for the annual pass and 90 bucks for an annual pass good for all
national parks in the country (and these prices are per vehicle so
split between everyone in the car). And keep in mind the difference
in cost for things between American and China (average salary in china
is still 400 bucks a month...a good meal costs 1.50, a beer less than
50 cents, and a good hotel 5-15 bucks). And both RMNP and Zion
include the visitor shuttle for free. And then on top of all this, I
feel as though our parks are WAY better at actually protecting than
these. Like I said, these always feel sort of like amusement parks
shuttling in the chinese tourists. And in our parks we have so many
ammenities and services (drinking water, nice toilets, miles and miles
and miles of trails, informative signs, free ranger talks, helpful
visitor centers, rescue services, fire protection, research, law
enforcement, etc. Here the majority of employees of the parks are
selling souvenirs, food, or even working at the fancy hotels in some
of the parks (thank goodness not this one as it a world biosphere
reserve so it has stricter international rules). Perhaps one of the
best things about our parks back home is the freedom we have to really
explore. In parks in Asia you usually have to stict to a few very
strict paths (if they even let you alone without a guide) whereas back
home you are free to explore to your hearts content and there are
always dozens and dozens of options of well marked trails or excellent
maps. So just wanted to put in a blurb about how great I have noticed
our national parks are in comparison to the majority of Asian parks.
With that said...this park was absolutely gorgeous...and I was here on
a cloudy morning and rainy afternoon. I can really only imagine (or
see the pictures of the israelis who were in the park the day before
when the sun was out) how gorgeous it must be with a big bright sun.
It is really hard to describe how cool the colors of the lakes are. I
suppose it would be best to just google image the national park.
I started out the day by taking the shuttle to the end of the first
canyon at an elevation of about 10,000 feet. You could walk on a
boardwalk trail through "virgin" forest. Apparently one of the few
big tracts of forests that was left untouched by the massive logging
exploitation of the 70's and 80's in China. The University of
Washington and UC-Berkley both have research teams up here studying
the unique geology as well as the ecology (and pandas) and they had an
informative sign in the forest that showed their research on this
dense forest and how their data shows how much more oxygen this area
of sichuan has, how much cooler in temperature it is, and how much
more stable it is in moisture...go figure. All things China is
suffering with: pollution, heat waves, and unusual moisture cycles
(drought, desertification, and flooding). Hmmm...tack on another one
for the enviro wackos as my dad calls them.
After taking a stroll through the forest I walked the 12 or so km's
down the canyon where you come across one sparkling lake after
another. The lakes and rivers are as clear as they get. As clear as
the alpine lakes in rocky...though they differ in that they have
unique blue, emerald, turqoise, and other blue/green spectra colors.
Similar to the colors you would see on a gorgeous island surrounded by
a reef. In fact, there are often dark spots in the lakes here from
some sort of calcium build up and so from above it almost looks like
what it looks like when you are flying over a shallow turqoise sea
that is full of darker coral areas. Truly sublime. The lakes (I
counted over 37 for the whole day) are separate by these giant
waterfalls...tall but more massive in their widths (they are known as
shoals here). The rivers/streams here are unique as well in that they
just flow right through the forest and bushes. There isn't always a
defined path, but it just flows right down through all the trees.
Another unique thing is that there are lots of fallen trees at the
bottom of these gorgeous blue lakes. The trees, which now have algae
growths on them, glow a light green and make for an interesting
spectacle.
The canyon eventually interesected another canyon and I took the bus
up to the top of this one where there were a couple lakes. One called
5-coloured lake, was especially gorgeous. The blues and green in that
one were just simply stunning. I took the bus back down to the
intersection and then walked several more km's back to the entrance
walking by many more lakes and shoal waterfalls. Something so amazing
about this park is not just the beauty, but how packed the sights are
together. In RMNP some of the more "packed" with scenic lake areas
like the stuff out of glacier gorge trailhead or bear lake have
several lakes in a row, but they are usually at the very least 1 mile
apart. These ones had lakes and waterfalls just stacked right up on
each other, which of course is great for the bus hopping chinese
tourists, but also a feast for the eyes for someone like me.
I don't know if it was b/c I was feeling a bit frustrated by the
weather or bc I had been hanging out with a fair amount of japanese
(the japanese have to be my favorite people and culture have visited
so far and there are a fair amount here. The japanese are
disliked...even hated in china so they don't travel much, but here in
western china where there is more minority tribes and tibetans they
feel more comfortable to travel) and remembering how cool they are,
but I was a bit annoyed by the Chinese today. I kept having lots of
them try and take photos of me. They were doing it without asking as
they usually do and they were trying to do it secretly, and would act
like they weren't when I would turn. I guess I would rather have them
just ask. And then as we are in a highly tibetan area (most of the
chinese tourists are the ethnic majority Han) the chinese tourists
will pay to dress up in their outfits to get their picture taken. But
they seem to do it in a very disrespectful manner, like the Tibetans
are some disney character or less people. And of course this gets my
ire as it is these same Han chinese who are moving in at great numbers
to out-populate the tibetans in tibet and thus take over tibet in that
manner.
One of the japanese gals I was hanging out with had michael bolton's
Said I loved you but I lied song stuck in her head and was singing it
a lot of this evening in the dorm, so I thought this would be a good
time to repost our infamous utah trip said I loved you but I lied
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsL-J524hL0
Tomorrow I am going to Hualong national park with 3 malaysians and we
are sharing a taxi which is actually cheaper than taking the bus and
much quicker.
and Richard. Sichuan is famous for it's hot pots (boiling, spicy oil
in which you cook meat and vegetables like a fondue) and it's SPICE.
And it didn't let us down. So tasty, and so spicy. We were sweating
like we had been playing a hard game of b-ball. We wondered why we
had been given napkins for the first time since we were in china...to
wipe the sweat off. Richard asked me if I had seen all the graffiti
on the toilet about how people were feeling the day (and two and
three) after the hot pot. Made me wonder if I should be hopping on a
12 hour bus ride the next day!
9/20 Took the bus from Chengdu to Juizhaigou in the very northern
part of Sichuan right up against the tibetan plateau. The drive of
course was beautiful. Over mountain passes, through deep canyons,
along raging rivers, some massive reservoirs, and tiny villages full
of life. Basically drove the whole south north of Sichuan in one day.
Of course just like in the rest of Asia, chinese driving is crazy.
And sure enough, about 50km's from our destination, we were in an
accident. A minivan was trying to overtake our bus around a blind
curve when a big dump trunk was coming the other way. The bus driver
tried honking reapeatedly, but apparently the minivan thought it could
still overtake us. It tried to squeeze between the two big vehicles,
but got smashed between the two. Both large vehicles just had
scratches, but the minivan was squished. The driver was ok though.
An interesting note. As soon as the accident happened, everyone piled
out of the bus. I was in the back, so I came out at the end. The
first thought of all the chinese on the tour bus was to take photos of
the accident as if it was a tourist site as opposed to check if the
guy was hurt. Luckily he wasn't, and by the time I got out he was
crawling out through the smashed windshield. Strange though...my
first thought would have been to run and see if he was ok as opposed
to take my photo in front of the accident while giving the peace sign.
9/21 Visited Jiuzhaigou national park, a world biosphere reserve and
one of the premier national parks in Asia. It's a large park
incorporating several mountains just under 15,000 feet, many valleys
and canyons and even some rare wildlife such as the giant panda and
red panda. The crown jewel of the park, and pretty much the only
part open to visitors is two glacial canyons that have a multitude of
shimmering and multi-hued lakes separated by sweeping waterfalls.
Typical of chinese national parks I have been to so far, it's not some
alone in the wilds of nature experience, but one that is full of
chinese tourists and very easily accessible. Visiting national parks
in Asia always makes me proud of our own national parks back in the
States. With as much problems as I realize they have (from working in
one and with people that dealt with more of the beauracracy), our
parks are really great. Our parks our there for protection,
education, and for the average American to enjoy and get in touch with
nature. Sometimes I feel like the parks here are set up to appease
those around the globe putting pressure on a country to protect
something and then using it as a money making enterprise for the
government. For example with this park, it costs an unbelievable 35
bucks to enter (valid for only 1 day 7am-6pm) plus a mandatory 15
dollar shuttle bus fee. This may not seem like a lot but consider the
price of entering say RMNP or Zion. I can't quite remember the
current prices, but it's something like 25 bucks for the day, 50 bucks
for the annual pass and 90 bucks for an annual pass good for all
national parks in the country (and these prices are per vehicle so
split between everyone in the car). And keep in mind the difference
in cost for things between American and China (average salary in china
is still 400 bucks a month...a good meal costs 1.50, a beer less than
50 cents, and a good hotel 5-15 bucks). And both RMNP and Zion
include the visitor shuttle for free. And then on top of all this, I
feel as though our parks are WAY better at actually protecting than
these. Like I said, these always feel sort of like amusement parks
shuttling in the chinese tourists. And in our parks we have so many
ammenities and services (drinking water, nice toilets, miles and miles
and miles of trails, informative signs, free ranger talks, helpful
visitor centers, rescue services, fire protection, research, law
enforcement, etc. Here the majority of employees of the parks are
selling souvenirs, food, or even working at the fancy hotels in some
of the parks (thank goodness not this one as it a world biosphere
reserve so it has stricter international rules). Perhaps one of the
best things about our parks back home is the freedom we have to really
explore. In parks in Asia you usually have to stict to a few very
strict paths (if they even let you alone without a guide) whereas back
home you are free to explore to your hearts content and there are
always dozens and dozens of options of well marked trails or excellent
maps. So just wanted to put in a blurb about how great I have noticed
our national parks are in comparison to the majority of Asian parks.
With that said...this park was absolutely gorgeous...and I was here on
a cloudy morning and rainy afternoon. I can really only imagine (or
see the pictures of the israelis who were in the park the day before
when the sun was out) how gorgeous it must be with a big bright sun.
It is really hard to describe how cool the colors of the lakes are. I
suppose it would be best to just google image the national park.
I started out the day by taking the shuttle to the end of the first
canyon at an elevation of about 10,000 feet. You could walk on a
boardwalk trail through "virgin" forest. Apparently one of the few
big tracts of forests that was left untouched by the massive logging
exploitation of the 70's and 80's in China. The University of
Washington and UC-Berkley both have research teams up here studying
the unique geology as well as the ecology (and pandas) and they had an
informative sign in the forest that showed their research on this
dense forest and how their data shows how much more oxygen this area
of sichuan has, how much cooler in temperature it is, and how much
more stable it is in moisture...go figure. All things China is
suffering with: pollution, heat waves, and unusual moisture cycles
(drought, desertification, and flooding). Hmmm...tack on another one
for the enviro wackos as my dad calls them.
After taking a stroll through the forest I walked the 12 or so km's
down the canyon where you come across one sparkling lake after
another. The lakes and rivers are as clear as they get. As clear as
the alpine lakes in rocky...though they differ in that they have
unique blue, emerald, turqoise, and other blue/green spectra colors.
Similar to the colors you would see on a gorgeous island surrounded by
a reef. In fact, there are often dark spots in the lakes here from
some sort of calcium build up and so from above it almost looks like
what it looks like when you are flying over a shallow turqoise sea
that is full of darker coral areas. Truly sublime. The lakes (I
counted over 37 for the whole day) are separate by these giant
waterfalls...tall but more massive in their widths (they are known as
shoals here). The rivers/streams here are unique as well in that they
just flow right through the forest and bushes. There isn't always a
defined path, but it just flows right down through all the trees.
Another unique thing is that there are lots of fallen trees at the
bottom of these gorgeous blue lakes. The trees, which now have algae
growths on them, glow a light green and make for an interesting
spectacle.
The canyon eventually interesected another canyon and I took the bus
up to the top of this one where there were a couple lakes. One called
5-coloured lake, was especially gorgeous. The blues and green in that
one were just simply stunning. I took the bus back down to the
intersection and then walked several more km's back to the entrance
walking by many more lakes and shoal waterfalls. Something so amazing
about this park is not just the beauty, but how packed the sights are
together. In RMNP some of the more "packed" with scenic lake areas
like the stuff out of glacier gorge trailhead or bear lake have
several lakes in a row, but they are usually at the very least 1 mile
apart. These ones had lakes and waterfalls just stacked right up on
each other, which of course is great for the bus hopping chinese
tourists, but also a feast for the eyes for someone like me.
I don't know if it was b/c I was feeling a bit frustrated by the
weather or bc I had been hanging out with a fair amount of japanese
(the japanese have to be my favorite people and culture have visited
so far and there are a fair amount here. The japanese are
disliked...even hated in china so they don't travel much, but here in
western china where there is more minority tribes and tibetans they
feel more comfortable to travel) and remembering how cool they are,
but I was a bit annoyed by the Chinese today. I kept having lots of
them try and take photos of me. They were doing it without asking as
they usually do and they were trying to do it secretly, and would act
like they weren't when I would turn. I guess I would rather have them
just ask. And then as we are in a highly tibetan area (most of the
chinese tourists are the ethnic majority Han) the chinese tourists
will pay to dress up in their outfits to get their picture taken. But
they seem to do it in a very disrespectful manner, like the Tibetans
are some disney character or less people. And of course this gets my
ire as it is these same Han chinese who are moving in at great numbers
to out-populate the tibetans in tibet and thus take over tibet in that
manner.
One of the japanese gals I was hanging out with had michael bolton's
Said I loved you but I lied song stuck in her head and was singing it
a lot of this evening in the dorm, so I thought this would be a good
time to repost our infamous utah trip said I loved you but I lied
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsL-J524hL0
Tomorrow I am going to Hualong national park with 3 malaysians and we
are sharing a taxi which is actually cheaper than taking the bus and
much quicker.
Great Firewall of China Part 12: Tiger Leaping Gorge
9/15 Took a minibus to Qiaotou where the Tiger Leaping Gorge Trek
starts and in the Shangri-La area (this area is originally named
shangri-la after the mythical place in some englishmen's book;
however, china now has many places called shangri-la as they bring in
the tourists bills). Clare and Kim had done this trek a couple of
winters ago and recommended it to me. It did not disappoint. There
were quite a few westerners in the minibus (about 16) so we had to
take two.: me, richard and sally, and the rest were Israelis. The
Israelis were all over Lijiang. Apparently this is a big time for
Jewish holidays, so many of the students and young people take off,
and that is why there are so many. Sally and Richard orginally got
into my bus, but sally was arguing and complaining and yelling at
Richard for something to switch into another bus, so they did. I
wasn't too sad about this b/c I didn't want to be around whiney and
complaining and moaning sally for the trek. This meant that I trekked
with a group of 4 Israelis (2 couples all from Tel Aviv, but had met
randomly at Emei Shan mountain). So the group I trekked with were
Itamar, Ayelet, Ehud, and Miriam. Though at different lunch and
dinner spots it was a big Israeli affair with about 14 of us. I
always love travelling with the Israelis bc they are always less shy
and more outgoing and are a lot of fun. And possibly the closest to
Americans (other than canadians) that you find, so it always seems
quite familiar. And now that I know a bit more about Israel and it's
foods and nuances and such it's even more fun bc I can join in on the
jokes.
Tiger Leaping gorge is carved out by the Yangtze river. It claims to
be the deepest gorge in the world; however, I read a book on the great
canyons in which it is the 3rd deepest behind one in tibet and one in
nepal. And for these the deepest part refers not to what the river
has carved (then the grand canyon would be) but to the distance
between the highest point and the deepest part of the gorge. Tiger
Leaping gorge is flanked on both side by 18,000 foot mountains, and
the bottom of the gorge is at 7000 feet, so it is quite the drop.
During the trek; however, you are obviously not on top of the
mountains, but about 2 to 3,000 feet above the river at your highest
point. The first day we hiked about 8 hours, gaining lots of
elevation (from river level to 3000 feet above) to arrive at a Tibetan
tea house in the village of Bendiwan (I am now getting close to tibet
so there is a lot of tibetan influence and tibetan people here). It
had rained all night in Lijiang and the whole 3 hour bus ride there,
so it was looking bleak; however, the rain held off for all of the 8
hours except for a bit of a rain for 1 hour that wasn't too heavy.
Unfortunately bc it was cloudy I couldn't see the top of the "snow"
mountains as they are called here, which was disappointing to me bc
they would be the 2nd highest mountains I had ever seen in my life
behind kilimanjaro. However, the rain wasn't without it's benefits.
Looking across the gorge to the mountain through the clouds and mist
you could see lots and lots of waterfalls just falling from the rocks
and some seemingly falling from the clouds onto clouds. It was
gorgeous and truly breathtaking. You've seen those drawings where
large waterfalls tumble from nearly the tops of mountains and you
think it is impossible bc the water table or enough snow can't be up
there, but here it was (or so it seemed, actually since several
thousand feet of the mountain were hidden, it looked like the falls
were falling from the top, but instead from about a quarter of the way
down; however, it still had the sweet effect! The river itself was
raging far below, and instead of the clear that is often is, it was a
roliing muddy brown river, making lots of noise. The canyon itself
was quite picturesque. The walls were incredibly steep, and the
mountain continued straight up. And of course all the waterfalls you
could see across the canyon and the watefalls coming in on the side we
were hiking. The mountains in china seem to have an overall much
greater steepness than the rockies back home. They are steep like the
continental divide and longs peak are when you get to 11,000 feet, but
here they are that crazy steepness, if we are to keep using longs as
an example, as if longs was as steep as it is from 11,000 to 14,000
feet now, it would be that steep from 7500 feet to 14,000ft. or from
estes to the peak instead of the gradual build it has now. So these
incredibly steep mountains really add to the beauty. Of course along
the trek there were cool tiny villages using only mules for transport
and looking down on the gorge. That night our guesthouse had the
sweetest view of the big mountain and perhaps one of the top 10 toilet
views I have ever had. You were looking out over the big mountains
and feeling like you were peeing down into the river from 2000 feet
up. That night we had a fun meal with all the Israelis and there was
a bit of moaning and desiring for some good humus, pita, and schwarma!
I, however, have no complaints about the chinese food. It is so
tasty! Don't know how I'll ever eat chinese back home again!
9/16 Relaxed a bit in the morning and waited for all the mist to rise
before setting out for the last several hours to the "end" of the
tiger leaping gorge trek. At this village, everyone was taking a
minibus back to Qiaotao and then on to Lijiang. As I would much
rather be out in the wild than back in the city, I had planned an
extra day in the gorge. The trek to the endpoint, was very nice and
scenic as well with several more waterfalls falling down to the trail.
So after a lunch with the Israelis, I said goodbye, and then did a
hike that went the remaining 1000+ feet to the bottom of the gorge to
the river itself. Of course more sweet views and waterfalls and some
quite fun, long and blood pumping ladders you needed to descend to
get to the bottom. At the bottom was a huge rock in the middle of the
river that is called tiger leaping stone where the tiger apparently
had escaped some hounds to make it to safety across the river. The
tiger is one incredible leaper if it was able to do it with this much
water coming through. Needless to say the rapids down there at the
bottom were exhilerating. You could go right up on some huge boulders
next to them and really feel there power. It was quite a rush to just
stand there and here the water and see it churn. Actually gave me
quite a chill it was so powerful, and even made me nervous (all though
it was totally safe) to be so close, though I have a bit of a fear of
big rapids in water. I then continued on a path, now in the a
drizzle, that went along the water and a cliff edge for a while to
reach the village of walnut garden where I found a guesthouse. I of
course was the only westerner in the village as everyone else had
headed back to Lijiang. After checking in I walked several more km's
to the true end of the gorge. The weather was clearing a bit and I
could see quite a ways higher up the big mountains now. And I even
saw the moon! I had missed the moon and stars.
9/17 Instead of taking the minvan back to Qioutou, I decided to walk
the 27kms back via the lower road, which is a tiny road (often closed
due to landslides and mudslides (which I did see recent remnants of
everywhere) that the minivans use to bring the tourists back. First I
took something called the ancient path to go from walnut garden back
to the place where I had said goodbye to the Israelis. This was a
sweet hike that went up really high in the gorge on a trail that was
difficult to follow. At times I lost it, which made me a bit nervous,
not because I was lost, but bc I was on a bit of a time constraint as
I had to get to Q-tou by 4:30 at the latest to catch a bus so that I
could get my already booked night bus to kunming to catch my already
booked train to chengdu. But I managed to make my way following and
not following the trail, going by some more sweet waterfalls, past
orchards of tasty apples, and into bamboo forests. At one point I was
descending into a steep side canyon where I could hear the water
rushing below. I saw a washed out bridge and thought I was in trouble
and would have to turn back, but it had apparently been washed out
last year and there was a new one. From there it wasn't far back to
where I had said goodbye to the isrealis the previous day. Had a
breakfast there, then continued on along the low road. The low road
was also nice, with closer views of the river and with waterfalls
crashing down from above. At the entrance of the gorge is a monstrous
rapid. I took the trail to make it the 700 or so feet down to the
bottom to the viewing platform. The stairs were a bit sketchy as all
the wood had been taken out, so you had to monkeybar your way down.
But eventually the stairs disappeared as they had been taken out by a
landslide. I went back up but noticed a bit further down some
construction workers. They were working on the new trail, and though
it was officially closed, they didn't say anything to the foreigner
going down. So again, I got to make it down to the viewing platform
that sat right up against the huge rapids. These rapids made the last
ones seem like a ripple!! They were so intense!! And the platform
was right on them, so the spray was in your face, the noise deafening.
I couldn't imagine even trying to raft these. It really got my heart
racing. But at the same time they were so cool, to see that kind of
power, feel that force. Like water force I had never seen. So I sad
down and had my lunch of Yak jerkey. Even with that detour I made it
back to Qi-tou by 3:30. Had a quick shower and dinner in Lijiang and
then caught the sleeper bus (bed was about 5 ft. 5, so not too bad in
the end) to Kunming.
9-18 We (richard, sally, and I) arrived in Kunming around 6am and
caught the train (hard sleeper) to Chengdu around 11am. China is, I
think, one of the most beautiful countries I have travelled in (right
up there with Canada and the US), so train and bus rides are never
boring. I love mountains and rivers and canyons and these are not in
short supply in China. It's also nice to pass by the rural village
life of china and see how life carries on there. Most of the
attractions in China are away from the village and rural areas and
have been built up, so you don't get to see it much unless you are on
the train or bus. Today was the first day I had seen unadultered sun
since Mongolia. Although it was till half cloudy, it still felt
great. It was sunny in Bejing, but the sun was hidden behind smog and
since then it has been cloudy everyday. In fact it has rained
everyday since I left Beijing. I am hoping for more sun in Tibet as
it's a high altitude desert where I will be visiting, but the climate
seems to be crazy across asia right now with massive flooding all
around and droughts in other areas.
9-19 Arrived into Chengdu in the province of Sichuan around 7am.
Checked into my hostel and did some errands around smoggy Chengdu (15
million people live here). My trusty japanese umbrella broke, so I
need to get a new, probably poor quality chinese one (the japanese one
which I bought in 2008 survived a whole year in SE asia). I consider
the umbrella to be one of the most underrated travel accessories.
Most of the westerners tromp around in their fancy goretex, but get
just as wet as if they didn't have anything bc they sweat so much in
them. The umbrella keeps you and your bag dry, and allows for
airflow. Keep it in mind if you ever go to a wet and tropical clime.
Also going to the guesthouse today to make sure my tibet trip is all
properly planned out. Tonight I will likely have some of the infamous
spicy (very spicy) hotpots of Sichuan.
Tomorrow I will leave for jiuzhaigou national park and then on to
Huanglong np for a 4 day trip to northern Sichuan before coming back
starts and in the Shangri-La area (this area is originally named
shangri-la after the mythical place in some englishmen's book;
however, china now has many places called shangri-la as they bring in
the tourists bills). Clare and Kim had done this trek a couple of
winters ago and recommended it to me. It did not disappoint. There
were quite a few westerners in the minibus (about 16) so we had to
take two.: me, richard and sally, and the rest were Israelis. The
Israelis were all over Lijiang. Apparently this is a big time for
Jewish holidays, so many of the students and young people take off,
and that is why there are so many. Sally and Richard orginally got
into my bus, but sally was arguing and complaining and yelling at
Richard for something to switch into another bus, so they did. I
wasn't too sad about this b/c I didn't want to be around whiney and
complaining and moaning sally for the trek. This meant that I trekked
with a group of 4 Israelis (2 couples all from Tel Aviv, but had met
randomly at Emei Shan mountain). So the group I trekked with were
Itamar, Ayelet, Ehud, and Miriam. Though at different lunch and
dinner spots it was a big Israeli affair with about 14 of us. I
always love travelling with the Israelis bc they are always less shy
and more outgoing and are a lot of fun. And possibly the closest to
Americans (other than canadians) that you find, so it always seems
quite familiar. And now that I know a bit more about Israel and it's
foods and nuances and such it's even more fun bc I can join in on the
jokes.
Tiger Leaping gorge is carved out by the Yangtze river. It claims to
be the deepest gorge in the world; however, I read a book on the great
canyons in which it is the 3rd deepest behind one in tibet and one in
nepal. And for these the deepest part refers not to what the river
has carved (then the grand canyon would be) but to the distance
between the highest point and the deepest part of the gorge. Tiger
Leaping gorge is flanked on both side by 18,000 foot mountains, and
the bottom of the gorge is at 7000 feet, so it is quite the drop.
During the trek; however, you are obviously not on top of the
mountains, but about 2 to 3,000 feet above the river at your highest
point. The first day we hiked about 8 hours, gaining lots of
elevation (from river level to 3000 feet above) to arrive at a Tibetan
tea house in the village of Bendiwan (I am now getting close to tibet
so there is a lot of tibetan influence and tibetan people here). It
had rained all night in Lijiang and the whole 3 hour bus ride there,
so it was looking bleak; however, the rain held off for all of the 8
hours except for a bit of a rain for 1 hour that wasn't too heavy.
Unfortunately bc it was cloudy I couldn't see the top of the "snow"
mountains as they are called here, which was disappointing to me bc
they would be the 2nd highest mountains I had ever seen in my life
behind kilimanjaro. However, the rain wasn't without it's benefits.
Looking across the gorge to the mountain through the clouds and mist
you could see lots and lots of waterfalls just falling from the rocks
and some seemingly falling from the clouds onto clouds. It was
gorgeous and truly breathtaking. You've seen those drawings where
large waterfalls tumble from nearly the tops of mountains and you
think it is impossible bc the water table or enough snow can't be up
there, but here it was (or so it seemed, actually since several
thousand feet of the mountain were hidden, it looked like the falls
were falling from the top, but instead from about a quarter of the way
down; however, it still had the sweet effect! The river itself was
raging far below, and instead of the clear that is often is, it was a
roliing muddy brown river, making lots of noise. The canyon itself
was quite picturesque. The walls were incredibly steep, and the
mountain continued straight up. And of course all the waterfalls you
could see across the canyon and the watefalls coming in on the side we
were hiking. The mountains in china seem to have an overall much
greater steepness than the rockies back home. They are steep like the
continental divide and longs peak are when you get to 11,000 feet, but
here they are that crazy steepness, if we are to keep using longs as
an example, as if longs was as steep as it is from 11,000 to 14,000
feet now, it would be that steep from 7500 feet to 14,000ft. or from
estes to the peak instead of the gradual build it has now. So these
incredibly steep mountains really add to the beauty. Of course along
the trek there were cool tiny villages using only mules for transport
and looking down on the gorge. That night our guesthouse had the
sweetest view of the big mountain and perhaps one of the top 10 toilet
views I have ever had. You were looking out over the big mountains
and feeling like you were peeing down into the river from 2000 feet
up. That night we had a fun meal with all the Israelis and there was
a bit of moaning and desiring for some good humus, pita, and schwarma!
I, however, have no complaints about the chinese food. It is so
tasty! Don't know how I'll ever eat chinese back home again!
9/16 Relaxed a bit in the morning and waited for all the mist to rise
before setting out for the last several hours to the "end" of the
tiger leaping gorge trek. At this village, everyone was taking a
minibus back to Qiaotao and then on to Lijiang. As I would much
rather be out in the wild than back in the city, I had planned an
extra day in the gorge. The trek to the endpoint, was very nice and
scenic as well with several more waterfalls falling down to the trail.
So after a lunch with the Israelis, I said goodbye, and then did a
hike that went the remaining 1000+ feet to the bottom of the gorge to
the river itself. Of course more sweet views and waterfalls and some
quite fun, long and blood pumping ladders you needed to descend to
get to the bottom. At the bottom was a huge rock in the middle of the
river that is called tiger leaping stone where the tiger apparently
had escaped some hounds to make it to safety across the river. The
tiger is one incredible leaper if it was able to do it with this much
water coming through. Needless to say the rapids down there at the
bottom were exhilerating. You could go right up on some huge boulders
next to them and really feel there power. It was quite a rush to just
stand there and here the water and see it churn. Actually gave me
quite a chill it was so powerful, and even made me nervous (all though
it was totally safe) to be so close, though I have a bit of a fear of
big rapids in water. I then continued on a path, now in the a
drizzle, that went along the water and a cliff edge for a while to
reach the village of walnut garden where I found a guesthouse. I of
course was the only westerner in the village as everyone else had
headed back to Lijiang. After checking in I walked several more km's
to the true end of the gorge. The weather was clearing a bit and I
could see quite a ways higher up the big mountains now. And I even
saw the moon! I had missed the moon and stars.
9/17 Instead of taking the minvan back to Qioutou, I decided to walk
the 27kms back via the lower road, which is a tiny road (often closed
due to landslides and mudslides (which I did see recent remnants of
everywhere) that the minivans use to bring the tourists back. First I
took something called the ancient path to go from walnut garden back
to the place where I had said goodbye to the Israelis. This was a
sweet hike that went up really high in the gorge on a trail that was
difficult to follow. At times I lost it, which made me a bit nervous,
not because I was lost, but bc I was on a bit of a time constraint as
I had to get to Q-tou by 4:30 at the latest to catch a bus so that I
could get my already booked night bus to kunming to catch my already
booked train to chengdu. But I managed to make my way following and
not following the trail, going by some more sweet waterfalls, past
orchards of tasty apples, and into bamboo forests. At one point I was
descending into a steep side canyon where I could hear the water
rushing below. I saw a washed out bridge and thought I was in trouble
and would have to turn back, but it had apparently been washed out
last year and there was a new one. From there it wasn't far back to
where I had said goodbye to the isrealis the previous day. Had a
breakfast there, then continued on along the low road. The low road
was also nice, with closer views of the river and with waterfalls
crashing down from above. At the entrance of the gorge is a monstrous
rapid. I took the trail to make it the 700 or so feet down to the
bottom to the viewing platform. The stairs were a bit sketchy as all
the wood had been taken out, so you had to monkeybar your way down.
But eventually the stairs disappeared as they had been taken out by a
landslide. I went back up but noticed a bit further down some
construction workers. They were working on the new trail, and though
it was officially closed, they didn't say anything to the foreigner
going down. So again, I got to make it down to the viewing platform
that sat right up against the huge rapids. These rapids made the last
ones seem like a ripple!! They were so intense!! And the platform
was right on them, so the spray was in your face, the noise deafening.
I couldn't imagine even trying to raft these. It really got my heart
racing. But at the same time they were so cool, to see that kind of
power, feel that force. Like water force I had never seen. So I sad
down and had my lunch of Yak jerkey. Even with that detour I made it
back to Qi-tou by 3:30. Had a quick shower and dinner in Lijiang and
then caught the sleeper bus (bed was about 5 ft. 5, so not too bad in
the end) to Kunming.
9-18 We (richard, sally, and I) arrived in Kunming around 6am and
caught the train (hard sleeper) to Chengdu around 11am. China is, I
think, one of the most beautiful countries I have travelled in (right
up there with Canada and the US), so train and bus rides are never
boring. I love mountains and rivers and canyons and these are not in
short supply in China. It's also nice to pass by the rural village
life of china and see how life carries on there. Most of the
attractions in China are away from the village and rural areas and
have been built up, so you don't get to see it much unless you are on
the train or bus. Today was the first day I had seen unadultered sun
since Mongolia. Although it was till half cloudy, it still felt
great. It was sunny in Bejing, but the sun was hidden behind smog and
since then it has been cloudy everyday. In fact it has rained
everyday since I left Beijing. I am hoping for more sun in Tibet as
it's a high altitude desert where I will be visiting, but the climate
seems to be crazy across asia right now with massive flooding all
around and droughts in other areas.
9-19 Arrived into Chengdu in the province of Sichuan around 7am.
Checked into my hostel and did some errands around smoggy Chengdu (15
million people live here). My trusty japanese umbrella broke, so I
need to get a new, probably poor quality chinese one (the japanese one
which I bought in 2008 survived a whole year in SE asia). I consider
the umbrella to be one of the most underrated travel accessories.
Most of the westerners tromp around in their fancy goretex, but get
just as wet as if they didn't have anything bc they sweat so much in
them. The umbrella keeps you and your bag dry, and allows for
airflow. Keep it in mind if you ever go to a wet and tropical clime.
Also going to the guesthouse today to make sure my tibet trip is all
properly planned out. Tonight I will likely have some of the infamous
spicy (very spicy) hotpots of Sichuan.
Tomorrow I will leave for jiuzhaigou national park and then on to
Huanglong np for a 4 day trip to northern Sichuan before coming back
Great Firewall of China Part 11: Old world China
9/14 I got up early and spent the morning exploring Lijiang. Getting
lost in the narrow and winding cobblestone streets. It's a real cool
town with canals gushing everywhere and red lanterns hanging from all
the old buildings. It's truly a town steeped in old world charm.
There are also lots of good food things to try, my favorite being yak
and these walnut sweets. But yea, just basically wondered around the
town all morning, looking in at some of the shops, checking out the
waterwheels, squares, and other interesting things. It's just a vey
quaint and cute and old world city, so it is quite neat to explore.
Until about 10, I had the town to myself before the chinese tourists
woke up and had breakfast and came out. But then it is still quite
interesting as all of hustle and bustle with them around. Hiked to
the top of a hill with a big temple on it to look down on the town and
to see if I could get a glimpse of the big jade snow mountain, but it
was covered behind the clouds.
In the afternoon, we went to pick up our visa extensions and when we
got back it was raining pretty hard, so we just hung out at the cool
hostel and got some food. I ran into a guy named Erik from sweden who
is one of the 3 other people on my tibet tour. Small travel world
here in China.
Tomorrow I leave for the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek. It can take as
little as 2 days as it is not that long, but I think I will do it in 3
days as I have an extra day and I can do some side hikes, and it also
gives me more of a chance to get some good weather to see down into
the world's largest gorge and out across to the tall snow mountains.
I have included some pictures from Huangshan (reaching the summit and
also some west canyon hiking) and also some from biking and hiking
around guilin as well as the two chinese in wuhan who helped me get to
guillin.
lost in the narrow and winding cobblestone streets. It's a real cool
town with canals gushing everywhere and red lanterns hanging from all
the old buildings. It's truly a town steeped in old world charm.
There are also lots of good food things to try, my favorite being yak
and these walnut sweets. But yea, just basically wondered around the
town all morning, looking in at some of the shops, checking out the
waterwheels, squares, and other interesting things. It's just a vey
quaint and cute and old world city, so it is quite neat to explore.
Until about 10, I had the town to myself before the chinese tourists
woke up and had breakfast and came out. But then it is still quite
interesting as all of hustle and bustle with them around. Hiked to
the top of a hill with a big temple on it to look down on the town and
to see if I could get a glimpse of the big jade snow mountain, but it
was covered behind the clouds.
In the afternoon, we went to pick up our visa extensions and when we
got back it was raining pretty hard, so we just hung out at the cool
hostel and got some food. I ran into a guy named Erik from sweden who
is one of the 3 other people on my tibet tour. Small travel world
here in China.
Tomorrow I leave for the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek. It can take as
little as 2 days as it is not that long, but I think I will do it in 3
days as I have an extra day and I can do some side hikes, and it also
gives me more of a chance to get some good weather to see down into
the world's largest gorge and out across to the tall snow mountains.
I have included some pictures from Huangshan (reaching the summit and
also some west canyon hiking) and also some from biking and hiking
around guilin as well as the two chinese in wuhan who helped me get to
guillin.
Great Firewall of China part 10: travel in China...and it was not so great to be an american today
9/11 Had the hard sleeper train (finally!) to Kunming. The hard
sleeper is equivalent the to russian 3rd class, except a bit more
squished. There are 6 bunks in a cabin, so 3 on each side. I had the
middle one. To be on the top one you definitely needed to be strong
and flexible, so I could see it could be a problem if you were one of
the older and larger germans also in my carriage who were on a big
german tour group. I ran into in my carriage Richard and Sally, who I
first met in Huang Shan and then later met in Yangshuo. We discovered
that we are doing basically the same tour. They started in St.
Petersburg about a week earlier than I did and did the transiberian to
mongolia. They have been to the same spots in China and are going to
Tibet, then Nepal, and then India and flying from Bombay, the same as
me, during about the same week. They are alright to travel with and
it is nice to have company right now. I actually really like richard,
but sally is quite the complainer and whiner and always getting made
at poor richard. Don't know how he puts up with it! But actually
most the time she is quite pleasant, but she does whine and raise her
voice at richard too much.
9/12 When the train arrived in Kunming, we of course quickly went to
buy our next train tickets to Chengdu since the tickets sell out so
quick as I have mentioned. Kunming was quite the change in weather.
Still cloudy and damp, but very cool as the elevation is above 6,000
ft. After that we went to the bus station to get a bus to Lijiang.
We found out that the gov't bus station no longer runs busses to
Lijiang, so we had to go with a tout on the street dealing with a
private company. We booked for the 12pm bus at about 11:30. We
waited for sometime and no bus. Finally some guy (we still had no
tickets which made us nervous) came and put us in a minivan and we
drove onto the interstate. We figured we must be chasing the bus
down. At one point, we stopped in the middle of the highway and the
guy motioned for us to take all our stuff out and put it in this car
that pulled up and then we piled into that. We were quite confused at
this point, until we drove through a toll station, realizing that the
car was cheaper than the minivan. We finally overtook a bus and
pulled over on the side of the road and then exchanged into the bus.
A quite nice and comfy bus, I might add. After a couple hours we left
the hwy and were two more hours on a winding mountain road when we
came to a dead stop behind an incredibly long line of trucks, busses,
and cars. We waited and waited and waited, but no moving. We were
wondering what was going on, and also quite hungry as we hadn't eaten
all day and it was now almost 7pm. The one neat thing is that we were
stopped up near some rural mountain village, so we got to watch the
villagers go about their daily farming routine in the fields and the
women here wore the most beautiful and bright outfits I have ever
seen. Finally after about 3 hours we started to move again. Turns
out there had been a landslide and it had taken a bit for them to
clear out the mud. So needless to say we arrived into the old town of
Lijiang with its narrow windy streets, quite late. It took us a bit,
but we finally found our hostel. The nice thing about travelling with
Richard and Sally was that we could laugh about the delay and all the
confusion and all that, as opposed to if you are by yourself you tend
to be more worried. Plus when we arrived in Lijiang, we could take a
taxi and share the fare instead of walking the couple km's to the city
center in the drizzle.
9/13 We slept in a bit and then headed out first thing to do our
important errand of the day...extend our visas. We walked to where
the PSB (public security bureau) was according to our book. When we
got there all that was there was a pile of rubble. We were, after
some time, able to find someone that spoke english and told us how to
get to the new PSB by bus. As it was lunch time, we knew it would be
closed, so we grabbed some lunch in the old town and then took the bus
there. It was supposed to open at 2pm, but when we got there we found
out it was supposed to not open until 3pm. Another annoyance. I was
beginning to feel like the day was wasted (I only had budgeted 2 days
in Lijiang). They let us into the waiting room and luckily we saw
that there were some english newspapers from the beijing post.
However, I knew something was peculiar when I read in the sports that
the Denver Broncos, after beating the chargers were now 6 and 0.
Hmm...looked at the paper and saw that it was from Oct of last year.
The big news at this time was that Prez Obama (Obamao as the t-shirts
all over china say) was in town. There was great hope for him and all
the youth of china were very excited. It would be the first president
to come to china (nixon was the first prez to come) that was not here
to shake his finger at china for something (human rights, ecomonics,
nuclear stuff, etc) but was actually here to try and form a better
friendship with China. Everyone was excited and it was obviously the
big news. Finally 3pm hit and we started our visa renewal process.
The brits were first and were asked to pay 160rmb (roughly 25usd)
each. I got up expecting to pay a bit more. Americans are always
charged the most for visas. Every single country I have been to in
all my travels, with the exception of mongolia, americans pay about 20
to 25% more. When it was time to pay he has for 960rmb (150USD)!!!
My jaw dropped. I felt stung! I thought I had heard him wrong.
According to my lonely planet published 2 years ago, I was supposed to
be paying 185rmb. How could it have gone up so much?? I still
couldn't believe that I was hearing him correctly. But I was. I had
no choice though as I had made a deposit to go to tibet and I wanted
to go anyways, so I was stuck paying the 150 for an extension of 30
days, of which I would only actually be using 15. I just couldn't
believe it. A couple israelis in line, couldn't believe it either.
They asked as we were leaving how we had gotten to the PSB as the taxi
was expensive. Richard said we took the bus and it was only 1 RMB. I
told him, unless you are American, then it is 10! I still was feeling
quite upset/mad/shocked by this for a while. Just wasn't expecting
it. And 150 bucks is a lot when you were expecting to pay 30 and you
are living on less than 20 dollars per day. And I never understand
like why the brits or the aussies or the canadians are so different
than us. We are all just people. And what about all the happy stuff
about Obama coming? Hadn't moving on from Bush made countries more
friendly towards americans. I guess they still want our money though!
In the evening we went to the train station to try and get tickets to
kuming for friday, but they were sold out, so we would have to take
the bus again. The train is cheaper and sally got sick on the bus,
which is why we were trying to take the train. That night we went out
to get some food and then explored a bit of lijiangs streets. It's
really a cool, cool old town, and I can't wait to explore it tomorrow.
At night it's full of brightly lit red lanterns and you can hear the
rushing water from all of the canals and waterways. The streets are
super narrow and confusing, and you are walking around lost most of
the time. And it's very old, so it has a cool feel to it.
Some random notes on travel in china:
Lukas, and avid traveller, had told me that China is one of the most
difficult places to travel bc you lack freedom to just move about as
you like. I would agree. You are kind of relegated to going to
certain places bc they are easier to go to than others bc of the
train. For example, going to and from Huang Shan, was extremely
difficult and uncomfortable bc of buying the train tickets. Since you
can only buy train tickets in the town of departure it makes securing
them hard if you are only in a town for a few days. In SE asia, you
could just decide on a whim to go somewhere that day and always find a
bus to go there. China is not like that. First of all bc it's
massive, so travel takes a long time, and 2nd of all bc you really
have to book in advance. Which means you have to be extremely
organized with planning out how long you will stay at a place before
moving on. Not wanting to plan to stay too long at a place and thus
miss out on other places, but no wanting to be there too short and
missing out on things there. So you really, really have to be
organized and know exactly when trains leave and how long they take
and what you will do at certain places, so that you can book tickets
right when you get there. Of course the language barrier also causes
problems. So china's travel isn't as carefree and go when you want or
stay as long as you want as SE asia. But it is still worth it as it
is gorgeous and so unique here.
Domestic travel amonst chinese is huge here. You hardly see any
western travellers. This is why it is so nice that they have hostels
here. I have loved the chinese hostels as they are cheap, nice, and
great places to meet people. SE asia didn't really have hostels, so
meeting people was often more difficult for me. The chinese travel in
huge tour groups and can overwhelm tourist areas with their sheer
numbers. Another funny thing is that the chinese don't care so much
about the pristine nature of things or silence or any of that. They
run around with tour guides blowing whistles and speaking loudly
through megaphones. And they really make some places so touristified.
For example lots of places on the great wall have gondolas going up
to the wall and then like amusement attractions all around and of
course slides coming off of the wall. On the mountain of huang shan,
they had 3 gondolas going up and then fancy hotels and restaurants on
top. Similar to if they built a gondola up to the top of longs peak
and had hotels and such at the boulder field (I think there was a
hotel at the boulder field at one point back in the early 1900's
wasn't there?, but you still had to walk up). Needless to say, it is
quite funny, and at times sad, how much touristified they make places.
They really build them up bc the chinese tourists don't want to do
too much work and they like luxury. And it seems most often that
their sole purpose for going on these tours is to have their picture
taken at famous sites, b/c they are hardly paying attention to the
tour guides or looking at much, just snapping the obligatory photos at
certain places. But it's usually quite easy to avoid them bc, like I
said, they are lazy so don't go far. Just take a hike or bike and you
are away from the hordes of tourists with their megaphone guides. Or
even in a place like lijiang, just go off into the side alleys away
from the few big spots like the waterwheel and you won't see them. It
is quite funny to watch them all though
Of course while in China, talk is big about it's rise to being a super
power. Most people seem to think that China will very shortly be the
world's major super power, and I can see this. Just looking in the
country china is growing so rapidly...building so much stuff and it
just feels like a country on the rise, like maybe america did way back
when. A lot of people say that china is slowly taking over the world
in a smart way. They are not using guns and war. That is old stuff.
The new stuff is with the economy. China has the fastest growing
economy in the world, and is growing in leaps and bounds even in this
economic crisis. I first wondered about China when I was in SE Asia.
Bc in SE asia, china was sending masses of its people to live there.
The chinese are very community oriented. Instead of adopting new
cultures or assimilating, they stay the same and keep their customs
and languages and close ties to china (thus the china towns in our own
country). In SE asia, the chinese were slowly becoming less of a
minority and were linked to china, not to say thailand or malaysia.
And of course in those countries, the majority of the rich were
chinese. In places like Laos and vietnam, china had purchases lots of
land and was also funding projects for these countries like dams and
highways, to eventually benefit china. Paul, the czech american was
telling me how china is buying up lots of things around the world,
waging war economically, and playing it smart. I did notice that when
greece had it's huge economic problem, China bought up a bunch of it's
islands. An economist was telling me how basically China could end
the US right now (of course the guy was european so had some of that
anti americanism to him, so I don't know how true it all was, but
sounded like he knew what he was talking about) b/c we owe China so
much in our debts, that all they would have to do is call the loans,
and of course we couldn't pay them back. He also said that China also
has a huge withholding of US dollars, that at anytime they wanted,
they could flood the markets with US currency, thus basically making
the dollar worthless. And as Lukas said, now adays, as he has
noticed, it is quite important to learn chinese now for business.
English is obviously still the best language to know, but more and
more chinese is also important. It's all quite interesting really
though, and will be intersting to see how things play out.
Tomorrow I'll explore Lijiang, pick up my visa extension and enjoy
some of the tasty food around. Already had some really good Yak meat,
a specialty here. Some interesting fruits I've had here are a thing
they call apple, but really looks like a small but rounder kiwi and
tastes much sweeter. Also something that appears to look like a big
turnip, but tastes like a combination of apple and potato, though more
appley.
sleeper is equivalent the to russian 3rd class, except a bit more
squished. There are 6 bunks in a cabin, so 3 on each side. I had the
middle one. To be on the top one you definitely needed to be strong
and flexible, so I could see it could be a problem if you were one of
the older and larger germans also in my carriage who were on a big
german tour group. I ran into in my carriage Richard and Sally, who I
first met in Huang Shan and then later met in Yangshuo. We discovered
that we are doing basically the same tour. They started in St.
Petersburg about a week earlier than I did and did the transiberian to
mongolia. They have been to the same spots in China and are going to
Tibet, then Nepal, and then India and flying from Bombay, the same as
me, during about the same week. They are alright to travel with and
it is nice to have company right now. I actually really like richard,
but sally is quite the complainer and whiner and always getting made
at poor richard. Don't know how he puts up with it! But actually
most the time she is quite pleasant, but she does whine and raise her
voice at richard too much.
9/12 When the train arrived in Kunming, we of course quickly went to
buy our next train tickets to Chengdu since the tickets sell out so
quick as I have mentioned. Kunming was quite the change in weather.
Still cloudy and damp, but very cool as the elevation is above 6,000
ft. After that we went to the bus station to get a bus to Lijiang.
We found out that the gov't bus station no longer runs busses to
Lijiang, so we had to go with a tout on the street dealing with a
private company. We booked for the 12pm bus at about 11:30. We
waited for sometime and no bus. Finally some guy (we still had no
tickets which made us nervous) came and put us in a minivan and we
drove onto the interstate. We figured we must be chasing the bus
down. At one point, we stopped in the middle of the highway and the
guy motioned for us to take all our stuff out and put it in this car
that pulled up and then we piled into that. We were quite confused at
this point, until we drove through a toll station, realizing that the
car was cheaper than the minivan. We finally overtook a bus and
pulled over on the side of the road and then exchanged into the bus.
A quite nice and comfy bus, I might add. After a couple hours we left
the hwy and were two more hours on a winding mountain road when we
came to a dead stop behind an incredibly long line of trucks, busses,
and cars. We waited and waited and waited, but no moving. We were
wondering what was going on, and also quite hungry as we hadn't eaten
all day and it was now almost 7pm. The one neat thing is that we were
stopped up near some rural mountain village, so we got to watch the
villagers go about their daily farming routine in the fields and the
women here wore the most beautiful and bright outfits I have ever
seen. Finally after about 3 hours we started to move again. Turns
out there had been a landslide and it had taken a bit for them to
clear out the mud. So needless to say we arrived into the old town of
Lijiang with its narrow windy streets, quite late. It took us a bit,
but we finally found our hostel. The nice thing about travelling with
Richard and Sally was that we could laugh about the delay and all the
confusion and all that, as opposed to if you are by yourself you tend
to be more worried. Plus when we arrived in Lijiang, we could take a
taxi and share the fare instead of walking the couple km's to the city
center in the drizzle.
9/13 We slept in a bit and then headed out first thing to do our
important errand of the day...extend our visas. We walked to where
the PSB (public security bureau) was according to our book. When we
got there all that was there was a pile of rubble. We were, after
some time, able to find someone that spoke english and told us how to
get to the new PSB by bus. As it was lunch time, we knew it would be
closed, so we grabbed some lunch in the old town and then took the bus
there. It was supposed to open at 2pm, but when we got there we found
out it was supposed to not open until 3pm. Another annoyance. I was
beginning to feel like the day was wasted (I only had budgeted 2 days
in Lijiang). They let us into the waiting room and luckily we saw
that there were some english newspapers from the beijing post.
However, I knew something was peculiar when I read in the sports that
the Denver Broncos, after beating the chargers were now 6 and 0.
Hmm...looked at the paper and saw that it was from Oct of last year.
The big news at this time was that Prez Obama (Obamao as the t-shirts
all over china say) was in town. There was great hope for him and all
the youth of china were very excited. It would be the first president
to come to china (nixon was the first prez to come) that was not here
to shake his finger at china for something (human rights, ecomonics,
nuclear stuff, etc) but was actually here to try and form a better
friendship with China. Everyone was excited and it was obviously the
big news. Finally 3pm hit and we started our visa renewal process.
The brits were first and were asked to pay 160rmb (roughly 25usd)
each. I got up expecting to pay a bit more. Americans are always
charged the most for visas. Every single country I have been to in
all my travels, with the exception of mongolia, americans pay about 20
to 25% more. When it was time to pay he has for 960rmb (150USD)!!!
My jaw dropped. I felt stung! I thought I had heard him wrong.
According to my lonely planet published 2 years ago, I was supposed to
be paying 185rmb. How could it have gone up so much?? I still
couldn't believe that I was hearing him correctly. But I was. I had
no choice though as I had made a deposit to go to tibet and I wanted
to go anyways, so I was stuck paying the 150 for an extension of 30
days, of which I would only actually be using 15. I just couldn't
believe it. A couple israelis in line, couldn't believe it either.
They asked as we were leaving how we had gotten to the PSB as the taxi
was expensive. Richard said we took the bus and it was only 1 RMB. I
told him, unless you are American, then it is 10! I still was feeling
quite upset/mad/shocked by this for a while. Just wasn't expecting
it. And 150 bucks is a lot when you were expecting to pay 30 and you
are living on less than 20 dollars per day. And I never understand
like why the brits or the aussies or the canadians are so different
than us. We are all just people. And what about all the happy stuff
about Obama coming? Hadn't moving on from Bush made countries more
friendly towards americans. I guess they still want our money though!
In the evening we went to the train station to try and get tickets to
kuming for friday, but they were sold out, so we would have to take
the bus again. The train is cheaper and sally got sick on the bus,
which is why we were trying to take the train. That night we went out
to get some food and then explored a bit of lijiangs streets. It's
really a cool, cool old town, and I can't wait to explore it tomorrow.
At night it's full of brightly lit red lanterns and you can hear the
rushing water from all of the canals and waterways. The streets are
super narrow and confusing, and you are walking around lost most of
the time. And it's very old, so it has a cool feel to it.
Some random notes on travel in china:
Lukas, and avid traveller, had told me that China is one of the most
difficult places to travel bc you lack freedom to just move about as
you like. I would agree. You are kind of relegated to going to
certain places bc they are easier to go to than others bc of the
train. For example, going to and from Huang Shan, was extremely
difficult and uncomfortable bc of buying the train tickets. Since you
can only buy train tickets in the town of departure it makes securing
them hard if you are only in a town for a few days. In SE asia, you
could just decide on a whim to go somewhere that day and always find a
bus to go there. China is not like that. First of all bc it's
massive, so travel takes a long time, and 2nd of all bc you really
have to book in advance. Which means you have to be extremely
organized with planning out how long you will stay at a place before
moving on. Not wanting to plan to stay too long at a place and thus
miss out on other places, but no wanting to be there too short and
missing out on things there. So you really, really have to be
organized and know exactly when trains leave and how long they take
and what you will do at certain places, so that you can book tickets
right when you get there. Of course the language barrier also causes
problems. So china's travel isn't as carefree and go when you want or
stay as long as you want as SE asia. But it is still worth it as it
is gorgeous and so unique here.
Domestic travel amonst chinese is huge here. You hardly see any
western travellers. This is why it is so nice that they have hostels
here. I have loved the chinese hostels as they are cheap, nice, and
great places to meet people. SE asia didn't really have hostels, so
meeting people was often more difficult for me. The chinese travel in
huge tour groups and can overwhelm tourist areas with their sheer
numbers. Another funny thing is that the chinese don't care so much
about the pristine nature of things or silence or any of that. They
run around with tour guides blowing whistles and speaking loudly
through megaphones. And they really make some places so touristified.
For example lots of places on the great wall have gondolas going up
to the wall and then like amusement attractions all around and of
course slides coming off of the wall. On the mountain of huang shan,
they had 3 gondolas going up and then fancy hotels and restaurants on
top. Similar to if they built a gondola up to the top of longs peak
and had hotels and such at the boulder field (I think there was a
hotel at the boulder field at one point back in the early 1900's
wasn't there?, but you still had to walk up). Needless to say, it is
quite funny, and at times sad, how much touristified they make places.
They really build them up bc the chinese tourists don't want to do
too much work and they like luxury. And it seems most often that
their sole purpose for going on these tours is to have their picture
taken at famous sites, b/c they are hardly paying attention to the
tour guides or looking at much, just snapping the obligatory photos at
certain places. But it's usually quite easy to avoid them bc, like I
said, they are lazy so don't go far. Just take a hike or bike and you
are away from the hordes of tourists with their megaphone guides. Or
even in a place like lijiang, just go off into the side alleys away
from the few big spots like the waterwheel and you won't see them. It
is quite funny to watch them all though
Of course while in China, talk is big about it's rise to being a super
power. Most people seem to think that China will very shortly be the
world's major super power, and I can see this. Just looking in the
country china is growing so rapidly...building so much stuff and it
just feels like a country on the rise, like maybe america did way back
when. A lot of people say that china is slowly taking over the world
in a smart way. They are not using guns and war. That is old stuff.
The new stuff is with the economy. China has the fastest growing
economy in the world, and is growing in leaps and bounds even in this
economic crisis. I first wondered about China when I was in SE Asia.
Bc in SE asia, china was sending masses of its people to live there.
The chinese are very community oriented. Instead of adopting new
cultures or assimilating, they stay the same and keep their customs
and languages and close ties to china (thus the china towns in our own
country). In SE asia, the chinese were slowly becoming less of a
minority and were linked to china, not to say thailand or malaysia.
And of course in those countries, the majority of the rich were
chinese. In places like Laos and vietnam, china had purchases lots of
land and was also funding projects for these countries like dams and
highways, to eventually benefit china. Paul, the czech american was
telling me how china is buying up lots of things around the world,
waging war economically, and playing it smart. I did notice that when
greece had it's huge economic problem, China bought up a bunch of it's
islands. An economist was telling me how basically China could end
the US right now (of course the guy was european so had some of that
anti americanism to him, so I don't know how true it all was, but
sounded like he knew what he was talking about) b/c we owe China so
much in our debts, that all they would have to do is call the loans,
and of course we couldn't pay them back. He also said that China also
has a huge withholding of US dollars, that at anytime they wanted,
they could flood the markets with US currency, thus basically making
the dollar worthless. And as Lukas said, now adays, as he has
noticed, it is quite important to learn chinese now for business.
English is obviously still the best language to know, but more and
more chinese is also important. It's all quite interesting really
though, and will be intersting to see how things play out.
Tomorrow I'll explore Lijiang, pick up my visa extension and enjoy
some of the tasty food around. Already had some really good Yak meat,
a specialty here. Some interesting fruits I've had here are a thing
they call apple, but really looks like a small but rounder kiwi and
tastes much sweeter. Also something that appears to look like a big
turnip, but tastes like a combination of apple and potato, though more
appley.
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