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Travels With My Ancestors We arrived in Chengdu this afternoon after a 50hr train journey from Gaungzhou. It's nice to breathe fresh (smoggy - I can't see blue sky) air. Arrived in HK on 12 Oct and promptly spent 5 hrs looking for the local China Foreign Affairs office to obtain a Visa for China. Finally located it on the other side of the building we initiated our search from. Looks like I'll have to get use to the numbering system in HK. Much appreciated a night's sleep after 55 hours awake packing and enjoying the China airlines fight over (it stopped in both Sydney and Taipei). Eventually arranged a Visa at a different place the next day. We had to stay away from a friends apartment until 2400 one night because a film crew had negotiated the use of her flat for the romatic film 'Moonlight of Happy Valley'. Sorry folks - it's only in Cantonese. Took the train to Guangzhou on Tuesday 17 Oct. Missed buying a ticket for the train to Chengdu, so had to look for a place to spend the night in. A tout was rewarded for her persistance (she bothered us for 1/2 an hour) when we stayed in a hotel she brokered for us. Originally they deferred taking us because they didn't have a licence to take foreigners. Guangzhou is expensive. Cost: 150 yuan for both of us. (approx 3 yuan = 1$NZ). It was a little disconcerting to watch the floor attendant spray the room with cockroache poison before we settled in. Only cold water too. Still, there was a western style sit down toilet. Guangzhou's changed a great deal since I was last there 12 years ago. New high rise buildings are springing up everywhere and the people are no longer dressed in the ubiqutious blues and greens. They could almost pass for HKer's. Gaunt faces are no longer common. We took hard sleeper class to Chengdu. 66 bunks per carriage. The compartments were spit free. I couldn't work out why the floor panels between carriages were rusty until I realized that the spit had to end up somewhere. On the second day Steve and I realised that we had miscalculated the amount of food we had bought for the train trip. We had enough for a 20 hour trip but discovered that it would actually take about 44 hours. Hmmm. We were entertained by the antics of not quite normal 8 year old fellow passenger. He could only speak gibberish and had a frequent stream of drool from the corner of his mouth. I tried my 3 phrases of mandarin on fellow passengers and roped Steve in to translate. I was much ammused to learn that we were being mistaken for Japanese athletes. Perhaps we won't stand out so much after we lose some weight later in the trip. China's middle class is verrry interesting. Pretty friendly once the barriers are broken. The countryside is green, just like in NZ but with the difference that every piece of flat land is utilised for growing crops. Even less steep slopes on hills, no more than 5meters by 1 meter are utilised. Chengdu is a more drab version of Guangzhou. Very smoggy. We will spend a couple of days here before disappearing for a couple of months. 2100 hrs 24 Oct 2000 Nimen Hao! The wonders of modern technology, such as internet bars, can be found all over Kangding! Arrived yesterday after a hair raising 8 1/2 hr bus ride through the Erlangshan pass. Dispite shear drops of several hundred metres and a road just wide enough for 2 vehicles, (all) buses persisted in overtaking heavily laiden trucks - even on blind corners. After looking out my window numerous times and not seeing the edge of the road I quietly moved to a centre seat to calm my frayed nerves. Another memorable aspect of the journey was the long dark (unlit) tunnel, which burrowed it's way through the bowels of a mountain. We tailgated our way through the unventilated, thick, diesel laiden air for 20 minutes. The road itself is under major road works and this is being tackled in typical Chinese fashion. Instead of heavy machinery, numerous gangs of construction workers were breaking up the existing concrete road surface with nothing more than lengths of sharpened building reinforcing steel and hammers/sledgehammers. This is more efficent than it seems - labour is cheaper and also means less numbers of unemployed. I wonder at the beauty of the landscape, it could be wide NZ South Island river valleys, together with the most torturest mountain stream gorges all rolled into one. One major difference is that there is human civilisation everywhere. Most dwellings are of modest means. A few houses are about 4 x 4 metres. The economic miracle hasn't reached here yet. Still everyone looked well fed. Blue sky at last! Kangding (2560 metres( is a largish town clinging to the sides of a steep river valley. The river in fact runs through the centre of town. Buddist monks and Khampers wander through town with Han chinese. I am mesmerised by the very steep valley walls to the north of the town which are completely terraced. How did they terraform the land? We're staying in a place for 15 yuan each. No showers. Steel lattice door is locked at night. It's a dark, window less room with 3 beds and no means of escape if there's a fire. Next time I get a say in where we're staying! Today we walked up 500m to the top of Mt Paoma. While ascending, Steve entertained me with a tale of an English woman who was robbed and killed on the track last year. Great. I was instantly more attentive of my surroundings. At the top we found a white stupa and flocks of school children on a school outing! They weren't shy! They rushed up, smiling, bombarded us with questions, grabbed hands and patted chests. I felt like the pied piper! Eventually we sat down on the steps of a monastry and enjoyed the sun for a while. Lots of yak meat for sale in town - hair covered heads and tails displayed promenantly to confirm that it is yak meat? Next stop is a monasty just outside of Ganzi (we leave 0640 tomorrow) and then onto Dege which will be our base of operations for the next few weeks. Don't think we'll find any more internet bars from now on. PS Can pick up Radio NZ on the SW radio! 1355 18 November 2000, Kangding Tashi Delag! (Tibetan for Hello) Lonely Planet decribes the northern road to Tibet as one of the most beautiful and dangerous roads in the world. They're right, we've just survivied a 2 1/2 day trip back to Kangding that should have taken 1 1/2 days - but more on that later. We've been travelling along this road with trips to villages and towns in this area. Some general observations: Tibetans are amongst the most friendly people in the world. A 'Tashi Delag' and smile bring enormous grins in return. Steve pronouces this area as more Tibetan than Tibet. In the month he spent in Tibet, he only stayed in guesthouses and didn't get the opportunity to meet Tibetans as we have had. What the tourist brouchures don't tell you - Tibetan dogs and toilets. Tibetan toilets are long drops with open sides on the second floor of buildings. Upon finishing my business at Baiya and Babang, I looked between my legs and was surprised to find dogs gathered below. I was disgusted when one of them looked up and licked it's lips. It appears that when Tibetans cannot afford to feed their dogs, the dogs take the initiative and find alternative means of nourishment. All had dried faeces on their heads - I guess first come, first served! Diet: Unlike the romantic western notion of Tibet, I only met 3 llamas that were vegetarian. The other 20 or so I saw or asked eating, all ate meat. This is quite practical as the Tibetan diet is extremely limited in nutrients. It consists of Sampa, which is ground barley and Yak products. Sampa is either eaten dry (licked from a bowl) or mixed with hot water or tea and yak butter. Yak meat and milk (it's really yohurt after a few days) round out the diet. In our 2 - 3 weeks the largest amount of green vegetables that I saw was in the condiment packets of the odd packet of instant noodles that we managed to buy. In areas where there was some chinese influence, rice and fried potatoes were found. Thankfully, most places that we stayed at were ready for western visitors. We were served white rice or noodles. Meals were monotonously 3 bowls of white rice or 3 bowls of noodles (I have a big appetite). The Tibetan word for spice must be salt, because that was the only flavouring available. Quite noticable was that llamas were better fed than the general populace. We gave nicknames to some like, 'Fat Albert', and 'Smiling Buddha'. Of course not only is the typical villager less well fed but they endure backbreaking work. I observed women roping 3 5metre long logs to their backs to transport. Collecting Yak dung to dry and burn for cooking was a daily chore. Bring on the electricity! Temperatures range from 6 - 8 degrees during the day to 2 degrees at night. It was positively balming sitting in the sun. Of course I had a full set of thermals on underneath and another top and fleece jacket on top! There has been no rain since Chengdu but it did snow lightly, one day while we were in Meisu. Winter is coming. Our trip back to Kangding shows snow down to road level. Hmmm. What happened to the Xmas on a beach I promised myself after my last Xmas trip? 25/10/2000 Ganzi Arrived in Ganzi after a freezing trip over an ice covered pass: 6 degrees C - I had foolishly not taken to wearing my thermals yet. Ganzi is a raw frontier town and reminded me of the wild west. I liked it! A dirt main road is bordered by concrete pavements and two story stores. It is populated mainly by Tibetans in traditional dress - everyone carries a knife of varying lengths, ranging from the practical to ones resembling short swords. (I've had great fun asking to look at the knives of every Tibetan I meet!) We spent the night in a hotel with a Karaoke bar above our room; bad decision! On a trip to the toilet, I found myself confronted by some PLA soldiers retiring for the night. One of them was non chalantly carring a semi-automatic snipers rifle in one hand. Given the PLA's less than bloodless history with minority uprisings and the local populace armed to the teeth, I guess it's a wise precaution after dark! The PLA tent camp was placed (to my mind) in an easily defensible position, outside town, on a flat plain by the river. 26/10/2000 - 27/10/2000 Rongbasa We travelled 25 kms out of Ganzi and spent a couple of magical days in Byalhten Rinpoche's (head llama) guesthouse in Rongbatsa township. They had 5 backpackers before us this year. Zhaba tried teaching us some rudimentary Tibetan and we had our first introduction to the delights of Sampa (yummy - not). Loy Sha Zi graciously took us to the monastry and the local school where we met the headmaster and his English teacher daughter. Looking at the first page of the school roll, I noticed mortality figures a little different from NZ. Out of approximately 15 - 20 names, 4 had 'Deceased' next to them. Their ages ranged from 8 to 12 years old. We donated 50 yuan to the school. 28/10/2000 - 30/10/2000 Dege I keep having to find new superlatitives to describe the road trips in China. The dirt roads are narrow. In some sections, there is enough room for a bus to squeeze by a truck. Our bus trip to Dege went over a 4700 m pass. I don't know whether it was lack of oxygen or tirediness, but I didn't equate, a drop of several hundred metres, the lack of snow chains, and the frozen, ice covered road, with danger. We stopped to allow a truck to pass and then, tires scrabbling for grip, started sliding backwards. This brought an extremely bad sense of deja vu of a particular 4wdr backward slide that ended in a roll. A jolt signalled that we were still alive - we had slide the right way, into the bank. NOW the driver decided to put chains on! A little further on, we came across a truck perched on the edge of the road with one of the twin rear wheels on one side, in midair. Steve and I looked at each other in disbelief. The friendly propaganda officer (more properly described as information officer)explained that accidents were quite common. We took this to mean that fatalities occurred regularly. He also explained that a monastry that we passed was connected to electrcity last year and that 4 years ago the local Tibetan diet consisted only of the traditional Sampa and Yak meat (and related products). Now fruit and vegetables and beef and pork had been introduced. I tended to believe him - particularly when he balanced his comments by telling Steve that the valley Rongbasa township was in, use to be part of Tibet, until it was incorporated as part of Sichuan. Dege has a charming main street of buildings built the traditional Tibetan way - of half logs of wood. Sanitation, as in all the places we came to, was rudimentary. Toilets were built directly over the river. We tried not to think about this when choosing an eatery. 31/10/2000 - 01/11/2000 Baiya 3440 metres I experienced the 'delights' of riding by truck on our journey to Baiya. The cargo bed was packed with Tibetans and their personal belongings: so much so that after some scrambling and squirming, I found myself higher than the cargo bed roll bars (only used to support canvas when in use), in a semi kneeling, prone position. It was fairly comfortable until the sack I was kneeling on moved and I found a new meaning for pain from kneeling on the edge of a cardboard box. I forgot about my bleeding shin when several things happened at once: the truck lurched around a corner, dipped it's wheels in a depression in the dirt road and began what I thought was a roll, the cargo roll bar that I was holding onto with my left hand popped out of it's socket, my feet shot out from under me and I began sliding off the truck. Adrenaline does wonderful things. My right hand grasped the frame by the driver's cab and hurled myself up. I spent the next few minutes: momentarily finding religion, cursing profusely, and vowing to get off the truck at the first opportunity! A wild eyed Tibetan was in a worse position, my pack had slipped and was jammed in his chest, threatening to push him completely off the truck. I managed to slip my pack strap around part of the cargo to take the pressure off him. After a few minutes, the truck stopped to allow repacking of the cargo and I gratefully slipped off and climbed onto the back to join Steve. We found ourselves standing on the tailgate, holding onto the last roll bar, in comparitive safety. With walter mitty like imaginations, we thought that if the truck rolled off the road, we would be able to roll clear. I even let out the occasional whoop which was appreciated by the Tibetans! By the end of our trip we were covered in dust and looked like a couple of refugees from a French foriegn legion film. Baiya was a contrast in strangeness. The monastry and valley were beautiful. A community of 11 houses. We found ourselves talking to an unkown number of llamas behind a locked door. We found out later that there were 13 llamas in meditative seclusion - for a period lasting 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days! On returning from the toilet one night, I was intercepted by the sound of running feet and a door being flung open. 5 llamas breaking their vows of suclusion! We looked at each others photos amongst secretive laughing. 02/11/2000 - 05/11/2000 Babang 3885 metres We left at 1130 to escape the host llamas extortionist demands, he didn't have any idea of market value and attempted to charge us 100 yuan a night each for our stay. We ended up paying 120 yuan in total. Before we left, I visited the toilet twice and then threw up twice in rapid succession. (I blame it on the Yak milk/yohurt - broke the No 1 traveller's rule again) So began my death march. What should have been a easy 4 hr walk over 20+ km's ended up being a 6 1/2 oddessy. I survived on 1 litre of Gastrolyte solution and 1/2 a pear. If not for the kindness of two different Tibetans who ported our packs for 1/5 of the way we would have had to bivy in an unlit river gorge for the night. This day was harder than any 13 hr glacier/stream bash I've done in the Sthn Alps of NZ. Babang is an imposing monastry, about 1000 years old on top of a hill top. We experienced the usual parade of curious villagers hovering around our geust room door. The llamas and villagers were universally friendly and even let us undress and dress in private (unlike the overly curious llama at Baiya). We climbed 2/3s of the way up the hill behind the monastry, an effort that left us breathless and weak, and wondering how we would survive the tramp to Meisu. 06/11/2000 - 12/11/2000 Meisu Discretion being the better part of valour, we hire not only a guide but a horse to portage our packs over the 4300 m pass to Meisu. In the event, it turned out to be walk in the park, with Steve suffering a little at the head of the valley (more gasto enteritis problems). Meisu was fantastic. A 725 year old monastry with 200 llamas up on a hill and a llama institute with 150 monks on the valley floor. We walked into the insitute during a break in classes and as soon as I pulled out my photos were mobbed by about 50 llamas. Now I know what it feels like under a rugby scrum! They were very curious but obviously not very well educated in geography. We found to our dismay that the local government school was even more lacking in resources than the private Tibetan one in Rongbasa valley. Not a single window in the classrooms was unbroken. We spent 18 yuan on elastic to replace the frayed, much repaired elastic being used for the universal skipping/hopping games by the children. We eventually stayed longer than expected to catch a Buddist festival which pulled in villagers from all around the area - we estimate at least 500 attendees. We got up at what we thought was 0530 and spent 1/2 hr rushing around packing until I realised that while I had set the alarm, I had forgotten to set the time on the radio. We had actually got up at 0130. Oh well. 12/11/2000 Another truck trip over dirt roads - this time, back to Dege. We started the trip standing at the rear of the truck holding onto the roll bars (the tailgate was surmounted by a peice of wood and was too high to stand on). After boucing our way around corners for about 15 mins, Steve and I inderpendantly decided our hearts wouldn't stand the excitement of the spectacular (read hair raising) views and retreated to sit against the drivers cab. Here, we could ignore reality and pretend that our driver wasn't training for the China rally! 13/11/2000 - 15/11/2000 Dege/Baiyu After a night at Dege, we caught a luxary bus to Baiyu. The VCD of 'Copland' thankfully diverted my attention away from the road. Baiyu was a disappointing mix of Tibetan and Han Chinese town. We did catch a ceremony incorporting llamas and Tibetans dressed like cossacks firing muzzleloading rifles. Great entertainment! I noticed that a couple of the performers were not only carring the rifles and traditional swords but semi automatic pistols of suspusiously recent vintage. I wonder if the local PSB (police) knew? Explains the local army detachment. 16/11/2000 - 18/11/2000 Bus trip to Kangding. After finding there wasn't transport from Baiyu to Litang (our next destination) we caught a bus back to Kangding. We caught the wrong bus. What should have been a journey of 1 1/2 days turned into a 2 1/2 day ordeal. The decrepid bus looked sound when we got onto it, we even reasoned the short wheelbase whould get us around corners more safely. It turned out that it could only attain 3rd gear on a level peice of road and had to grind it's way up any sort of gentle incline in 2nd or 1st. The suspension should probably have been overhalled 100,000 kms ago. Every corner we wallowed around felt like our last. Our first overnight stop in Manigange meant a 2 degree night - in our room. I felt in my element. Even whistling 'Jingle Bells' to our fellow frozen chinese passagers at our 0630 start. Our next overnight stop was in the dingest rooms that we have encountered so far with a 0530 start this morning. We thankfully arrived today at 1330 after stops every 3 - 4 hrs to tinker with the engine. Thanks to the skills of the middle aged driver and no thanks to the young relief driver who should be given an award for either bravery or stupidity for manoeuvering the bus around a broken down truck in the middle of the road. It took 3 attempts and he clipped the truck - I swear the wheels were half off the edge of the road. Even the chinese passangers were impressed. Of course we were watching from the safety of the roadside. Our itinery from now - Litang, Zhongdian, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lijiang, Dali and back to Chengdu. Contact should be more regular from now on!. .
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