Day 73 - Litang

3.10.09

We get up for our Sky Burial experience at a bright and early 8am, wait until about 9am when the owner of the hotel then tells us that the burial is off as apparently no one died yesterday and so there is no body to 'bury'. In a way I am quite glad as thinking about it, I'm not sure it is something I want to witness. Also the turning of someones burial into a tourist attraction doesn't seem that appealing, especially as we are told that it is 'OK to take pictures'.

Seeing as we are up early, we take a walk up to the local Gompa which is undergoing either major redevelopment work or major building work, it's halls being repainted and the statues renovated/new ones cast. The Gompa is populated by dozens of young monks, some look about 7, who show us around the different buildings and lead us up to viewing platforms where we can see the rest of the Gompa's buildings and the town. I talk to one of the young monks who is about 14 and it turns out that his family live in Yunnan province, which is at fastest, about 3-4 days away by bus. It must be a hard life living so far away from your family and is a kind of extreme version of long distance boarding school. After our schooling by the young monks, we head back to the hotel and one of our party of four (Vlad) decides to have a rest, while the Italian guy (Francesco) takes a bus onwards and starting his journey off into Yunnan province. Me and Nick, decide to climb one of the hills over looking the rear of the town and what we think will be a short stroll, turns out into two hours of high altitude, out of breath hardcore steep walking. It is a viciously hard climb and considering Litang is supposed to be up there in the league of the highest towns in the world, the air is very very very noticeably thinner.

For the evening entertainment we hit a Tibetian dance hall/drinking club/bar/barn/shack, I'm not quite sure what it was, but it was quirky. With dodgy over pushed speakers and fairy lights in the roof, I'm sure we were sitting in a metal barn and it was definitely unheated. All the aesthetic points good and bad aside, the venue was amazing fun and the people so happy. Definitely recommended if you ever make it out to any Tibetian areas.