Day 72 - Ganzi, Litang

2.10.09

I met two Americans and an Italian guy yesterday who are also going to Litang and so we all decide to head off together and get a cheaper group fare. We end up getting the fare for 80Y each as opposed to 110Y, which is a very nice discount. The ride is quite slow and we are also transporting a sick monk, who is ill with a mystery ailment that gives him a stomach ache, headache and causes him to throw up every time we stop. I give him some Ibuprofen which sorts out his headache and some of the stomach pain and then some herbal tea which I picked up and is supposed to be good for stomach bugs. I'm not sure if the herbal tea worked, but good old Tesco Ibuprofen got rid of his headache nice and fast. We pull into Litang in the early evening and are soon followed by bus loads of Chinese tourists all travelling during the eight day national holiday. The town suddenly becomes rammed and every hotel sells all its beds, our hotel owner even putting people into his house so they can have a place to stay. My late night town exploring ends up putting me in the middle of a rainstorm and some seriously wet and windy weather, arriving back at the hotel a bit cold and damp, I am told that we have the opportunity of going to a sky burial the next day. Wikipedia describes a Sky Burial as...

Sky burial or ritual dissection was once a common funerary practice in Tibet wherein a human corpse is cut in specific locations and placed on a mountaintop, exposing it to the elements or the mahabhuta and animals – especially to birds of prey. In Tibet the practice is known as jhator, which literally means, "giving alms to the birds." The majority of Tibetans adhere to Buddhism, which teaches rebirth. There is no need to preserve the body, as it is now an empty vessel. Birds may eat it, or nature may let it decompose. So the function of the sky burial is simply the disposal of the remains. In much of Tibet the ground is too hard and rocky to dig a grave, and with fuel and timber scarce, a sky burial is often more practical than cremation.

What basically happens is the body is placed upon an altar and then cut into pieces and the bones bashed to a pulp and mixed with flour and then it is all fed to vultures who eat the body parts. I'm not quite sure if it is something I want to see, but it is common practice in this area and if we do make it, then it will be one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen.

Day 71 - Ganzi

1.10.09

The two women say they will help me to find a minibus to Litang today, so I am downstairs with my luggage at 8am, only to find that as it is the first day of the 8 day long China national holiday and also the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic Of China, no transport is being allowed in the region. I guess it's to try and limit the hordes of people who will be travelling during the week and also as it's a sensitive area, to make sure no trouble sparks up. I am assured that I will be able to get a ride tomorrow though and so put my bags back into my room and go back for a power nap.

The next part of the day is pure magic. A walk out to the edge of town, which yields a shaky old rope bridge over a river and into a forest of trees that are changing from deep green to an autumnal yellow with monks walking through in their deep red robes. At the edge of the forest I take a walk up a road lined with prayer flags and off out into the fields and hills. After around 45 mins of walking a man on a tractor pulls up beside me and asks if I want a lift and where I am going, I say I have no idea and am just walking and he tells me to hop on board. We drive past fields and through villages with plenty of Tashi Deles and people waving hello, eventually pulling up at his wooden house, where his three children (maybe 5,9, and 12) grab my hand and lead me inside. Once inside we all sit down and I am fed tea and then a hearty lunch of noodles and vegetables. I can communicate in Chinese partly with his eldest son who is learning Mandarin at school, the rest of the family speaking Tibetan. They are amazed at my camera and my pictures of the area and my travels so far. I make a couple of Origami models for them, which go down a treat and then the eldest son takes me on an exploration trip of the village. We pop into one of the neighbors houses where they are equally as hospitable and give me tea and want to make me some food, but I explain I have just ate. We then leave with another two children and climb up to the top of the nearby hill with commanding views of the landscape below. The whole climb is magical, the laughter of the 3 kids, the constant picture taking and them holding my hand guiding me up the paths, they are so kind and so joyful it's unbelievable. Once we come down from the top, the first family insist that I should stay with them tonight for free, but once I explain that I need to catch an early bus the next morning they understand. I leave with enough time to get back before nightfall and I can only describe the whole experience as magical. It feels like I have just walked through the wardrobe in a C.S. Lewis novel and into a magical world. Back along the prayer flag road, through the colour changing forest and over the rickety bridge and back to the normal world and the town centre. It has to be one of the best days so far, the people so kind, friendly and pure of heart. Absolutely wonderful.

Day 70 - Dege, Ganzi

30.09.09

I meet my driver as pre arranged at 7am and after about 15 mins am moved into another minibus which heads off out of town, stopping at a petrol station after about 5 mins. At the station I am moved into yet another car and for some reason I have a bad feeling about this journey, maybe it's just the fact that this third car doesn't have any Buddhist pictures or charms that must have been preventing the previous cars from crashing. All is well for the first 3 hours or so, and then we pull into Manigango, a rough half way point of the journey. It is here that the driver then says he is stopping and asks me for the fare to get here. I explain that I am going to Ganzi and will pay 65Y as pre arranged to get there, the driver doesn't accept this and wants 50Y for getting me here. Eventually the second driver catches up and they have a small dispute and he says he can't take me to Ganzi as his car is full already, he then makes a speedy get away leaving me with this driver and a small crowd who are watching the event like it's the latest episode of EastEnders. To my rescue comes a slightly older driver who I talked to briefly the day before and from what I can make out, he says that as the driver accepted me, he must get me to Ganzi. After around 20 mins of arguing, the driver eventually puts me on a regular bus from Manigango to Ganzi for 35Y and takes the rest of the 30Y as his fare, but he is not happy at all. My helper wears a cowboy hat and a black jacket and maybe it's because he just helped me out, but I think he is damn cool. An end to a sticky situation and I can't thank him enough, but he keeps saying it is all OK and then gets back to his work of trying to find people to take to his next destination. It's nothing to him, but for me the help meant so much.
Once in Ganzi I am determined to find somewhere to stay that has a shower, it's been about 5 days staying in places with nothing but a dodgy toilet and temperamental running water. I find a place near the bus station run by two women and after my bargaining for about 10 mins get it down to 50Y per night. I think the women find me amusing and my negotiation antics seem to be a hit. We sit down together and drink tea and have some sweets and then they even make me a massive dinner. It gets quite funny when the older one tries to set me up with younger one, saying I should take her back to the UK, I manage to avoid this situation, but next they both say they will come to the UK with me, especially after they ask how much a cleaner can earn there (20Y per day in Ganzi and what works out to be about 440Y[min. wage] in the UK)

Day 69 - Dege

29.09.09

I want to try and make it to Baiyu today and as it's quite near I get up late and make it to the bus station for 8am. This turns out to be a massive error as the buses have already left and after asking around it seems that I am stranded in Dege for another day. It also appears as though there are no buses going directly to Dege for some reason and so I will have to head back to Ganzi and go from there. My travel timings won't really allow this and so I decide to give the town a miss and head back to Ganzi tomorrow en route to Litang, booking in the first leg of the journey with a driver for 7am the next day.

Seeing as I am in town for another day, I take a long walk out and along the road east, which leads through a valley alongside a river. About an hour in, I get a sudden sense of adventure and decide to go off road and up into the mountains on the side of the road. Roaming past yaks rambling through bushes and having no idea where I am going apart from up, eventually leads me up to some terraced crop fields about half way up, which seem to come out of nowhere. A little further up and I run into a small village, where people look as shocked to see me as I am to see them. A path leads out of the village and ends up at a view point back over Dege where an elderly man gives me a surprised look and then an ear to ear grin and a big 'Tashi Dele (hello)'. For some reason I think it is a good idea to try and reach the peak and so continue up the path for a couple of hours which slowly starts to disappear, eventually common sense must of been dropped on my head by one of the eagles flying overhead as I realise that trying to climb the steep and scraggy paths with no climbing experience is just plain foolish... it takes about 3 hours to get back down to the bottom.

Day 68 - Ganzi, Dege

28.09.09

Steamed bun (Baozi) for breakfast and then a walk down to get my 6am minibus to the town of Dege which is about an 8 hour drive away and closer to the Tibetan border. On the way we will pass over the Tro La Pass which sits at a comfortable 5050m and through what should be some stunning scenery. I say my goodbyes to my French amis and then set off on with my joker driver in what turns out to be a ridiculous journey. The first port of call is a stop off at Manigango for about an hour of doing nothing, where people are supposed to have lunch, but in reality we just waiting for other vehicles so the journey can be done in a minibus pack. Next on the way up to the Tro La Pass, one of the minivans suffers a burst tyre and so we wait for about two hours for it to be changed. There is snow on the road up here, the scenery is stunning, the mountains around seem huge, and the air is very very thin. Lastly, I thought the journey a couple of days ago was a bit hairy, but the current driver is an absolute nutter. If the previous driver thought he was driving in Colin McRae Rally 2009, this driver actually thinks he is Colin McRae and forget about small ramp jumps, now I actually think he is trying to take off. It's an amazing ride, but when I get off in Dege, my body feels like it has had a beating.

Once in Dege, it takes me about an hour to find a hotel that will let me stay as most of them won't accept foreigners. (The one downside about travelling near the Tibet border are the constant police checkpoints on the roads and the suspicion surrounding foreign travellers.The police also have the accommodation on lock down and only allow foreigners to stay in certain places, so they can keep tabs on their movements, In both Ganzi and Dege, apart from the people I travel with, I haven't seen another foreign tourist once.) Next I take a visit to Bakong, which is probably the most important site in the Tibetan Buddhist world, if only surpassed by the Potala Palace in Lhasa.At Bakong, thousands of Buddhist scriptures are hand printed every day, by a diligent set of workers. It's corridors are lined with wooden printing blocks, that contain the complete history of Tibetan Buddhism and a copy of an important Hindhu Buddhist text which is the only one left in the world.

Day 67 - Ganzi

27.09.09

We all have a bit of a lie in, which is sweet and then at around 9am we head off to the downtown monastery (Gompa). It's situated down a small lane and is being circled by a procession of Tibetan people who spin the prayer wheels on the outside as they walk around the building. It's quite a sight and apart from the Gompa in Tagong, this is the first glimpse I have seen of real Tibetan Buddhism. Inside are people doing full body bows, first on their knees, then hands, and lastly with their whole body flat on the ground face down. We get what I can only describe as blessed by one of the monks, who asks us to drink some water, then rub it into our heads and he says a few words during the process.

After our downtown experience we have a walk out to Ganzi Gompa which is situated on a hill overlooking the town and with snow capped mountains in the distance. When there Denis decides to get his head shaved by one of the monks and I am tempted, but the cold of the evenings and the rest of my high altitude adventure quickly puts me off, but what better place to get your head shaved... by a Tibetian monk in a monastery at near 3500m. When at Ganzi Gompa, we are also invited for tea with one of the monks. We sit in his room in the Gompa and watch videos of the Dalai Lama receiving awards in different countries and the many speeches written about him. The monk talks about the riots in the previous year and how he was imprisoned and beaten, how people were killed in Ganzi and the excessive levels of force that the military and police used to calm the unrest. It all gets very emotional, the monk starts crying as he talks about the events that happened and how he hopes for a free Tibet, overall he has been imprisoned 3 times and is now 28. The monks all seem to have a false hope that the west will help them out and apply pressure to China to give Tibet it's freedom. They see the Dalai Lama received by all the European countries and America and think that we will help them, although in reality, it's all good to put on a good face but when it comes to actual action, it's not going to happen.

Today was my first insight into the conflict between Tibet and China and how it has affected people. On the surface there are lorrys roaming around town lined up with soldiers holding assault rifles and fully laden in combat riot gear and Tibetan monks hiding 'illegal' videos of the Dalai Lama and forbidden books, but then beneath the surface the situation between the two people is a lot more complicated.

Day 66 - Tagong, Ganzi

26.09.09

It's the Israeli expedition to Litang at a bright and breezy 8am, they board their minibus and prepare to take the 4014m high town by force. It's been good fun talking with them and travelling around with a big group of people, but my loneliness doesn't last for long. I go and get ready to wait for my bus to Ganzi, which is supposed to pass through at around 2pm on it's way up from Kanding. While waiting I run into a French couple, who I met briefly a few days before, they are also going to Ganzi and so we band together for the journey. Due to the bad weather it turns out the bus might not arrive or it might not be able to get all the way to Ganzi on the dodgy roads, we decide to cut our losses and take a mini bus to Ganzi which ends up costing a little more, but we are assured of making it to our destination.

We end up changing vehicle 3 different times, and feeling like we are in a game of pass the parcel as we are shifted from driver to driver, each one with a worse Rally Driver mistaken identity. By the time we are in our third and final car, it's night time and pitch black, yet the driver still thinks he is Colin McRae and takes the corners like he is driving in the World Championships. What makes it even better is that we actually take off about every 30 seconds and catch so much air that Tony Hawk would be proud. When we arrive at Ganzi at a sleepy 10pm I can honestly say that it was the most ridiculously dangerous driving I have ever experienced.