C & C globetrotting around the world…

From Xiahe we continued further South. We had met a Dutch couple (Britt and Tim) in Xiahe and with them, we hopped on an early bus to Langmusi, supposedly to arrive at 11:40am. We passed through Hezuo, a town on the way where we stopped for a quick break. About an hour after Hezuo the bus stopped on the side of the road. Cecilia was feeling kind of nauseous due to the bumpy ride, so she was sort of happy for the respite. We didn’t know why we had stopped, but were speculating that maybe the driver forgot something and someone was going to bring it from Hezuo. After a while, a car with 4 cops arrived and starting looking at the bus and taking pictures. This is when someone told us that the bus had hit something. We didn’t really think so since we hadn’t felt anything and there were no marks on the bus, but let the police do their job. Soon after they left, the bus driver told us to get back on the bus. We were happy to finally go since we had been waiting for an hour. We weren’t so happy though when the bus turned around, heading back to Hezuo and driving 10km/h. The ride back took forever! The whole time we were making jokes with Britt and Tim, but deep down it wasn’t that funny after all. When we arrived back in Hezuo, one of the guys on the bus told us that apparently our bus had hit a person and the person had died, so the police needed to investigate and question us. We didn’t really think that was possible and were hoping to catch the last bus from Hezuo to Langmusi, otherwise we would have had to stay a day in this ugly town. Luckily the police came pretty quickly and our bus driver was absolved of the accusation, so we were able to catch the next bus to Langmusi, where we arrived at 3:30pm instead of 11:40am… At least we got there!

We checked into the hotel and went to the Snowy Mountain Cafe to book our trekking tour. Not that we wanted to do a horse trek, but when the girl saw Christoph, she told us that the horses are for people weighing under 85kg. Luckily we were planning on walking anyway. Britt and Tim decided to come with us, so we booked a 2-day trek for the 4 of us (it worked out to be cheaper, so that was cool). We were told that it would be cold at night, so we walked around town to buy some gloves and hats since we hadn’t packed thick clothes.

Langmusi, a Tibetan village, is at the border between Gansu and Szechuan province separated by the White Dragon River, surrounded by grassy meadows and mountains. We also walked around town (there is one street) and took a quick look at the two monasteries. Sertri Gompa on the Gansu side dates back to 1748 and is a little higher up the hills, while Kerti Gompa on the Szechuan side was built in 1413 and is home to about 700 monks. Christoph and Tim went for a walk on the hills behind the hotel to get some nice views of the surrounding area. The girls were cold, so we went directly to the rooms to take a nice hot shower (after 2 days of only cold water in Xiahe).

After a pancake breakfast at Leisha Cafe to get a good start to the day, we met up with our Tibetan guide: Chita. He was a 24-year-old guy of medium stature and very friendly. On this 2 day trek we will hike through the grasslands and sleep at a nomad family’s place. The nomads are called Goloks and have their own Tibetan dialect, but luckily our guide also spoke Mandarin so Cecilia was able to communicate with him. Her Chinese definitely got better. The fact that the Tibetans are so friendly helps a lot, as well as the fact that they also speak standard Mandarin (no Chinese local dialect) since they also learnt it in school. So we began our 35km trek at 9am walking through the village and then on a road by the White Dragon River. A little motorized tricycle came along and Chita suggested we take it. So we hopped on it for a very bumpy ride. After a while we told him we want to get off since we were sitting very uncomfortably, but it was fun. Soon we came to a place where we were supposed to cross the creek, but it was too wide for us to jump over it. Chita tried to throw some rocks in it that we could step over, but even the biggest rock (that Christoph and Tim couldn’t lift together but Chita just grabbed and threw in the water) was not enough. We were ready to take our shoes off and walk through the creek when Chita told Christoph to hop on his back. He carried Christoph and his backpack through the river and we were just staring, not able to believe our eyes. He then carried us all through the river while we were laughing. We realized this thin and not-too-large fellow was as strong as a bull.

For lunch we stopped at a tent in the Xiu’re Valley where a Chinese group of horse trekkers came to join us. Christoph helped make fire with dried yak shit (that’s what the nomads use for making fire) – luckily it doesn’t stink – and then we had rice with a cabbage stew, a very hearty meal. The horse trekkers had Tibetan guides dressed in the traditional Tibetan cloak and Christoph got to try one. The cloak is pretty heavy, but doesn’t feel as warm as it seems. Christoph looked very funny in it and he enjoyed walking around in it. At the end of this valley, the Xiu’re God Mountain Home God Festival is held twice a year. Once upon a time tribes decided not to fight anymore, so men got together and put their weapons on the summit of high mountains to offer them to the gods. They still do it to this day, putting down wooden swords and holding horse races.

Then came the hardest part of our trek, where we hiked to the White Dragon River Source (from above it looks like a dragon claw ) and to a pass in the grasslands at an altitude of 3800m. Langmusi lies already at an altitude of 3000m, so even though the hike is not very steep, the altitude really took a toll on us. We were often out of breath and had to take breaks while our guide was running up the hill. The views were really nice and we enjoyed the fresh air and the clear skies, admiring the natural beauty of the area. After the pass we saw the “Ocean of Flower”, a big grassland with streams inside and lots of wild flowers in summer. It is used as the autumn grassland by nomads, each family having 3-4 grasslands where they graze the sheep and yaks according to season. Usually a few families live close to each other, but each family has its own tent. We walked through the herds of sheep and yak in the bumpy and muddy grassland slowly making our way towards the nomad family’s tent. Traditionally the tents are made of yak hair, which is so strong that it can be used for 20 years. Since yaks cannot be shore though, a little bit of hair is cut off every year and made into a section of yak hair tent, replacing the oldest section. The family we stayed with was not living in one of these because they were better off and could afford a fabric tent, we were told. Arrived at the tent, we were greeted by the very friendly mother who immediately served us yak yoghourt. We rested a bit and were looking forward to experiencing the nomad lifestyle.

Being a Tibetan nomad woman is not the easiest thing in the world since she does all the work. In the evening she was gathering dried yak dung and piling it into the corner of the tent to use it as fire, a task Christoph helped her with. The yak dung fire produces more smoke than wood. As it was starting to get a little darker, it was time to bring the herds back – the only thing the man does (besides drinking tea with his friends)! Some nomads still heard their animals by horse, while others have motorcycles. We were planning on going to bring back the yaks from the grassland, but when we saw the family dad being attacked by the neighbour’s dog, we changed our minds and stayed to help the mother peel green beans. The dogs are used to protect against wolves and thieves, but they are very aggressive and we armed ourselves with rocks for the remainder of our stay there. Luckily we didn’t need to use them. So once the man brought back the yaks, he was finished working for the day. Some yaks automatically went into a fenced-off area, while the ones with babies were tied up by the woman. Christoph helped Chita tie up the baby yaks, which are not as big, but still very strong. During this time, the man was drinking tea with his friends and we were sitting there, incredulous to the fact that he didn’t help her. We were told each family has about 80 yaks and 300 sheep, but it seemed to us that there were more than 80 yaks. What’s interesting is that the horns don’t tell the difference between male and female. Some have them, others not, but the animals are definitely impressive. Then she had to cook dinner, a stew of zucchini with dried yak meat over rice. We had dinner with the family, but were disappointed that they were watching TV (they had a laptop hooked up to a sun-powered battery). We also talked to them and found out that the son was going to school in Hezuo 4 days a week, sleeping there in a dorm and coming home on the week-ends. The mother called him “baby”, although he was already 14 years old. When we were ready for bed, they prepared the sleeping area and Chita tucked us into the sleeping bags we had brought with us. We were very warm, despite the fact that air was flowing through the tent.

The next morning the woman woke up at 6am and started milking the yaks (the man woke up at 8am). First she would let the baby yak drink a little bit to get the milk flowing, then tie him up again while she milked the yak mother. When she had milked it enough, she would let the baby drink again. In spring and fall she milks them once a day, while she milks them twice in summer and not at all in winter. Unlike cows, female yaks only produce milk when they have a calf. They also only let their own calf drink, no other one. Once the lady finishes milking (it took her over 3 hours!), she sends off the yaks to the grassland and starts gathering their shit and spreading it into a thin layer. Within 4 days it is dry enough to be used for fire. After a plain breakfast, we started off our second day of trekking. Our guide hiked very quickly and we tried to keep up. It is surprising how wet the grasslands are; we were wondering where the water was coming from and why it wasn’t draining. For a big part of the day we were hiking on the side of hills, so our ankles started hurting from walking at an angle. We told Chita we wanted to go home the quickest possible, but that still took another 4 hours, so it was a very long day. Overall it was a really nice experience; the trek and the nomads, and the fact that Britt and Tim were also there made it more fun.

We left for Songpan in Szechuan province (continuing South towards Chengdu) early the next morning. The way the departure of the bus is announced is by honking super loud for half an hour before departure, even if that’s at 6am and the whole village wakes up. On the way to Songpan there were many decorated villages, but we don’t know what festivities were going on, unfortunately. As we approached Songpan, many villages seemed rebuilt and almost every house had a Chinese flag. Our theory is that the Chinese government rebuilt many of these places after the 2008 earthquake, but in return the people had to put up the flag. The houses are really nice and look like in Switzerland, but the flagpole on every house reminded us of the US. The old town of Songpan is walled, but here too everything has been rebuilt. Christoph calls it “Disney” since it seems to have been built only for tourists. What’s funny is that every shop and restaurant has an English name displayed as well, but some of them are horrible and hilarious at the same time.