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Published: August 20th 2009
We arrived in Kangding Western Sichuan. A beautiful town in the mountains at about 3,200m(10,400ft) above sea level. What was to be only a layover turned out to be a two week excursion. When we attempted to buy bus tickets north westward we were denied. We later found out that tickets were being denied to all westerners. It isn't official that westerners can't travel by bus but they won't sell the tickets to a westerners heading closer to Tibetan areas. We then decided to stay in the cool clear mountain air for a bit before heading back to the heat and smog of Chengdu's 13 million people. The next day we tried to go to Mugecuo or Wild Man Lake sporting hot springs and alpine lakes with possible swimming. So we got a taxi and headed out after 30 minutes of driving in the mountains we reached the valley of the Wild Man Lake and what we hoped to be camping opportunities. Alas, a barrier of blaze orange cones, a little hut and a pile of buses had decided that the area was too wild to do without paying an exorbitant fee for a 4 hour loop around the lakes where
you could take pictures from the bus window. No hiking, no swimming, no camping allowed. Having the day before been on a bus for the 6-hour bus from Chengdu that took 10 hours, we with our camping gear waved this prospect and caught our taxi back. On the way back to Kangding there is the Erdao hot springs. So we stopped in not knowing what to expect. On the surface it looked most like a spa(think a lot of money spent trying) so we sat and had tea while we awaited an enclosed concrete pool and then soaked in the pumped in sulpheric hot spring water. It was a nice if unexpected respite. They came by after 30 minutes to holler something at us though we paid for an hour. We somewhat ignored them. They came by several more times with mop and cleaning supplies but really we did pay for an hour. Luckily we had our camping towels because none were provided. Unfortunately, though we took off our silver jewelry the air turned our rings bronze colored. After a PB&J and tea we returned to Kangding.
We spent a few days wandering the tibetan shops and eating bread
with butter tea and enjoying the cool mountain air. There was a really awesome hostel, Zhilam, in Kangding run by an American couple. They had many western luxuries such as fluffy (not eggy) pancakes and THICK crust pizza (something you never get in Chinese pizzas). The staff is super friendly and the place is very homely including a lounge area with board games, books, and a DVD player and free movies. While staying at the hostel we met up with a couple of guy who were planning a hiking trip to Gongga Shan, the highest mountain outside of the Himalayan ranges in China, with a peak of 25,000ft . The peak is and has permanent glaciers. The southside of Gongga Shan is a popular glacier park called Haiguolou. Our trip though took us to the north side of Gongga Shan. There were three people so far going on the trek. Keren and I would make 5 plus our guide and various other characters along the way. We would have 5 horses to carry our gear so that we could focus on climbing the mountain passes. That night we were going to have a meeting with our guide to go through
the details. By the time of the meeting Ronald from Holland who also works out of the same town we do in Yangshuo had heard of a horse festival not too far away. But it was to be the day we were to get back to Kangding. Luck and a bit of planning were on our side. We had to be to Tagong by 3pm in order to catch a connection on a horse to ride for 4 hours out to the festival. We could do it if we left early in the morning the last day hiked four hours drove 5 hours and then rode the horses for 4 hours. If all went smoothly we could do it. Since a few of us, Keren and I included had hoped to see a horse festival while out here this was a good opportunity. Monday we had a little snafu as another couple had talked to the guide and were given the ok to come but when the minivan showed up we definitely weren't going to get our 5 the driver, the guide and two more into the small van. These are smaller than US minivans and 7 was quite enough.
So the couple after a bit of hemming and hawing backed out. They had an added complication due to a religious holiday the last day of the trek where they weren't going to eat. So it worked out in everyone's interest.
Off we went now an hour late but by both Chinese and to learn Tibetan standards this was not outside of the realm of acceptance. The guide was very amicable, he only knew a few words of English but more than made up for it in character. We were allowed to yell out stop stop we want a picture of that. He would often even stop the minivan to take a few pictures himself. Along the way we stopped for the pictures but also to get the van washed with hours left on the muddy rough roads, lunch and then a wonderful little buddhist monastery stop where others had come and set up family tents outside and were having tea and eating Tsampa(barley flour and butter and if you are lucky sugar rolled into a ball and eaten uncooked). A few hours later and we made it to our first stay a Tibetan village at 4,200m(13,700ft). The air
was thinner but everyone had spent a good amount of time in Kangding so there wasn't any sign of altitude sickness. After we put down our packs we went on a short hike to some near by calcified pools. They make amazing colors of white, yellow and then a florescent green algae. As this is an alpine area it is now spring flower season which added to the splendor of the view. We had dinner of home made noodle soup. The Tibetan noodles are a short fat noodle that they make by tearing strips of dough into the soup. We stayed in the stone building of the Tibetan winter home and awake ready for the long day of hiking.
Right out of the house we walked down a road in what began a sprinkle of rain. Then we headed up a hillside. A very steep hillside. After about two hours of steep assent we were at about 4,700m or 15,000ft. At this point we were moving quite slowly as it gets hard to breathe keeping a slow steady pace is the best. Keren hopped on a horse as the ascent got steeper and her breath got shallower. We crested
a saddle and rested for a bit then cruised down the other side. After 4 hours of hiking we stopped in a stone trekking outpost where our horse guide, known as Uncle, started a fire for our lunch. Keren and I had brought yak meat from Songpan that was much like corned beef. We shared our tasty yak and drank Tibetan tea for lunch. The other three had brought instant noodles for lunch, so they got some river water to boil in a specially designed camping kettle called the Kelly Kettle. Unfortunately, no one read the warning label not to boil with the cork in. We had a hot water pressure bomb on the fire which exploded a stream of boiling water onto Steve. Thankfully, he was not burned to much but he was soaked! This incident became a favorite story for our guide later on during the trip, where he would recount the tale with a "Boom" and we'd all chuckle. After lunch we continued down to a river valley crossed a bridge and traveled up and around a mountain side for another 4 hours to the Buddhist monastery in view of Gongga. As we neared the monastery we
came across a pile of mani stones (stones with tibetan scriptures and blessing carved on them). There was a large one that had fallen to a tilt forward. Our guide, Padro, made a passing gesture to push up the stone, which was very heavy. Steve and Andy, seeing his attempt tried to push up the stone. Padro, seeing that the guys were serious about helping right the stone got into the action. With some rearranging of rocks and three guys pushing, the great mani tablet was righted. The men had acquired merit, in Buddhist terms, for their good deed.
By the time we reached the monastery, we were all ready for a rest. We could not see Gongga due to dense cloud cover and we were soaked through from a mostly rainy day. We stayed in simple wooden rooms with two beds each. Our guide brought us hot water while we put on dry clothes and bundled up in the thick Hello Kitty! and Snoopy blankets they provided. We drank tea and ate ramen noodle soups for dinner and slept. Around 7:30 in the morning the guide knocked on our door to let us know that the peak on
Gongga was starting to show between the clouds. We took some pictures from our window and leisurely got up for the day. This was to be a shorter hiking day, so we had free time to wander near the monastery and hope that the clouds stayed clear for good pictures of Gongga. Our hiking companions, Dave, Andy, and Ronald, went for a walk while we stayed near the monastery stretching, relaxing, miming with the young monks, and watching the daily life of the monastery. Our guide escorted an old lama to a meditation place about an hour away from the monastery. When he came back he told us that they saw a bear across the mountain side. I told Padro, jokingly, that Steve was a bear and "Bear" soon became another amusing story-word for our guide.
We left the monastery around 1pm to head to our last resting stop on our Gongga Shan trip, a Tibetan village about 3 hours hike from the monastery. We hiked down one side of the mountain through the forest, crossed a river, hiked up to a large road, that led to a very small Tibetan village that had only three houses, two which
were still in the process of being built. They had signs outside naming them Family Hotel 1, 2, and 3. The village was actually an offshoot of a larger Tibetan village further down the road. We stayed in Family Hotel number one with a small family consisting of a mother, father, two sons, and a visiting buddhist monk (probably related to the extended family). The place was a two-story house with an attic. Everyone lived on the second floor, with an open floor plan. The Tibetan style beds/benches divided the space into three areas: the kitchen/lounge, the monk’s quarters by the window complete with pictures of the a couple of lamas, and a dusty storage area. The monk was busy making an altar from butter and dough made of barley flour. I watched him make little dough shapes and then impress pictures on them from a carved wood block with reliefs of people and and people on horses. After he made a large set of these impresed dough he set up four altars on four rectangular boards. He then brushed them all with butter, a few of the figurines were brushed a purple-red dyed butter. He made a dough trough
and stuck wicks all along and filled the troughs with butter. These were candles that would burn for each altar. When he had finished (hours later) the whole family gathered around to admire his work.
The valley where we were staying was beautiful. It had some nice acres of wheat and vegetables growing and some nice pastures where the cows and horses could roam. The steep mountains held pines, oaks, and aspens. The air was very fresh and clean and the fog clouds rolled in during the evening and did not lift until late morning. That evening we enjoyed some homemade thupa and then wandered around the valley until dusk. We hit the hay early because we had to get an early start to make it to the Tagong horse festival. We were planning to meet our van at 10am and had a long steep climb up the road.
We left after a quick breakfast around 7am, an hour later than planned. The morning air was cool, but we were soon sweating as we hiked up the road. Occasionally we would see people and machines working on the road, which seemed very recently cut. As we neared the
top of the ridge, the clouds cleared and we got some great views of Gongga Shan. I was a bit worried though because it seemed like we wouldn’t meet our minivan in time to make it to the Tagong horse festival. But like magic, right at 10 am our minivan came rolling down the road. Our driver had driven ahead to meet us. We unpacked our horses and packed the van, said goodbye to Uncle and drove a very bumpy road to Tagong. So ended our trip to Gongga Shan. We’ll post the Tagong horse festival shortly.
Cheers!
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