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Published: December 13th 2007
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Arguments and summits
The yak burger was pretty big but after a day of walking an no lunch I was confident that I woul finish it, but alas no…I left two crusts: the bread was so filling! Pierre on the other hande managed to finish his, it was a massive effort. Tonight we are heading back to Leisha’s Restaurant for “Beef Steak”, which jugdging from the comments stuck onto the wall is also supposed to be pretty good.
Last night was again cold in the room and the windows froze again, but my sleep was better than the night before albeit still slightly disrupted. The good thing was that th owners of the hotel had agreed to heat up the shower for us in the morning, so when we woke up we were treated to a warmish shower. Then it was over to Leisha’s for some warm apple pie (hehe), seriously though she makes a good apple pie.
We headed up towards the monastery on the Sichuan side of town and got there just as the younger monks began their ‘discussions’, which is more like arguing. It was fascinating to watch and even better knowing that it was
completely real - as in, they weren’t doing it for tourists (we were the only two foreigners there), this was something that they normally do: part of everyday monk life and we were lucky to be there at the right time. It seemed like it was mostly the younger monks and could have been some form of training for when they are full lamas ande have in-depth deiscussions. It was amazing to watch: the foot stamping, hand slapping, pushing, shouting and general energy of the whole experience. Some monks got right into it while others, mostly the youngest ones were not so enthused and two in particular were given some stern words from the principal monks (these ones weren’t as fancy as the ones at Labrang, but they still had presence and were not afraid to use their bamboo sticks to dish out some ‘encouragment’).
After watching the monks for about half an hour we set our sights on the highest peak we could see that looked climbable (it's a word, maybe). As we made our way up we passed rhododendrons clinging to rocky outcrops and when walking in the shadows we were in snow that covered our boots.
For the next, god knows how long, we climbed and climbed and climbed some more until there were no more rhododrendrons (but more snow) and at about 4.30pm we made the summit. It was absolutely amazing how far we could see despite the presence of some pollution in the air. Our peak was easily as high as most of the others around us and it was a pretty good feeling to know that if Langmusi is really 3300m high then standing at the peak I was way above Mt Kosciusko (2228m). Still trying to find out exactly how high we were but geeze it looked like we were easily another 1000m up but then again I’m not sure. As we stood on the summit ande th wind howlede past us, you could see the eagles actually flying lower than us in the gorge!
After taking in our achievement it was about 4.50 and we then had just over an hour to get down again before the sun set behind the mountains. I hate going down so much more than going up, it hurts thed knees, you are already tired from going up so you aren't concentrating as much and
when you are up so high you have so much more to go down!!! Somehow we made it deown by 6pm and hedadede straight to Leisha’s to book ourselves in for two beef steaks at 7pm. And now here I am.
Tomorrow I am planning on heading back to Xining to take the train to Tibet, not exactly sure how I am going to get there as I’m not sure abou tth bus situation but it seems that I will have to take a bus back to Hezuo aned if I can’t gte a irct bus to Xining, then a bus to Lanzhou ande hopefully if I make it in time either the last train or last bus to Xining. So tomorrw will be a full day in transit again. Fun.
Hope you are all still enjoying the blog.
P.S. Sorry about the spelling but every time I push the ‘d’ or ‘e’ key both seem to be pressed together. Annoying!
Back soon
Matt out.
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trish v
non-member comment
Mountain Climbing!
Wow, first of all the Yak Burger looked pretty good, not at all how I imagined! Secondly your only experience of climbing mountains was the indoor centre at Nunawading - now you are doing the real thing - well done - the views were awesome! Photo's once again are fantastic - keep up the good work! Safe travel to Tibet! Mxx