Tangton- Town of encounters.


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Asia » China » Sichuan » Tagong
June 19th 2012
Published: June 19th 2012
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The landscape around the road from Chengdu to Kangdling is astonishing. It is really full of greens, dense of lively vegetation, with a lot of fruit trees. There is a river that goes all the way along next to you. Then the view changes dramatically in the way up going to Tangon where there the grassland and the yuks invade the whole view and you are allowed to see ones in a while light green mountains with the big Tibetan letters written on the land Om Mani Padme Hum.Which is their main sacred and more repetitive mantra.



Tagong is a small village in the middle of the mountains. With traditional Tibetan constructions made of stones and wood and some colors around the windows.<span> There are many places to taste their traditional drink: a butter milk tea. Which I do not like at all, and just the smell of it makes me feel quite sick.<span> It is the similar smell you have the fortune to smell in all their temples because they usually also offer this to their deities. There is also many small stands that sells yogurt and a local cheese. This last one, look likes very similar to Oxacan’s cheese in breads, <span> but is made from yuk milk so is more pale and darker, grayer. <span> A local old guy made me tries it, they dip it in a red spicy mix and they eat it with their tea. It is ok, not really a tasty cheese but nice to change my diet for a while.



I am in the cheapest dorm I found since I started to travel. I am paying 20Y (3.3u$) per night in a bed in share Tibetan room, full of colors, gold, and traditional wall and ceiling designs.



I went to Khampa Café for breakfast. It is just next to my place, which is also next to the Monastery,<span> (everything is next to, it is a real tiny place) here. There<span> I met Angela. Angela is a blond American woman, now in her 35, who came many years ago to Tibet to teach English. She met by chance a woman selling butter tea around Kundling and after that this person, a mom introduce her his son. They become good friends. They have seen several times during her staying here, until they fall in love. They married after she declared to him. And 8 years ago she left finally Colorado to establish with her husband in Tangong. They have a cute little kid, that looks more Tibetan than western, that speaks fluently both languages, plus Chinese. The kid has 5 now. She is ready to enter to school. But they decided that she will home school her in the western subjects, and also they sent her to a local Tibetan nunnery for a couple of years in order to let her daughter have a social active life. I cannot believe how she manages to live the whole year around here. But she seems pretty happy. She did not plan for this she said, just happened.



Tangton is a place to bike and hike, but I am not ready for that. I need to give my body time to adjust to the altitude, here is 3700m above sea level and believe me the body notice, you can not cheat it to him. So today I have just walked around the small shops, entered to the monastery and relaxed lazily in my 20Y bed per night.





<span>I met an Israeli guy that arrived to the hostel all wet, tired of walking from the fields working helping with the yaks. Then I met my new Latinamerica crew of travelers. Inti, a Belgan-Salvadorian guy that speaks 4 languages he is very funny and as the son of a revolutionary sandinista revelt he believed he can manage and oriented in the montain as nodody else. He has long hair and everybody here is very surprised on his rasta-hippi look. Finally I met Marcelo, and Argentine dentist and hiker that lives in Barcelona and come to China to celebrate his 40...small world...





I was supposed to stay in Tongton for 2 nights, but I will live tomorrow to Ganzi (or Ganza) because it is raining a lot, I am really eager to get there soon and stay 2 nights in one place. <span> It is a place that was also closed (such as the sacred places in visited in Gansu province) for a while regarding their security system and for the god sakes of tourist …

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19th June 2012

nice entry
good travels
19th June 2012

se te extraNa por LaLaLand!
A veces me encuentro frunciendo el ceNo tratando de entender lo que estas escribiendo en Inglish... pero siempre sonriendo y casi compartiendo el viaje con vos... tus andanzas y tus encuentros y conexiones con vos misma y con el mundo. Tratando de imaginarme tus emociones y sensaciones alli. Besos, amiga... se te extraNa por LaLaLand!

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