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Published: August 11th 2006
Mt Chanadorj (5958m)
I like the way that mountain look.Sunday July 30th
Our bus left at 7AM so we woke up by 6. As I was brushing my teeth I realized we were not the only ones taking an early bus as 2 swiss girls started talking to me. They were also going to Daocheng. Me and Amit were ready by 6:40 but the israeli girls were still notthere, they were sleeping at another hostel. I took a cabwith the swiss just in case the israeli girls would be late I could tell the bus driver to wait.
At the bus station I met Justine and Geoffrey whom I met first in Lijiang. They were going to Xiancheng then Litangforthe Horse Festival so we didn't have much time to talk and I forgot to ask for their emails. The israeli arrived once again fashionably almost late and we ended up taking off about 15 minutes late. On the bus were the 4 of us, 3 more israeli, the 2 swiss girls, some western guy who spoke chinese and several chinese tourists. I was a bit worried that Yading would be more touristy than I thought.
There was a police checkpoint 10 minutes from town but they just checked
On the road to Yading
The driver stopped to throw these prayer papers (they have prayers written on them). This was the highest point we reached on the road. chinese ID and didn't bother the tourists. The first part of the road was quite bad and muddy. After about 2 hours we got stuck for 30 minutes because a van was stuck in a pool of mud. We had to get out and push it out. The road becomes better the farther you get from Zhongdian which is a goodthing because it also becomes higher up on the mountainside (we reached 4800m in the bus). The scenery was quite impressive on the road and I regretted putting my camera in my backpackas there were several good pictures opportunity. We stopped around noon to eat some chinese food along the way which was decent, if overpriced. I had the chance to top my "worst bathroom in China" list at that stop also. There were about 10 piles of shit and piss all over the floor. The flies were loving it. We arrived in Xiancheng by 3pm and stopped quickly. About 4 hours later we arrived in Daocheng and we were quickly surrounded by touts. Almost all the westerners followed the nice looking one to the place called "Electric Power Guesthouse" which had decent triple rooms for 15RMB/beds.
The first
Mt Chenresig
Damn you clouds. Damn you. thing I noticed about Daocheng is that it is chinglish paradise. Every sign has been translated to english but probably all by the same guy. "One inch of silverware shop of family" is just an example. Amit and the girls had in mind a crazy 9 days trek from Yading to Lugu Lake, back in Yunnan. This trek has been done before a few times by westerners but you need guides, tents, sleeping bags and enough food to last for several days. This was problematic as none of us spoke chinese or had any of the items mentioned above. Still Amit was positive that everything could be worked out easily.
I was skeptical but I went along at first. We went around town tryingto find a travel agent or someone that could speak some english. We ended up finding one, after asking around for an hour, in an hostel, he was a guide from Dali and he tried to set us up with someone. This guy brought us to the local market where it appeared they were selling only mushrooms and we started talking with this tibetan guy who spoke decent english (and apparently perfect italian) and said he
Milk Lake 2
Beautiful color. Reminds me of Lake Louise. There was another even nicer lake but it was too cloudy and the picture is bad. :( could guide us to Lugu Lake with 2 horses. He didn't seem to know how much to ask and I was a bit skeptical about him. He kept asking stuff in tibetan to some people in the crowd that had gathered around the two laowai who were in the market (that's us). At some point he said he was busy here working so he'd come see us at 10:00PM at our hostel which we agreed (he was counting mushrooms or something).
We went back to the hostel and I had some kind of local flat bread for dinner and it was pretty good. I found an internet cafe and by 10PM went back to the hostel but the guy never came. I told the israeli that I'd just be doing a 2 days trek in Yading in the end. I didn't think we'd be able to arrange something fast enough (and I didn't feel likewaiting aroundhere for 3 days to get things arranged) since we have no equipment and no knowledge of chinese and finally going to Lugu Lake wasn't at all in the direction I was planning to go and I'd have tospend 3 days in transport just
River, grassland and mountains
River that passes close to the monastery with Chanadorj in the background, partly hidden by clouds. toget back here whcih I was not looking forward to. They agreed but decided to stay longer and still try to organize it. We said goodbye andgoodluck. I talked with the other israeli and we arranged to get a van tomorrow at 8AM to Yading.
Monday July 31st
We were all outside our room a bit past 8 ready to find a van or something to Yading. We walked to the bus station as they had told a chinese girl to meet there yesterday to get a van together. I bought another one of those flat bread for the road on the way. We had a goal of 30RMB each for the ride but the drivers started at 50 each. After about 20 minutes of haggling, done mostly by the chinese girl we finally agreed to 30 each (us 5 plus a chinese guy which had appeared 10 minutes into the negotiation). We all got in the car but the driver didn't seem in a rush to leave. He was going around town talking with his buddy taking it easy and ignoring us. The chinese couldn't tell what they were saying because they spoke in local dialect and they
Bunch of stones
I don't know how this monument is called. If you looked carefully every stone is carved in tibetan script. I don't read tibetan fluently so I don't know what it says but I assume it's prayers couldn't understand since they're from Guangzhou. At some point we threatened to leave the van if he didn't go and he got the point.
It took about 3 hours to get to Yading. The road is not too scary until the descent from the last col before Yading village. There the road is very high, in very bad condition and the driver seemed to love to get extremely close to the edge. Guess it's a revenge on us because we interrupted his conversation with his buddies. But I assume he was not afraid because he threw away prayer flags on top of the col so he knew he was protected. Unfortunately I'm no buddhist so I couldn't share his certitude. I talked a bit with everyone on board. There is an israeli girl travelling alone called Nu that speaks so low it's hard to understand and seems pretty shy. The other 2 israelis are a couple named Navid and Oshley. The chinese girl is named Virginia and the guy is Leo (didn't quite get it but that's how I'll call him). He is studying medicine in Guangzhou. Both chineses spoke a bit of english but not much so conversation
Monastery
Very colorful was a bit hard.
At the park entrance we said goodbye to the chinese as they were doing horse treks whereas we were walking. We'd meet in the tent lodge by nightfall and they said they'd get us bed when they'd get there. Oshley and Navid seemed to want to walk a bit alone so I walked with Nu most of the time. The trek I wanted to do in Yading is a walk around Mount Chenresig, a mountain that was declared Holy by the 5th Dalai Lama. Tibetans go around the mountain once a year. I got my information from www.chinabackpacker.com, the only good trekking site on Chin which is also where we got the information on the Lugu Hu-Yading trek that Amit wanted to do. The first part of the trek is along paved road and only goes up slightly so it was no problem. The only problem was that it started raining 10 minutes into the trek and Oshley and Navid talked about giving up but they finally persisted after it stopped 15 minutes later. Now it is important to understand that during all this trek the temperature doesn't go much above 10-12C so rain at
Monastery 2
Yeah I know, that's like too much color. Nevertheless there's a cool hat on the pic. this temperature is not as easily tolerable as rain at 30C. The average altitude is about 4000m and you could definately feel it when you were walking, especially if like me you brought your whole backpack with you.
It took about an hour and a half of slight uphill trail to reach a monastery at the feet of Mount Chenresig. I didn't manage to get a picture that does justice to this beautiful mountain due to clouds at some time or battery problems when there were no clouds (and lazyness about searching through my big backpack to get my recharged batteries) but it is truly impressive. Here's a link:
Chenresig. The monastery was quite nice especially since the horses don't seem to want to go up there so there is no chinese tourists and we had the place mostly to ourselves. On the main paved trail you get interrupted every 2 minutes by groups of chinese tourist who do the hello *giggle* bullshit. I don't know why but they seem so excited to say hello to a foreigner with a cowboy hat that they can't seem to say it without laughing, or at least just giggling a little bit,
Mt Chanadorj again
And the path on which we walked. after. As a nice canadian I started the day by saying hello back but after a few hours I started imitating Nu, the asshole israeli (in her own word), and stopped answering. Nu is quite a spiteful person, she's been in China 3 times but she hates chinese, or maybe I should say the average chinese (you know the one that spit, remove his shirt, chainsmoke and stare at you). She seemed to have had enough of all that because she was complaining about them constantly.
After the monastery the road continue for about 2:30 hours slightly uphill again. It started raining again at some point and it was pretty damn cold but in mountains weather changes fast and after 20 minutes or so it was back to sunny, but cloudy, weather. We reached the tent lodge by 4:15, about 15 minutes after the chinese who had come by horse. We went in the main "building" to eat but I was sort of put off by seeing the kitchen and opted to survive on tea and the food I had brought with me. It is place like this that make you like free market and capitalism, especially when you've
Friendly Yaks
I like them. They're cool. A bit stupid thought. But great in spaghetti. been to the Tiger Leaping Gorge a few days before. At TLG you can stay at several guesthouse for 15RMB on clean and dry beds, showers and eat delicious and inexpensive food. In Yading there are only 2 places that you're allowed to stay and they're both administered by the park. So for 3 times the price of what you'd pay at the TLG (for both the food and the lodging, it is 50RMB per bed) you get a "bed" in a tent that is not even waterproof, damp blankets that haven't been washed in years and no showers. Of course if there was any competition this place would have to increase standard (you know, like making it not rain on people when they sleep, I'm not a comfort freak far from it but not even being protected from rain when you sleep is bad) but I guess some fat chinese party member somewhere is making plenty of money so it doesn't matter. We tried to improve our moral by making bets on how long it had been since the blankets have last been washed. Too bad we don't speak tibetan so we couldn't ask to see who won.
We were joined by 2 friendly girls from Chengdu and it started raining so we were stuck in the tent. When it was finished I got out and walked around a little bit, going on a nearby hill to take better picture and also just to warm up as it was getting cold. I talked with a guy from Shanghai who was also going to go around the mountain tomorrow. He has a westerner colleague which is travelling with him but he was not feeling so well. Yading might be popular with chinese tourists but it is almost forgotten by westerner. Aside from this guy's colleague I crossed only one other westerner who was also accompanied by a chinese. This place is way off the beaten track if you want to get rid of western tourists and if you want to get rid of chinese tourists it's quite easy, just take 2 steps away from the main trail, they won't leave it. I went back in the tent and talked some more with everyone and went to sleep early as we'd have a though day tomorrow, although I didn't know yet how though the next 2 days would be.
Tent picture
Nu in the foreground, Virginia in the background and Leo is the guy with the mouth open. Tuesday August 1st
We had planned to get up by 6AM and leave by 7AM but I was the first one to wake up at around 6:45. We slowly organized and ate some small breakfast before setting off at 8:15. I talked with the westerner who works with the guy in Shanghai. He is the first westerner who has been living in China for more than 2 years that has a positive opinion of chineses, although he did admit that their driving habit drove him to road rages a few times. He was not doing the trek with his friend and would be waiting for them in the monatery. The chinese (the 2 from Guangzhou as well as the Chengdu girls) were doing the same trek as us but Virginia had hired a guide to carry her backpack and show the way. We were quite confident that we could go without guide as the website said it was very easy, just keep the mountain on the right and go around it. The problem was that it was quite cloudy so we couldn't see much but I figured it would be like in the Tiger Leaping Gorge, as soon as the
Tent picture 2
Navid and Oshley in the background and Chengdu girl 1 in front. Chengdu girl 2 doesn't appear in my picture unfortunately. sun would come out the clouds would lift up. The first hour or so is level and is quite easy. We go through some grassland where local horse eat quietly. After this comes the hard part, the climb to the col between Chenresig and Jampelyang which reach almost 5000m so at least 1km elevation from the tents. The climb was hard and we had to take several break. I was again happy to see that I was climbing the fastest. I know it's not a race but it's good to see that my cardio is improving. After about 2 hours of steady steep climb we reach Milk Lake, a beautiful turquoise lake that feeds off from a waterfall from the glacier of Mount Jampelyang. It is too bad that it was still too cloudy to see the glacier as it would've made the picture even better. I kept on going on the path without waiting for the chineses who were taking a few hundreds pictures by the lake. When I was almost halfway up the path I realized that the chinese were turning back. I thought they thought it was too hard so I didn't pay much attention, it hadn't
Mount Jampelyang again
Just after the rain. Cool mist. been hard to find the trail up to now so I didn't have any qualms about going without guides. A bit after the israelis told me to come back and go perpendicular from the path as they had seen the chinese take that route below. They thought it was the way and we were on the wrong path.
I was skeptical but I followed. It was a really though climb up there and the temperature was not improving, still cloudy, cold and rainy. They were talking about giving up but I managed to keep them going at least until I reached the top. I knew we had to see a second lake if we were to be on the right path and was really relieved when I did see a beautiful lake (but almost all covered by clouds unfortunately) from the top. I raced halfway back down to tell them we were on the right path and they joined me a few minutes later. We still couldn't see the chinese or any paths or way out from the lake so they still wanted to give up. I said goodbye and said I'd continue. They wished me good luck. I
Milk Lake
Too bad the clouds hides the glacier and the waterfall. You can also see that as soon as you go a bit up the mountain you're in the clouds and can't see anything anymore. had several reasons for continuing. First the clouds were lifting, in the last 20 minutes visibility had increase tremendously and if I had visibility I couldn't really get lost. Second I was pretty sure the beaten path was the good way so I'd just have to go back where I was previously heading and continue. Third it was only noon and I knew I could make the way back to the tent in 2 hours easily and that the sun set only past 8 so if there was no hope I could just turn back later. Fourth I was happy to go alone as I could walk faster and Nu's constant pessimistic character was starting to wear me down. Fifth I just hate giving up.
So I headed back on the path I was walking on just before the israeli told me to get away from it. The walk to the col was really hard, you could see that the altitude was making it way harder. The col was the highest point I reached on this walk at around 5000m. After the col I turned north and passed through a field with yak eating. I saw a fight between two very big males and the biggest one won. They were right on the path so I sort of deviated a little because even though yaks are generally peaceful a testosterone filled male is not something I want to approach when the given male is 3 times heavier than me and has horns. I was quite happy to let him be the alpha-yak.
Just like the website said I shortly reached an emerald lake and it started going downhill. I was really happy by this point as everything was fitting with what I remembered from the website so I figured I was on the right trail. The only problem was that even though clouds had indeed lifted up a lot on the other side of the mountain (close to Milk Lake), they were still very low (I was in the clouds actually) on the face I was now on. But since everything else seemed to be going according to the plan I just kept on going. I walked for about an hour through grasslands and waterfall. At this point I sort of thought I had walked enough on the side of the mountain and should think about going down but I couldn't see anything. I was still about an hour and a half from where I should go down but I decided to take the left turn (the first one) after a waterfall. I figured it was no problem and I could just keep following the mountain from below if I hadn't gone far enough and at least being lower I'd be out of the clouds and could see something on the horizon. What I didn't know at the time was that I was about to enter Kasi Hell Gully, a very deep river valley with no connection to Yading. It also started raining quite heavily at this point, something which lasted for the rest of the day.
The descent was hard and slippery so I had to be careful. It took maybe 30 minutes of very steep descent before I reached a sort of abandoned hut near a river. I saw a path following the river so I just followed it. I reached a second abandoned hut a while later. The path then left the river into a sort of hill but still followed the river from above. I was following the river because I figured it was probably the river that goes to the entrance of the park. The path went back to the river and I was getting a bit worried by that point. I just kept going down and down and the prospect of coming back to the tents grew dimmer as time went by. At that point I realized there was no going back and I'd have to either reach the main path or find another place to stay. The path was showing signs of good maintenance like very good bridges so I was a bit optimist. However by 4PM I was getting a bit desperate for good signs. I couldn't recognize the parts of the mountains I saw (damn clouds) and I was beginning to doubt that this was the good river. I was starting to make plans for the night, I didn't have tents or sleeping bags but had something to start a fire (that phrasebook might be usefull finally) so I started looking for places where I could sleep outside that would be a bit dry.
Around 4:30 I heard human noises nearby, the first humans I saw since I left the israelis. There were 3 tibetans women on the other side of the river who were waving me hello. They crossed the river very skillfully on a 1-tree bridge. I tried to communicate with my phrasebook but they didn't understand chinese signs. I asked for Yading and they pointed me in the direction I was going. After about 30 minutes walk with them we reached a group of houses. They pointed me to one of them and made some signs saying I should sleep there. I tried to ask for Yading (doing gesture like if I was driving a truck so they could understand I meant Yading village) but they made me understand that I should first sleep then go to Yading tomorrow. I followed one of the woman to her house. I'll try to describe it a bit. First you enter a big courtyard. On the left is the main house and on the right is what seems to be a blacksmiths workshop (from the sounds coming from it anyway). The man of the house motioned for me to enter the main house. On the first floor is where the animals seems to live and humans live on the second floor. When you enter the second floor from the main stairs on your left you have guest's rooms that also store some stuff (there's 2 of them) which is where I stayed, in front of the stairs there is the kitchen/dinner room and where the baby slept (to be closer to the fire I guess) and on the right is the "shower" (a big bowl that you fill with water and soap), the main room, the room for grandma and a room where they put random stuff. The place is decorated in standard tibetan style with very careful painting on the window edge. They have electricity but they use it only when it is very dark, like almost pitch black. All the time I spent in the kitchen they didn't have a light on and I could barely see anything. I didn't see everything of course but I got the feeling that even though they live in poor conditions by our standard they've got enough space to make anyone living in big city feels jealous. I found it funny that they have motorbikes posters in a village with no road. But I guess being tibetans they love motorbikes even if they can't use them.
He showed me my room and I just collapsed on the bed as soon as he left it. I removed all my soaked clothes and put something dry. After 10 minutes he came in the room again to invite me to the kitchen, just in time because if he had waited a bit more I might've fell asleep. In the kitchen he first gave me cups of yak butter tea. Cups yeah. Even though I didn't enjoy it in Zhongdian I had just spent the whole day trekking without any food break so the overly fat liquid tasted good at the time and I had several refill. After came rice and potato/beef curry. I was so happy to eat warm and filling food. The whole family was eating with me around the fire, talking together and taking glance at me. After I was done with my meal the daughter (one of the woman who I met on the path) motioned for me and the father to go in the room so we did. Once in there I realized he was looking for my phrasebook. I did manage to ask him a few questions but it is not a very profound mean to communicate. When I asked how to go to Yading he made a motion that I should go on top of the mountain and then turn right so I figured I'd ask for more information the day after. I did manage to tell him my name but never got his. I asked if I should pay and he said yes. He saw my ticket and was very impressed to see that I had paid 80RMB to get into the park. I was really tired so I gestured that I needed sleep. He said goodnight in tibetan (or so I thought) and I fell asleep about a minute later in a very comfortable, dry and warm bed.
Wednesday August 2nd
I woke up around 6:30 the day after but I was afraid to get out as no one seemed awake. I was at least happy to see that the weather was perfect, not a cloud in sight. It was not until 7:30 that I heard noises in the room so I ventured to the kitchen. The man invited me to the fire and I had several yak butter tea cup. He made me an omelette with 2 eggs and probably a few kilos of butter as it was the fattyest thing I've ever had in my life. Of course to complete a normal breakfast I had that with a humongous bowl of rice. At some point a young man came and took some hot logs from the fire to bring in the blacksmith's place. He told me: "You american english" to which I tried to reply I was a french-canadian but I don't think he got it all. I tried to ask the man to show me the mountain or the path I was supposed to go up before turning to Yading but he wouldn't leave his house, he just gestured me to go up and turn left and gestured toward the path I had taken the day before. I tried every gesture I could think of but I didn't manage to get him to show me better so off I went in the same path as yesterday. Just after I left the house I realized that the "group of houses" of yesterday was in fact a full fledged village but I could only see a few houses yesterday because visibility was so bad.
I was pretty pissed off about going back up the same path as I knew what it meant, several hours of constant ascent. I left the house at 8:45 (he had taken a lot of time to prepare breakfast) so I had about 12 hours of sunlight. I wish I could make it to the camp by then. I knew I had 3 bad sections before the col: the relatively slow but steady ascent on the river, the very steep ascent to the main path on the side of the mountain and finally the ascent to the col at 5000m. If I could make it to the col by 6 I'd be ok, I could do the descent in 2 hours. As I said before I'm getting in better shape but I'm definately not an athlete or an experienced trekker. I knew this would be the hardest day of trek I did to date. The forest near the village has lots of bamboos, at the col it is the last edge of grassland just before the tundra/desert and not a single tree grow there so I knew there was a huge difference in elevation.
In one of the history book I read recently there was this story about General Stillwell who led a party of about 100 american and british soldiers accross the "Hump", the towering 5000m mountains that separate Burma from India after the japanese invaded Burma. Reaching India by land was the only way they could save themselves from the lightning fast japanese advance but this was no easy feat even for professional soldiers. They had to cross jungles, swamps, huge mountain pass all on a very tight schedule because the monsoon was coming soon. General Stilwell imposed a very strict regime on his men by making them walk hard and eat little. He told them at the beginning: "You're gonna hate my guts after a day but I swear we will all make it out of here alive". And it was true, they were the only rescue party to make it from Burma to India without any causality.
What I did that day was nothing compared to what these men did but I used Stilwell as an aspiration. I set myself goals on time for all the landmarks I could remember from the walk yesterday and pushed myself extra hard all day. I knew my feet would hate my guts after a few hours but they'd thank me in the end. The first part along the river was the most depressing as I felt there was still so much to do and there were little memorable landmarks that could tell me that I was advancing, just the same old forest again and again. You could feel a difference however in the vegetation. At first it is bamboos, big leafy trees, heavy vegetation and you cross spiderwebs all the time. As you progress the bamboos disapears, then the leafy trees become coniferous, the spiderwebs disapears (or at least you don't feel them anymore) and the vegetation becomes less dense. As you climb the mountain it becomes even less dense until it becomes grassland and desert in some places. The first main landmark was the second abandonned hut I had seen yesterday which confirmed I was on the right path (it was not too obvious where to go at this stage). I saw the first one I had seen yesterday quickly after which is where the second part of my journey begins, the steep climb up the mountain. It was 13:20 by the beginning of that climb. I tried eating some cookies but they made me feel sick so I just didn't eat further. Also everytime I drank water I had this sick feeling but keeping hydrated is too important and I just ignored the feeling and drank anyway.
It took me about an hour and 15 minutes to climb up to the main track. Up there I could clearly see that no one in their right mind would ever go down in the path I went yesterday thinking it would lead to Yading. You could clearly see that it is a different valley and that you need to walk more on the side of the mountain before heading down but I couldn't see that yesterday. Since I thought the rest of the way up was easy I figured I'd try continue walking on the main path in the other direction, maybe after walking a bit I could see something or someone that would lead me in the right direction (as I knew going back on my track all the way to the lodge, then from the lodge to the entrance was not the fastest way to go) so I walked 30 minutes along the path. At this point I was pretty sure it was the right path but I had been thinking that since yesterday and it didn't lead me anywhere so I figured I'd play it safe and backtrack all the way to the tent. Might not be the fastest but it is the safest. I walked back and I discovered that the way up on the main track was a bit harder than what I thought. Before the lake it doesn't go up very steeply but it is continuous and the altitude is harder to deal with at this level.
I was astonished by the beauty of everything around me. I had seen nothing when I did this part yesterday and I could see pretty far today. I didn't take picture that day because I spent all my energy toward walking and didn't want to lose time with my camera because if I had started taking pictures it would've been hard to stop as there was just too many gorgeous things. Also by this time the weather worsened for a while and it hailed for about an hour, something that was not welcomed because the hail stones were actually big and fast enough to hurt. Also at this altitude when it is not sunny it is really cold so I was happy when the clouds dissipated around 6. I made it to the lake by 5PM and by this time I was 15 minutes behind schedule. I made it up the pretty steep hike after the lake in 45 minutes and it was pretty hard. I had to stop every 10 steps to catch my breath. My legs felt weak but I just kept pushing myself. I knew I was close to the col and after that it was all downhill from there, literally. Most importantly I didn't want to do the downhill part in the dark as it was the most dangerous.
After the steep ascent it is the yak pasture place where once again it seemed to be more inclined than I remember. I nevertheless made it to the col by 6:15, exhausted but happy that I at least wouldn't do the worst of the descent in the dark. On the way down to Milk Lake I saw the group of yaks from yesterday. I spotted the big alpha male from yesterday and for some reason he moved away from me when I walked through the yaks. I guess he knew I was not to be messed with. The way down was uneventful but hard on the legs as they were tired and the way down was steep and full of pointy rock. I made it down the majority of the descent by 7:15 and the last hour or so was spent walking on the grassland which was quite relaxing. I noticed that at the beginning of the walk I cared about whether I walked in mud, shit or whatever but at that point I didn't care, my feet had been wet and probably full of shit (mud certainly) for 2 days so I couldn't care less about a little more. About 5 minutes into the grassland I had a sip of water. The sick feeling came back and I realized that I probably hadn't digested my breakfast yet and it would have to go up at some point so instead of repressing my vomit feeling I just let it flow and within a few seconds I fertilized the field with the remnants of my breakfast. I know from my physiology classes that the body shuts down digestion during heavy exercice and I guess the breakfast I had would've been pretty hard to digest in normal circumstances so 12 hours of intense and continuous exercice probably made it too hard for my body to process it. I felt so much better after I evacuated.
I made it to the Tent Lodge 15 minutes late again at 8:15, totally exhausted. I asked for a bed but they were full so they put me on this crappy bed in the main building where they put all the blankets and sheets. I thought to myself well it sucks that I'll be close to the karaoke (where there's chinese sleeping, there's a karaoke it doesn't matter if it's a national park in the middle of the forest) but at least it won't rain on me. Wrong. Even the damn building is not waterproof and I had a few drops of water fall on me a few times a minutes (no wonder that the blankets are damp since that's where they store them) but I didn't care, it was a bed and only slightly cold so I slept well despite the karaoke next room which the chinese used until midnight. I guess horse trekking is less exhausting than real trekking.
Thursday August 3rd
I woke up around 7AM, packed and took off quickly. I wanted to get out of Yading as soon as possible. I did the trek back to the entrance in a bit more than 2 hours and I was at the entrance by 9:15AM. The chinese tour groups started appearing at around 8AM and they all did the hello *giggle* thing. I guess they can't say hello to a tired, dirty and hairy walking cowboy without giggling. At the entrance I tried to find other people who were going to Daocheng but I soon realized I had been stupid, no one except me would rush out of Yading. They would walk around take a few picture and the first ones who'd start leaving would appear by early afternoon. My suspicions were proven correct and I had to wait 5 hours and pay almost twice the price as I had paid to come to Yading to finally get a van to leave for Daocheng. The ride was totally uneventful except that the driver wouldn't stop when I asked him to because I had the best shot of Chenresig that I could ever imagined. I was really pissed but he didn't care. He played some crazy techno music all the way and stopped in Riwa, one of the village in the way, to chat with his buddies for 15 minutes. I mumbled several sentences out loud about him, "Fucking tibetan asshole" was among the nicest. He dropped me near my hostel, I bought some stuff at the grocery, checked-in, collapsed on the bed, ate like a pig, took a shower and fell asleep (pretty much in that order).
In retrospect I'm happy about this adventure. I totally pushed my limits and slept in a real tibetan house 10 hours walk away from any roads or tourists. I now know that the village name is Kasi and is at around 2800m whereas the col (highest point I reached) is slightly below 5000m. This meant I went up 2200m in one day with my big backpack and it was the first time I had ever trekked above 2500m. However I also made some stupid mistakes which could've been dramatic had I not meet the tibetans. I'm fairly certain I could've survived the night using fire and the several layers of clothes I had but even then nights get really cold up there and the weather was windy and rainy so we'll never know. One thing for sure I wouldn't have a good night and I wouldn't have had as much energy as I had after spending a good night of sleep in the tibetan home. My main mistake was made in the preparation part, I should've printed the maps and direction from the website, if I had them I wouldnt have been lost. You shouldn't be doing trekking without a good map or a good guide and I had neither so I totally deserve what I got. I was stupid but it's by doing mistakes that you learn and I sure as hell did.
Yading was a total highlight of my trip. The scenery is awesome. I suggest you go in September/October when there is less tourist and less rain. It is a big deception for me that I do not have pictures of Yading on a clear day. It is very impressive. If I ever go back to China I'll go back to Yading and finish that damn trek that's for sure. However I think it'll be ruined by tourist by the time I come back. You can see they're busy building the infrastructure (read: road to get there) as we speak. Right now it is very easy to get rid of all the tourists since they just follow the paved trail so I highly suggest you go there if you like trekking. Just print the map and direction at
ChinaBackpacker and you don't really need a guide although if it's cloudy I suggest you get one, they only ask for 100RMB a day.
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deleted_21906
Great!
Ok, now I think I will travel to Yading next holiday. The sight is really nice from your photos. So I trustfully believe that ‘the most horrible place in China is the most beautiful place“. Does the experience really near death? But I think it doesn't matter for me. I don't know where are you now. If you are in Guizhou. I think you can climb Mount Fanjing. It's a great challenge for a lot of peaple because of the ten thousand steps, and I remember I was tired to death that time when I reached the top after four hours. But the natural scenery on Mount Fanjing is of the same time spectacular, dangerous, pretty, strange and secluded.