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Published: September 11th 2007
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Tashi delek (hello in Tibetan).
Just back into civilization aka Chengdu China after over 3 weeks "on the road". Ruth (a German translator who has been living in Barcelona Spain for over 20 yrs) and I met "online" and struck up a great balanced team for our Tibetan cycling adventure. This was Ruth's 5th visit on bike to Tibet and she speaks Tibetan and some Mandarin and opened the doors for us to enter into the monasteries and stay with Monks and Nomads. I (don't laugh) brought the more technical and handy side to the team...opening awkward doors, fixing bits and pieces, adjusting my disc brakes, and shooshing nasty cigarette smoking men away. Ruth and I had fun speaking in spanish when we didn't want others to know what we were saying...
We cycled over 700 km on paved, dirt, mud and gravel roads through eastern Tibet. For those of you interested and with a map, remembering that there are both Tibetan and Chinese names for these places; Bame-Tawu-Luhua-Serwu-Kandze-Dargye Monastery-Manigango-Nomad camp-Derge-Dzogchen Monastery-Zhechen Monastery-Jowu Monastery-Sershul-Zhiwu-Darlak-Aba. We also used a combination of hitchiking on trucks, paying for mini-buses, and buses to travel more quickly over some of the less interesting areas
and to come/go to Chengdu.
The stats are...
...over 6 passes thru Tibet the highest one Tro La at 4900m...have been living above 3300m for the last 3 weeks...10 days without a shower...stayed in various hotels, guest houses, monks homes, tented with nomads (see pic)...met lots of interesting people & Tibetans, particulary those who had gone to India (Dharamsala & Karnataka) for education (hence spoke english) and monk training with the Dali Lama.
The cycling trip went remarkably well...no flats, no bike problems, no sickness nor accidents (my small camera was stolen on the 1st night though...luckily I have a 2nd monster camera with me !). Even though I just cycled 700km and did passes above 4000m I struggled with them. At higher altitudes I fatigue very quickly and have lost some weight. I even pushed my bike up the last 2km of the pass as my legs just wouldn't move anymore (Ruth was patient with me as she strongly cycled to the pass).
We have been eating fantastic spicy Schichuan vegetarian food with chilis and garlic and ginger...ate tsampa (Tibetan staple diet - a bowl of ground barley that you mix with your fingers into raw
dough balls with hot tea, butter, cheese grits, and sugar or salt...a bit of an acquired taste that is for sure...like eating brown Playdough).
A Story About Karma...
Our story had a very very happy and karma ending. Pay attention and follow if you can. Ruth met a monk of high standing/rank in Chengdu at the Traffic Hotel...we then met the same monk by coincidence at a local school dance festival (in the countryside in the middle of NOWHERE) that he happened to be overseeing. We were invited into the VIP tent and fed and watered well. This monk introduced us to a lovely smart and obviously outstanding young boy student who was also a good dancer. This boy and another lovely little dancing boy adored Ruth's red Chinese bike (red is the colour of Tibet...no one here has been impressed by my Specialised blue bike worth 3x the price of Ruth's red Chinese bike!) and took it for a spin. We spent some time drinking tea with the boys and Ruth promised she would TRY to bring the bike back and leave it with them. Alas...our travels took us in the opposite direction and we ended back in
Chengdu with both bikes in tow after many road construction delays etc. Disappointed little boys brings bad karma. Ruth just happened to be standing at the Traffic Hotel desk as I was sorting out bike storage...and she ran into the SAME monk again. The circle was completed and the boys will be happy as this monk promised us he would take the bike back (2-3 days via bus) and deliver it to the little boys.
Happy ending eh ?
On arriving in the major city of Chengdu I headed straight to Starbucks (people DON'T drink coffee here and I have suffered withdrawal !) and feasted on a McDonalds cheeseburger for some red meat protein. I haven't eaten meat since I arrived here for fear of getting sick from some nasty yak meat (you can eat a bad vegetable and live...bad meat can killya!).
So far so good...all is well on the home front and my karma is keeping me safe and healthy.
And now...on to Lhasa Sept 12 for the next leg of my journey...
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Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 15; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0274s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
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Don Marcotte
non-member comment
Great Pictures!
Hey Susan, What an amazing trip! Good to see you're in good health and cycling. Hope to catch up with you in Laos. Cheers, don