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Published: October 8th 2018
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September 23 - Yubeng Village-Día 94
Walking up at 6:30am to see the sunrise. At sunrise it was the best opportunity to see the great Meli Snow Mountain Range. After, the clouds tend to come in and cover the peaks.
My lucky morning since the clouds seemed to have let us see the majestic Mt Kawagarbo. The tallest and holiest mountain in the region of Yunnan. Unclimbed till the present day. The BEST moment was when the sun hit the top of Mt Kawagarbo and spread itself over all the top section of the range. It was a magestic moment. Understanding why the Tibetans consider them as the holiest mountains. Soon enough the clouds came in and covered the mountain range from our view. As if the curtain in the theater had been closed.
After such a spectacle a car picked us up and took us to Xidang which is the start point for the hike all the way up to Yubeng Village. A 6 hours hike with more then 1000meters elevation gain. With my big backpack it was a challenge.
We stopped midway at a local tea house to drink some Tibetan Milk Tea ?. Can't stress enough how good
it is jaja
Slowly after a long hike through some beautiful forests and missing the chance to see the monkeys as they moved around the trees and hid from sight we arrived to Yubeng. This village is my all time favorite alpine village so far! The scenary around it is just too incredible and the Chinese houses are so old style.
Arriving we went for a short hike through some beautiful old growth forests filled with mushrooms. The most impressive thing was the silence while walking in the woods. I just could not get over it.
With the light vanishing we went back to the village and had a big meal with the rest of the crew.
September 24 - Yubeng Village 2 - Dia 95
Ling and I had put ourselves a big challenge for the day. Since we where going to head out of the area tomorrow we wanted to hit the two popular hikes around the area in 1 day. Requiring around 30km of walking and more then 1500m of elevation gain ?. Everyone split both hikes in 2 days and we understood why by the end of today jajaja.
Starting at 8:30am we left town
to visit the famous holy glacier lake. This was the toughest hike. Good thing we started early since we were ahead of all the Chinese hikers. Interestingly only a small amount of Chinese hike its not a common thing around China I have been told by the locals. The hike was through a mixture of sun and clouds through wet forests. Once we got to the alpine the views where amazing, steep cliffs, isolated waterfalls and glaciers partly hiding behind the clouds. There was a small cabin serving Tibetan milk tea, Ling and I took the advantage of sitting inside the smoky cabin drinking a big tea pot. Good energy for the rest of the day ?
With my stomach full of warm tea we went for the last kilometer to the glacier lake. Unfortunately the lake was mostly clouded over which did not help with the views. I was not bothered but Ling seemed a bit more disturbed about not being able to see anything.
We headed back the same way we came and got to Yubeng Village by around 1pm. With still one more hike we stopped quickly to eat something and started heading over to the sacred
waterfall. Everything is believed to be sacred by the Tibetans, they seem to find a holy story for almost every object ?
The walk towards the waterfalls was the sunniest. We passed through some weird berry bushes which as soon as I got confirmation from a local that they were edible I kept on eating them through the hike?.
After another 3 hour we finally made it and this time we're surrounded by a clouded valley with waterfalls everywhere you looked?. Since the waterfall is sacred many Tibetans do the hike to walk around the waterfall 3 times. There were a couple of locals who took their clothes off and ran around the waterfall getting blessed by the gods. I just watched shivering, not daring to go in since it was cold and had started to rain. I did feel with myself for not doing so on the way back though. Starting to feel tired we walked a long way back to the village. By now I was destroyed physically.
In the village we were welcomed by a huge festive dinner with our friends. A good reward after such a long day. Chinese celebrate today the mid autumn festival so
a lot of food was eaten and we sang some Chinese songs around the dinning table. I was pushed into singing a Mexican song, choosing Canta y no llores ??. I like getting immersed in Chinese culture even though I can't really speak with the locals.
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