The wild wild west (of Sichuan)

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Well, I made it to Litang after another 10 hour bus ride. The ride itself was breathtaking, in more ways than one. On the way over, we passed three passes, the highest of which was 4700m. For perspective, this is half the cruising altitude of a jetliner! At these heights any sudden move leaves you breathless. Of course, forgetting this, I darted out of the bus on one of the stops and got one of those sudden blackouts which you get when you suddenly get up. I should really pace myself...

Apart from that, the ride was uneventful. The usual cast of bus passengers made an appearance. There was the guy who say next to me who decided he just had to find out if he could pass his lung through his windpipe and along the way infect the entire bus with what had to be some really infectious disease. There's always at least one of those on the bus. To break the monotony, we had a bus driver who I guess thought himself to be the yet undiscovered Tibetan Pavarotti, singing Tibettan (love?) songs whenever he got fed up with the selection of tapes.

Reaching Litang, I was pleasantly surprised. This place has a Wild West quality to it. A dusty main street with a mix of cowboys, country bumpkins, and monks (ok, there were none of those in the wild west...). You just have to replace the American faces with Tibetan ones. The one great thing here is that it seems as if I'm the only white person here. If I want to see another western face, my only option is to look in the mirror! Also, there are no attractions per se, so instead of seeing the attractions, I am the attraction! On average, I get a friendly

Hello!

every 20 seconds when I walk down the street. To this I answer back

Hello

which seems to generate mountains of giggles. To be fair, they sometimes shout the occasional

OK!

which seems to be the other English word which the Chinese know.

Speaking of the differences between Chinese and Tibetans, the one striking thing is that Tibetans are HUGE. While the Chinese seem to be vertically challenged, there is no shortage of lanky, 6 foot or taller Tibetans. I feel like a midget here.

Anyway, enough for today. I'll add pictures of the place when I get the chance to upload them (no proper connection on this computer).

So goodbye from Litang, the place where running water is an option, and a hot shower is not...

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Comments

[Oren Sanie]

Sorry mate,
But I didn't understand the lung and windpipe metaphor. I guess I'm Englishly challenged. Please do explain.