Day 13: Songpan

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Just got back from a 3 day horse trek out of Songpan. There were some high highs and low lows. I'm sure stephanie will cover the lows in her blog, so I'll summarize them quickly: back and butt pain from riding horses 6 hours a day, crappy food, extremely uncomfortable beds, not-so-hospitibal Tibetan hosts, COLD mornings, the ride home. As for the highs: the scenery was amazing. Riding along rivers, through forests, with waterfalls, snowcapped mountains - it was awesome.

We first heard about the horse trek thing from the hostel in Jiuzhaigou. It sounded fun, and it was in Songpan which is part of the way to Chengdu, where we were headed anyway. In the Lonely Planet, the horse trek to Ice mountain was recommended. According to our 2009 lonely planet it should cost 350 yuan per person. We met a british guy named Adam in Jiuzhaigou that also was going to songpan for the horse trek, so we informally became travel buddies at that point.

The morning of the 27th we got in to Songpan, with enough time to book the trek. Unfortunately the price had gone up considerably, probably because lonely planet hypes it so much. We booked it anyway. Our horses showed up, and it was kind of a sad sight. They all had big burrs in their manes and tails. There were three horses for the three of us, but there were also two guides. Where were their horses? we wondered. It turned out that the guides had to walk the whole way, while we rode horses.

The guides were a man and his wife. The man ("matthew" which i'm sure is not his given name) was in very good shape, and never seemed to run out of breath. His wife on the other hand was breathing hard once we got going up the first of several very steep mountains. At one point she started throwing up from working too hard. Matthew was yelling at her in chinese, probably something about hurring up. Poor lady. Adam volunteered to walk for a while so she could ride the horse. Throughout the trip she would periodically get on a horse with someone else, when she would get tired. Kind of a weird guide situation, really.

The trails were sometimes pretty sketchy, but fun. I was surprised the horses made it up some of the parts. Lots of river crossings on the first day.

After 6 hours of riding we made it up to the tibetan house that we were sleeping at. They had a picture of Mao (the leader of the PRC from 1949 until his death in 1979 i think) above the front door, but a picture of the dalai lama in their living room. I think the picture of mao was just for appearances. We had dinner with the tibetans, none of which spoke english. Our guide matthew spoke very broken english, but he didn't seem to care to translate what was being said. So basically there was a 5 person conversation in chinese, and a 3 person conversation in english. After dinner they put on a DVD of tibetan music videos, which was pretty entertaining.

I should say that we were expecting a very rural house with no electricity. It turned out they had electricity, cell phones, and a tv. Still no oven, microwave, fridge, or running water... but its still interesting how tv and cell phones have made it up to the hills. But their toilet is still just a hole in the ground.

That night we didn't get the best sleep - my bed was the worst of the three they provided. I had a carpet for a mattress and a pillow made out of wood chips. But more on that in stephanies blog.

The second day culminated at Ice Mountain, which lives up to its name. It is a 5500 meter peak, but we just rode up to the base, which was I think over 4000 meters (12000 feet). Luckily Matthew came alone, and his wife stayed back at the house.

The third day was more of an ordeal than anything. We were all sore from the previous days, and the weather had turned bad overnight, and it had rained. It had been sunny and pleasant the first two days, but it was cold and foggy on the third. The horses kept brushing past pushes with dew on them, so we were soaked and cold. We were relieved to finally make it back to songpan.

Overall a fun trip, although I am suuuper sore. It doesn't help that we have to get up for a 6 am bus to Chengdu, which could take anywhere from 8 to 12 hours. I guess there is a lot of earthquake damage so the road is pretty bad.

Until next time...

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Comments

[Matt Potterton]

Matt Power!
At least your guide was given a good strong manly name.