Trekking near Tibet

---

It has been a week since I have had access to the internet....hell, it has been a week since I have had electricity! we have been trekking the mountainous area between the Yunnan and Tibet provinces. The small villages do not have electricity and the bathrooms are usually just a shed with a hole in the ground. Surprisingly, the do have solar hot water heaters so we are able to shower but that is usually in a shed with either mud and/or wooden planks for a floor. The food as well has been ify....not much meat and thus only vegetables, eggs, bread and noodles....after a few days, I was starting to go nuts so I stuck to multivitamins and cookies/cakes that I had with me.

The trekking has been some of the hardest I have ever done. Hours of walking up, up, up, up and up winding dustymuddy paths littered with horse/donkey/mule crap! But when you reach the top, the views area amazing and it make the hikes worth while.

The following pictures are from our bus rides (and stops) to Zhongdian, Dexin, Feilai Si, XiDan and then our trek to Yeubang (where we trekked to a waterfall), our hike to the Mingyong Glacier and our trip back to Zhongdian (where I am now on July 7th).

I hope everyone is doing well.

Larry

---

Photos

View from the bus
Our 5 hour bus ride from Lijian to Zhongdian provided some great scenery including this view of the Yangzi River (that is the spelling in the Lonely Planet).

Tibetans abound
As we draw closer to the boarder of the Tibetan province, the people and their clothing changed dramatically....as you can see how colorful from the photo.

average white (and blue) bus rider
Here I show the essentials for our long bus rides....water and chips...and if you look closely, you can see the black wires from my ears as my mp3 player was always on to help the ease of the crowded bus filled with singing tibetans as we head towards Zhongdian

Tea drinkers
we arrive in Zhongdian 6 hours later and find a place to crash. We sit around and enjoy some of Dr. Ho's speacial tea before strolling around the small village.

Military shopping
Everywhere you look, the military is there. I posed with a young girl in a small supermarket-type store.

Local streets
Einat, Louisa and I strolled the small, cobblestone streets of the old town.

Tibetans - old and young
A tibetan woman stops to inspect us and I snap this photo of her and child. The people are extremely nice and friendly.

Please, do not feed the foreigners
Tibetan girls throw un-poped corn kernals off their roof at me as I try and catch them in my mouth. It amused my friends as much as the girls.

Buddah wheel at night in Zhongdian
Lit up during the night, this prayer wheel is over 100 feet tall and can be seen from many parts of the old city.

On the road from Zhongdian to Dexin
The views from this mountainous journey of 6 hours was incredible.

I think I stand out in the photo
when the bus stopped for lunch at a small mountain village, the singing tibetans as me to join their group shot.

Tibetan border in background
bus driver stopped so we could snap photo of Meili mountain range which signifies Tibetan border

mountain home
along the mountain road, we passed a few of these "homes" which were miles away from anything. The bus stopped a few times and two women on the bus dropped off supplies for the residents.

Sunset from Feilai Si
This mountain village provided great views of the Meili range which we would subsequently trek in days to come

Decent towards the Mekong valley
From Feilai Si (which is 3650m above sea level), we decend towards the Mekong river towards Xidan.

Ladies
A group of Tibetan ladies sitting on the road side chatting

one street village
after traversing the Mekong river, we climb a bit and arrive in Xidan (pronounced Shidan) where we find a cheap guest house to rest before our massive climb to Yeubang.

village cooking
the owner of the guest house in Xidan prepares lunch for us...I have heard of outdoor showers but how about an outdoor kitchen?

warm up hike
we take a few hours and hike around Xidan to prepare for our giant climb the next day. Here is a view of the Mekong from the Xidan side.

Sharing the roads with local wildlife
The mountain goats are much better climbers than me

After 2 hours into the big climb
The same view of the Mekong river but as you can see, we are MUCH higher up than the day before in Xidan

Comments

[UNCLE BUDDY]

SAVE ME A MULE OR HORSE
THE PICTURES ARE AWESOME. I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO WATCH YOU TREK AS I RODE MY HORSE. WHAT A GREAT ADVENTURE . YOUR NEW NAME IS MARCO POLO LARRY.LOVE FROM ALL.