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Published: October 29th 2008
Saturday 25th - cooking class, we cooked sweet and spur pork, spicy chicken, chnese salad, egg plant and dumplings! All very nice and very hot!!
Sunday 26th - we went to a party, ate loads of food, lungs, sheep stomach, duck feet, intestine, tongue, ox's tail! The reason for the party was to celebrate the rebuilding of a families house that was destroyed by the earthquake! We were grilled about our views on china and the role of the government, I think all our answers were above board and correct even if we didn't agree with them! Rox was also asked how old age was and what age she could marry at! Think they fancied her!
Monday 27th - on the bus to drive towards tibet, leave hotel at 6 for a 9hr drive to danba! About 30 mins into it we need to stop as there are check points and we might not be allowed through! Oh the joy! The guide made it through ok, we sailed through, we were lucky though the road after the check point is only open for like two hours each day! We made it with 15 min to spare! The views as we climbed in to the Tibetan plataue were amazing! We stopped for lunch at some roadside restaurant - was so nice - it was like a banquet for like 2 pounds each! We continued driving until we reached our little home stay, a Tibetan village full of farming families! We again had a lovely meal, all veggie pretty much and spicy! We slept at 2200m in a room with no glass or anything in the open windows and no heating! Was surprisingly warmer than we thought! we was given a traditional dance and song after dinner, was very cool, had quite an Asian feel rather than Chinese!
Tuesday 28th - woken by a cockrel at around 0645, nice! The air here is so pure its unreal, feels so fresh and clean especially in comparrison to the big cities in china! Was suffering with gas due to the altitude, not good - and painful! Breakfast was very good, spicy cabbage, steamed wheat bread and rice porridge!(This is pete writing all of this bythe way)
Started our journey again, another 6 hours or so drive togong, increasing in altitude! Stopped in a local village to replenish water and snacks, also to buy some toys for the kids at an orphanage that intrepid supports! Drank holy water that was blessed by the 8th dali lama! Stopped in a traditional Tibetan village, horses, yaks wandering all around, nomads travelling through!! We have a nice bedroom, not as bright as the last place, still no heating though and we're 3500m up, its so cold, jackets and fleece's, hat and gloves! We went to a local restaurant and had yak meat, I had a yak stew, and Rox had a Tibetan pizza! The place was so cute - and freezing! It was one of our group marie-Louise birthday, so we had cake and crazy Chinese fireworks from the tour guides, which you had to hold in your hands, the crazy Tibetan workers obliged by going mad and throwing them everywhere! - crazy! Fun though! Rox hid inside!
Wednesday 29th - before leavng tagong for kandging we stopped at an orphanage/school in which the children live there due to being orphans or because there family live in extreme poverty. Most of the teachers are volunteers and there ae 140children in the school, it was quite an impressive building and not as expected. We gave some toys to the kids and played with them! Obviously the kids went mental, loved the balls and skipping ropes and badmington sets! They taught us a Tibetan version of tag which involved a lot of running - needless to say was out of breath all the time with a headache due to the altitude!Rox cheated alot after being caught far to much, she also fell in love with the kids and didnt want to leave. This was such a cool morning, seeing all the kids happy!! We were given a short cut to next destination so we didn't have to go through road closures etc, however on the short cut we came across to concrete slabs in the middle of the road - so out comes the tape measure to see if the bus would fit, we managed it round to outside! Now we were just hoping that the road block didn't mean narrow roads ahead as we're driving at 4300m, which is a long drop!Think Rox had a case of altitude sickness today and felt preety rough this morning especially after no sleep due to it being freezing and mice (hoping not rats) were running around.
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Dad & Mum
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Congratulations Peter
Peter, Congratualtions on getting your Masters. Everyone is so proud of your achievement. We know you worked so very hard to get it and deserve the Distinction. By the way, if you want to study for a PHD - your paying for it! Love and miss you both. Dad and Mum