Sino-Nepal highway

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25/9/09

Started my journey to Nepal so again back on the highway 318, the Sino-Nepal highway. The road condition was pretty good and we travel along with the Yaluzangbu river again. The further we going upstream the river getting narrower, and the scene were pretty much the same like anywhere in Tibet, only the tibetan houses we seen were more in tradition flat roof.
Shigatse(@3800m) is the 2nd biggest city in Tibet, so...no surprise to seen club houses and Ktv, but still no compared with Lhasa. Thing were cheaper here as noodle soup cost only 6 yuans. And I saw a sign written "haircut 5 yuans, shower 5 yuans". Saw a construction when approaching Shigatse from afar, looked like the Potala, "the new fort" a local told me, it was still a ruin before 2005, and now the new building stood on the site of the old fort, although still not finish yet, over look the whole area. The interior is modern, all in red, black and white colour, decorated with golden spots. "it will becomes another tourist site" a local man said to me. But the main sight in town was the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery which could dated back to the 14th century. Since the year 1660 here became the headquarters for the Panchen Lamas. Within the compound was like a small village with lanes criss-cross from house to house which provided many pretty scenes for photo, the main preaching hall still kept the throne seat of the Lama which was craved out from the sandalwood, and a beautiful made 11m tall Mile buddha status in the next hall which was created by craftsman from Nepal. But the most awesome one was inside the Qiangba temple, only the lotus base was already 3.8m tall, and the buddha was almost 27m tall, it was made from 300kg of gold and 120000kg of copper. Said to be the tallest bronze buddha status in the world. Looking at the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery from afar, the most outstanding was the huge wall on the side of the hill, which was the hanging wall for the huge tanghka on festival day. surrounded the monastery on the back was a walking trail for pilgrimages, from up there you could get a great view for the whole town. Opposite the monastery was a hand produced carpet factory, which was aimed to provided job for local women(now had 180 women working there), and preserved the handicraft. 44% of the profit goes to the workers, 4% for operation cost, 11% returned back to the factory, and the rest contributed to the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. the factory was open to public from 09:00 to 19:00, the quality seem very good and the design was rather nice too.
The town of Shigatse wasn't that big, and the old quarter underneath the fort was a nice area to explore, a small moslem mosque hidden inside the tibetan community. The small handicraft corridor was right outside the Tenzin hotel was a good place to hunted for souvenirs, I saw far more unique items than you could see in Lhasa. Right next to the souvenir on one end was the sheep meat market with many skeleton hanging on the stalls. on the other end was alcohol quarter where people gathered to drink the barley wine, I filled up my small bottle and the vendor told me "1 yuan"! A bottom cheap way to get drunk!!!

Note
Bus Lhasa to Shigatse 54 yuans
Bus Shigatse to Old Tingri(Gangga) 86 yuans / to Zhangmu 180 yuans

28/9/09

Again...very good road from Shigatse to Old Tingri, and the scene was very pretty even though it was the same kind of dry mountains, and of course with the magnificent clear blue sky, but the shape of the mountains and hills were wild created by the hand of nature. And after New Tingri we entered the Himalayan area, over the 5000m pass the snow mountain were surrounding us, I couldn't help but opened the bus window, braving the chilly wind I fired my shutter. After 6 hrs drive we arrive Old Tingri, original name was Gangga. "money, money"(in english) was the first few words I heard when I got off the bus next to the tiny market. Young kids, old women, all held out their hand, rubbing fore-finger with thumb, "money money" they chanting, I wondered who was the sucker gave the first coin to the local, but judging by the english word they spilled out, it should be a westerner! they all encouraged you to took their picture and then "money money" again after you shot the round. Luckily they didn't insisted when you said no. But it did stop me approaching the villages and encountered with the local.
Gangga town(@43250m) was simple, just a single street with 2 rows of houses on both sides of the 318 highway acted as the business area, a small hill on one side of the road, and the real Gangga village was hiding behind. It was really like the scene on the wild west. A small daily market occupied the centre of town, with couple of vendors selling cheap goods, and couple of stalls hanged out sheep meat, stray dogs hobble around hoping for unintended dropped out. And fight fiercely whenever a bone had been thrown out. Dogs here were very timid when encountered human, unlike those in Thailand, you wouldn't dare to walked on the street when you saw that many dogs outside. Gangga was a junction point for the Himalayan base camp, so many organized tour would stop for lunch here before heading uphill or stay overnight after coming down from the mountain. So accommodation were plenty here. Instead of paying a fortune to go to the base camp, I decided to watch the Everest from afar, and Gangga offered the opportunity. I went for sunset the 1st afternoon on arrival, but too many cloud block the giant top, but the blue sky with the other snow cap mountain of the Himalayan range already overwhelming me. Sunrise was superb, although I was almost chilled to death, but the sight was marvellous, the shining spot in the early hour was the snow cap, seem like it was hanging on mid-air, the first time that I wish I had a tripod. With the sun coming up, the sky began to lit up, orange spot showed on snow mountain top, then I saw the Everest, the tallest on this planet, 8844.43m to be precise! Many adventurous travellers came to climb it every year, standing on the top of that rock was many people's dream, now it was right in front of my eye. But it was on the back light on sunrise, so one couldn't seen it very sharp, got to wait for midday. Still...the sight was beautiful, the whole valley laid out flat in front, with few sand hill dotted in between the Himalayas. "I will climb up there later" I told myself when I saw I small hilltop more closer to the Everest in the middle of the valley. So I made the walked yesterday afternoon, it was a comfortable hike, and the hill was only 230m high, so it wouldn't cost me a lot of energy to got up there. I whirled around slowly for few times, looking at the scene I was in the middle of the Himalayas and surrounding by the mountain ranges. Although I still couldn't see the giant in full face because of the cloud, but the views was already made me satisfied. And by late afternoon the sky above the himalaya was again carpeted by white cloud which blocked most of the mountain tops. I think the best time to view the Everest should be from sunrise till 5pm in the day.
Spend a day hanged around Gangga village, the villagers were all busy in barley harvesting, cutting off the stern from the seedy part, the seedy part to grounded powder and the stern were kept for cattle. Here beside barley, they also grow rapeseed, soya and potato, and breeding sheep seen like their main economic. People were much more easy approached once off the business street, only some children trying the money money line, I did noticed those over 15 year old already felt the shame when tried "mo-n-e-y" the voice went weaker and weaker. There still dignity in peoples heart I guess, but still...out of the blue when I wandering out into the desert valley, a shepherd approaching and talked to me in tibetan , although I couldn't really understood but I did heard the word money and his hand out, I pointed at his sheeps "you are richer than me" and told him no. He kept talking and talking as I walked away, and his face showed confused and disgusted, seem like I should gave him some money, and shouldn't walked away like this, strange! There were many different kind of birds in the valley, although I had no knowledge of bird but I could tell they were different, and many field rat speed from hole to hole in the desert ground, I did saw a big rabbit while waiting for sunrise, a rabbit with a pair of long ear! There were fishes in the small stream too, but I hadn't seen any local fishing or ate fish either, guess it wasn't their taste.

30/9/09

Plan to spend the last two days walked around the area. Picked a direction each day, aiming at the hilltop and off I go. But...the distant was far greater than I saw, I thought it should be about an hour walk and it turned out more than 3 hrs, not even got to the base of the hill. I think it was because the himalaya was so big, it confused me that it was closer as I could see it so clear and so large. Anyways...up the hilltop or not, the walked was pleasant, and people in the middle of the desert valley were far more friendly. For the last few days I again developed a routine, woke up late, ate huge brunch and packed 2 boiled eggs, heading out for hike, came back late afternoon for late coffee, read or write a bit, out for sunset section before dinner in the canteen I patronized every meal, and the day went by without much trouble.
Although some villagers got motorbike here, but the main transportation still horse-cart, or just riding horse without the cart! As gasoline was expensive and hard to get, beside...horse only eat grass!
The more I walked into the desert valley the more I saw difference wild life, of course only small wild life, and it was just a desert in there, small streams cut cross the land and created many swamp lands, it made advancing rather difficult, but there was other kind of difficult while walking inside the valley, the small potholes that was drilling by the field rat, I later called them tunnel rat as the drilled through the ground and made so many holes, many times I step on it and my feet dropped almost 6 inches, quite danger as it might gave me more twisted ankles! I saw different kind of birds again, it was very beautiful one, always appeared in pairs, head like a crown and with black and white stripes on feather, very pretty. I saw it in Ganzi before though. And I also saw something like a heron, only it is smaller. There not just fish in the stream, I saw many frogs too. But wait a minute...every wild life was small?!?! Small size...small birds, small rats, small fishes, small frogs, something about the altitude? Something about the heat and cold at the same time? Something about being in Tibet?
Not only I over estimated my walking ability. I also under estimated the coldness at the altitude over 4200m, although under the heat of the sun, but once the sudden gale rushed in, and encountered those spots underneath my backpack and behind my neck where was already dampen by sweat, would send a tremendous shivering through my body, that was it, again and again I got the cold, at last I need to laid down for recovery today. What a good excuse to being lazy and stay in!

2/10/09

Made a stop in Nilamu(@3700m) which was about 30km before Zhangmu, the last town on the Nepali border. Nilamu was situated in the deep gorge of the Himalaya range, sandwiched by couple of snow mountains, very windy here and cloud fog drifted in all the time, drizzle showering down once in awhile which made the temperature dropped. Nilamu was an nondescript small town erected by the Boqu river. By surprised I saw many(only) western organized tour stopped here for accommodation, and most of the shops and restaurants had english sign...something like "Western Foods and Coffee Bar", a cup of cuppocino for 8 yuans!later I heard here is another base to climb other Himalaya hill tops. This morning I did find a trail uphill, and after a short walked couple of snow caps appeared behind the barren mountain that I was walking on, it lighting up my spirits as I believed I will had a good day hike with great scene. But half way up hill when I tried to bend down and tighten my shoestring(too lazy to unloaded my backpack first), I realized something went wrong when I felt the tighten stretched on my back, a sharp pain! I knew right away my day was over! Although the pain wasn't that immense but it was there. Looking up the trail soon I will get to the top and the view was there waiting, but...the alarm was wailing on by back, even walking back down was already a long way. The rest of the day was painful, whenever any movement came across bending down, kneeling down, or simply turn left and right made me screamed. It rung the bell that I'd to aware went trekking in Nepal later, no more stupid move and be prepared!

Note
Bus from Gangga to Nilamu 80 yuans

4/10/09

After 2 days rest the pain on my back hurt less, so I carried on to the border town Zhangmu(@2200m), altitude receded and temperature more warmer, it would help heal my back pain I guess. The journey was run between deep gorge and the scene was superb! There was no bus run between Nilamu and Zhangmu unless you wait for bus come from Shigatse or Lhasa, but that would be late in the afternoon.I was prepared to hitch but there was a jeep that was heading to Zhangmu, a little bit bargained and we reached 30 yuans and dealt. The 30km journey wouldn't take long with a jeep. Zhangmu was a small town built on the side of the mountain, a single narrow road with houses on both sides, its run a length more than a kilometre curving around the hillside. It plainly existed because of the border trading I guess, as there was only shops and restaurants, guesthouses, entertainment like ktv, I saw a disco, a night club, all kind of wholesaler and shipping companies, mixed ethnic here with of course Tibetan and Chinese, Nepalese and moslems and of course again...tourists! but the street wouldn't get busy until after 8pm when rented 4WD tours and the arrival of long distant bus. Zhangmu also had the typical border town favour...shop front in red/pink light, sure you know what you would get if you walk inside. And while in Zhangmu you already felt like aboard, at least not in Tibet (compared with all those towns and villages I'd came through so far).

Note
Exchange rate in Zhangmu is 1 yuan to 11.35 rupee.
border crossing open at 10am.

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Comments

[anonymous]

You seem to have visited every corner of Southwestern China. Enjoy China.

[anonymous]

Im headed to China in two weeks, I was blown away by your pictures. I want to try your route of travel I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction? It seems you weren't using a guide and using busses do have any tips on doing that? thanks ty

[3xuok]

as a Chinese, I can travel freely by bus in most of the area in Tibet. but as a westerner, I think at the moment , you need to sign up with a tour to make the journey.

[Mark Lee]

Useful Tips
This news is good and useful. And if you want to visit Lhasa, Tibet was one of the most exciting life experiences. I would recommend it to those able to respect cultural boundaries, and willing to explore the richness and beauty of the indigenous people. Find more about Tibet ,welcome to visit www.accesstibettravel.com.

[Alyssa]

What an amazing trip around China. I just posted a blog from two of my volunteers on Tibet so I have been doing a lot of research on the country. If you want to check out what they thought about their trip check out the blog post here: http://www.unitedplanet.org/blog/2009/10/21/seeing-eye-to-eye-in-tibet/