Driving through Sichuan - on our way to Tagong (our little Tibet)
25 oktober 2012 - Kangding, China
written on Thursday, 25th of October (on our way to Tagong)
In Chengdu, we've met up with our friends that wanted to visit the monastery up north. On the day they arrived, no foreigners were allowed in the area and they were literally put on the same bus back. Unluckily, just on the same day, a farmer set himself on fire. We made the right choice not to go there apparently. One day later, a second person set himself on fire in the Northwest (near the monastry). It's crazy. The Chinese remain silent, we hope that the situation in the West where we are going to is better. Kangding is our next stop, in deep in the West of the Sichuan province. We hopefully get even a little further to Tagong- thats where we want to end up- important Tibetian temples and Monastries and some empty, vast grasslands (thats what we hope for:))
We managed to get a new gas container to go camping in Tagong; it was a hell of a search. We went south of the city, but only found an IKEA, Carrefour, Auchan hypermarche and Decathlon first, next to the maxi H&M. The prices in these shops are not surprisingly equal to Europeans!!
Luckily, as Chengdu is one of the main hubs for trips to the land of snows, there are many outdoorshops :) You just have to know in what area of the town to search! Chengdu also has more than 4,5 million inhabitants,its huge!) we finally found it in the Tibetian Quarter, right next to the Jinli Night Fair, a pleasant surprise: streets to get lost in,with little gardens and ponds, bars with live music and many people selling food and souvenirs. We're excited about the next days!
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We fell asleep while writing, only to wake up at 4 by a very loud Spanish guy in our dorm. A little bit of a dormitory horror story, as 30 minutes later we woke up from a really unpleasant sound...uuurgh....the guy starting puking! He aimed for the window, couldn't open it and hit the curtains, the wall, and the floor (imagine... He was on the top of the bunkbed!!) Gross!! Trying to get some sleep still, he started again...a dorm-nightmare, actually our first as so far most dorms have been really nice with cool people.
We head off to the bus station at 6:30 (opening time), to find out that the 07:00 bus was already sold out... Pfff.. Nice start of the day. But we managed to get on the 08:00 one. After 2 hours, the landscape has changed to steep lushing green mountains-but unfortunately the Chinese are to some extent no better than the Mongolians when it comes to eco-friendliness, rubbish everywhere even in the river!!!! Its disappointing and discouraging, but we will see :). We're on the wrong side of the bus to take pictures, but we take them with our eyes. We're excited about the next days, no clue whether it will be so desolated as we want it to be, in China even the small towns are big.
Just like the big buddha of Leshan that we visited. Around 173 meters, carved in the rock, supposedly the biggest in the world. But it wasn't the Big Buddha that impressed most, we finally found a place with a little quietness. If there's not a group of Chinese (especially elderly) tourists near (they all carry around portable radios, tuned on loud!) we could enjoy the birds singing and the water in the temple (temple= park) running. A nice surprise. We doubted to go here and the comment of the lady in the hostel "everybody goes, why do you doubt?" didn't really make it better...but we are glad we did, even though the price doubled again!! 160 instead of 90!
As for yesterday, we met up with another Dutch couple in People's Park and went paddling on the little pond of 50 x 50 meters. We found a new streetfood favourite: sweet rice packed in cornleaves :) and took our time to relax. We're starting to know the difference between having a holiday and travelling. The latter is quite exhausting.
We watched a little bit of TV (in buses and trains you cannot get around it) and out of the 40 channels, 2 are news, 10 are singstar contest, 20 are war series/ movies (preferably China against Japan, or in child-like Manga style woman-violent mafia fighter movies) and the rest is rubbish commercials telling you it is safe to eat genetic manipulated food or try to sell you stuff you definitely don't need. Interesting. Not sure the quality of TV back home is better, but it says a lot about the culture. Those that do not have TV meet up in the alleys to watch outside together.
The scenery right now (between the many tunnels!) is stunning. Though we must say, the Chinese seem to have a challenge with nature. The beautiful lake we pass now is full of litter (all sorts of plastic floating around), the mountains are packed with electricity wires and every 5-10 minutes there is a mine or factory that destroys the area. No wonder they charge so much for the few National Parks they have (over 20 euros admission, more than 50! For a night camping there). The People's country is not freely accessible for the people. We hope that the area we are going to will be unspoilt still! One big industrial, rural area as a country yet caught in sustainable development, struggling for acknowledgement and direction. Lost between history, adaption and individualism....
In a few minutes, we will arrive in Kangding.... hopefully catch a minibus to Tagong :-) our final destination for the next days!
And people setting themselves on fire??!!!!
Puking spanish in dorm... Yuk. From the top bunk... I have tried that as a child, not very pleasent at all. Hope this was a one time experience!!!!!!!
Disappointing to hear they haven't got a clue about the litter, and makes my tiny recycling effort seem futile. (I will continue to better anyway!!:-) ). Shame that the stunning landscapes are not high garded by the officials.
Glad to hear that you are still enjoying your trip, and that you are trying to find some peace and quiet after all the travelling:-)
Looking foreward to see if you reached the tranquillity you want as close to Tibet you can get:-)