Tagong - a glimpse of Tibet
28 oktober 2012 - Tagong, China
written on Sunday 28th of October
We're sweating on the bus back to Kangding while writing this. The 15 degrees outside makes the drivers here turn up the heat. Impossible, it feels like 30 inside.
We actually made it to Tagong in Westen Sichuan on the same day! We took a really early bus from Chengdu to Kangding in the morning. A busride of over 8 hours with only one stop. As there is only one public bus in the morning from Kangding (2900 m) to Tagong (3750 m), our only chance to make it on the same day was to take a minivan. As we again met (another) Dutch couple on the bus to Kangding, we were at least 4 of us, which increased our chance massively to get a there by a reasonable price. We knew the normal price would be around 50-60 per person. Arriving on the bus station we were directly surrounded by over 10 people, offering us 350 for the four. We played hard and within 3 minutes we were down to 200 :). We got in the minivan drove for 50 meters and stopped to pick up another guest (as they indicated to us). 20 min later we started to get annoyed and other drivers starting to pull on our arms, trying to get us in another bus, screaming okokok !! Nothing was ok to us. We felt dissed once more. A Chinese girl tried to translate, her explanation indicated that we would have to change vans two more times for the 60 km. Hopeless situation, we took our stuff and started walking to a hostel... The drivers stayed behind laughing .... !!
Our plan was to ask a hostel to order a trustworthy driver for us... An hour later spending on the pc using google translate, hanging on the phone we got a driver for a higher price but we got there safely and met a nice tibetian monk whilst waiting :).
Just before entering Tagong we were stopped by masked people, wearing all black with machine guns in position.... We were immediately thinking we would experience the same thing as our friends further north, but it was false alarm ; we could simply pass and ended up in a cheap, friendly hostel without heating but electric blankets in the beds :)). We slept like babies :).
Tagong is a small Tibetian village of a few hundred people (LP says 8000, we can't believe that) on an altitude of around 3700m!!!! So we spent the next day acclimatising (you can really feel the height by simply needing more breaths than normal and any activity toughening by 30% maybe :)), inspecting the monastry in town (very important in Tibet), walking a few Koras around it, spinning prayer wheels and trying to get in contact with locals and another fellow traveller from Belgium :).
The experiences with the locals were ambivalent...some very open, friendly and interested, some surprisingly very hostile and distrustful. We figure this most be due to many (Chinese!) tourists that pass this town on their fotohaunt through Tibet, snapping the first monk as they see them without asking. But we thought they might make a difference between Chinese and Western tourists, but we feel to be mistaken.
The next day we realized our plan to put up our tent on the Tibetian high plateau (eventhough outside of Tibet :)) and WE DID!!:) it was really exciting and fascinating!:). Watching the sun spending her last rays on the snowcovered 5000m peaks, accompanied by the groans ot the yaks, the chanting of the monks and the visits by the yak herders (some really annoying, some friendly and interested :) we think they have never seen a tent before :).
We hiked up to the old Nunnery high up on the mountain, at 3850 m. Making our way through the grasslands was heavy; a 2 hour easy hike became strenuous due to the altitude.
We first arrived at the monastric school, the children/monks working hard on restoring it. Right next to it, was a huge temple, mostly constructed with wood, including hundreds of beautiful wood carvings. Music played, no one was there. It was an oasis of calm, and we were in the middle of it, at last. The monks at the school greeted us heartily with a smile, an honest one that made us feel warm inside. The buildings were beautifully painted from the inside, and we felt a little sad that we couldn't stay longer.
From there, the track leads to a little village around Ani Gompa, the local name of Héping Fàhuì nunnery that was built next to the cave where Lama Tsemper spent his days praying. Next to it is a huge Mani wall, a wall of prayer stones, with of course a prayer wheel path around it. We walked a few rounds with the locals, our (probably mispronounced) "Tashidelek" (hello) made them smile. Round, open faces with curious looking eyes welcomed us. Our big bags made them wonder and laugh.
A little further on the road is a big square, a sacred praying place under hundreds of prayer flags. The prayers are announced through a microphone, you can hear it all over town. It is a beautiful scene, set before a mountain with thousands of flags, where the sky burials take place. The only thing that destroyed the scene was the bus charge of Chinese tourist with telelenses. With no interest to take part of the happening, and a single objective: having a full-face shot of the praying locals they ran in between the sitting people. We felt embarrassed being a tourist ourselves. Would you run around in a church taking photos? No wonder the kids we encountered on the road a little later were a bit annoying, opening all pockets of our bags, literally pulling the camera out of our hands to see what photo we took. Understandable, not satisfying.
We continued our path, back to the West, along rolling grasshills and found a place on a mountain top to put down our tent, in the middle of a Yak herd. (Don't worry mom, they're very calm, big "sheep"). We cooked our own food and enjoyed the sunset. It was beautiful, only spoilt by a little too curious Tibetian that wanted Jan to talk to her friend over the phone. "I don't understand" didn't help, (neither in Tibetian, nor in Chinese and pointing it out in the book made us realise she couldn't read) The game lastet for over half an hour and she literally touched everything we own...pff... Cute at first but really annoying In the end; we came here to be out of the zoo, not in it.
We didn't see any bears (aha! that was what the little boy meant when he made a bold face and roared loud), although it kept us a bit awake :) We woke up with the sun, ran downhill and crossed the river a few times to meet the others for the minivan. 2 hours driving down the mountain and a 10 minute dumpling break later we found ourselves in the bus again. In Chengdu we will pick up our stuff, and hopefully we can score a trainticket to Guilin tomorrow.
We both have been suffering headaches (the Dutch girl as well) and we can't tell whether it has been the altitude, the stress of travelling or simply dehydration. Most likely the last. Long bus drives, no toilet breaks and little water drinking don't make a good combination.
We're also thinking about our next moves. Japan is still on the radar (the flight we had to book for the Chinese visum), but we are still doubting about Nepal. It's tempting, but getting late in the season as well. Let's see. Yangshou is first on the list!!
Funny to know that silent means alone. Says a lot.
The seemingly lack respect for personal space, would drive me mad I think. Pawing at everything, that is mine... Grr. ;-)
Bears?!! Really? Well, in the wild there are all sorts of creatures living:-)
Oh, and the travel blog have started again with ads with women for marriage, just chinese instead of russian... Hehe, I don't think I want to marry a chinese lady;-)
Good luck desiding where to go next, Nepal or Japan:-) I'll look foreward to see/read what your next destination will be!!!!