Daocheng, China - Tongfu Hostel
The five Israelis and I had a eight bed dorm to ourselves in the Tongfu Hostel. Two of the group left at 7:00 a.m. for Yadang, a park about three hours by minibus away. I had originally intended to go there, but due to being delayed by the "no bus" situation in Zhongdian and not really having good information on how far the park is from Daocheng - 3 hrs., I've decided not to go there.
I spend most of the day with Rei, Noa and Lala as they were trying to plan their next nights stay. They want to stay with a Tibetan family nearby Daocheng and find out what there might be to do in the area surrounding the different Tibetan villages where they might stay. The guest house manager, "Big John", was great in helping out. It's a bit of an awakening for a westerner to find that all the good information about Daocheng and the surrounding area cannot be found in Lonely Planet or on English language web sites. All the good, detailed information is in Chinese on Chinese web sites. "Big John" located a Chinese web site and was very helpful and patient in answering their questions. He wrote some of the vital information in English and Chinese.
Noa and Lala bought food for breakfast. We used, what I think was, the guest house owners kitchen to eat. We borrowed bowls and they bought four spoons for us, they said they would need them later anyway. Noa, Lala and Rei prepared a kind of muesli with yogurt and potatoes(?) and had bread with yak butter, jam or tomatoes. It was quite good and very filling. We then checked out what information there was at the bus station (there were no buses there, it is VERY small!), did some shopping for food and bought a few things. We were starred at by several of the local Tibetians. Some of them would even come into a shop just to look at us. I've seen three other westerners here, so I think we are a rare commodity. In mid afternoon Lala, Rei, and Noah, with full pack gear, left to hitch hike to a Tibetan village.
Later in the afternoon I decided to rent a bike. We had found bikes to rent at a clothing store. It's no easy feet to find a decent bike to rent here. I tried the first bike and it had no front brakes. The second had brakes, but was way too small for me. We managed to adjust the seat a little so maybe it was good for a 2nd grader. The pedals would hit the ground when you tried to make any serious kind of turn. They spoke no English, but we finally worked out the price, about 2 dollars and that I would return it at 7:30 p.m. I brought it back to the hostel and the owner had a proper size wrench to adjust the angle of the seat, which had been flopping back and forth as I peddled.
I took a ride out to Rubu Chaka, which is a hot springs area. The road wasn't too bad, part paved and part not. A Chinese girl on a bike was paralleling me and talking in Chinese and making gestures around her shoulders. At first I thought she wanted to carry my backpack for money. When I got to the hot springs I realized she wanted to rent me a "hot springs hut" and was gesturing to indicate bathing in the hot water. Since I was biking I didn't want to have a nice relaxing soak and then just screw it up by breaking a sweat afterwards biking, so I opted to take some pictures of the area. It was quite nice. Some Chinese student artists were painting the scenery in the surrounding area. I took photos of a herd of yaks crossing a stream and then headed back to the hostel.
The hostel owner suggested I bike out to Sangdui where there are some great views of the mountains and I might run into my Israeli friends. It was a bit ambitious to start with, about 12-miles round trip and I started about 6 p.m., needing to return the bike at 7:30 p.m., but I started out in that direction anyway.
I came across a place that had awesome views of streams, mountains, Tibetan houses and dramatic cloud formtations and started taking photos. Vans were parked with people out taking photos of the scenery as well. I spend about 45-minutes taking photos of the striking landscape. It was one of those amazingly wonderful moments in my life.
It started getting colder and darker so I started back to Daocheng. I was fighting a strong headwind and made a couple miles progress when the left pedal on my bike fell off. I had no tools and I wasn't able to put it back on successfully. I ended up walking the bike about three miles back to town. I went to the hostel about 7:30 p.m., but they were unable to help me put it on correctly, but I was able to put it on partway. It was dark by now and walked it back to the shop. Fortunately they really didn't look at the bike, the pedal was on it but none too securely, and they returned my deposit. I was glad they didn't see anything wrong, as it wasn't my fault in the first place, but trying to explain it with them not speaking any English and me not speaking Chinese would be difficult.
By the time I got back to the hostel I was exhausted and frazzled. That's what I mean about my mood changing like the weather. At one moment I was in blissful scenery in a tranquil and spiritual mood, the next I'm struggling to make it back before dark with a broken bike and the prospect of a stressful negotiation about the incident between people that don't speak each others language.
I made a trip out to find dinner and discovered that the holiday Chinese tourists had started arriving and restuarants were quite packed. I ended up buying cookies and something like sugar smacks for dinner. I also bought a potato on a stick with chili pepper and salt at a roadside stand on my way back . I went to bed early, exhausted from the ups and downs of the day.
The five Israelis and I had a eight bed dorm to ourselves in the Tongfu Hostel. Two of the group left at 7:00 a.m. for Yadang, a park about three hours by minibus away. I had originally intended to go there, but due to being delayed by the "no bus" situation in Zhongdian and not really having good information on how far the park is from Daocheng - 3 hrs., I've decided not to go there.
I spend most of the day with Rei, Noa and Lala as they were trying to plan their next nights stay. They want to stay with a Tibetan family nearby Daocheng and find out what there might be to do in the area surrounding the different Tibetan villages where they might stay. The guest house manager, "Big John", was great in helping out. It's a bit of an awakening for a westerner to find that all the good information about Daocheng and the surrounding area cannot be found in Lonely Planet or on English language web sites. All the good, detailed information is in Chinese on Chinese web sites. "Big John" located a Chinese web site and was very helpful and patient in answering their questions. He wrote some of the vital information in English and Chinese.
Noa and Lala bought food for breakfast. We used, what I think was, the guest house owners kitchen to eat. We borrowed bowls and they bought four spoons for us, they said they would need them later anyway. Noa, Lala and Rei prepared a kind of muesli with yogurt and potatoes(?) and had bread with yak butter, jam or tomatoes. It was quite good and very filling. We then checked out what information there was at the bus station (there were no buses there, it is VERY small!), did some shopping for food and bought a few things. We were starred at by several of the local Tibetians. Some of them would even come into a shop just to look at us. I've seen three other westerners here, so I think we are a rare commodity. In mid afternoon Lala, Rei, and Noah, with full pack gear, left to hitch hike to a Tibetan village.
Later in the afternoon I decided to rent a bike. We had found bikes to rent at a clothing store. It's no easy feet to find a decent bike to rent here. I tried the first bike and it had no front brakes. The second had brakes, but was way too small for me. We managed to adjust the seat a little so maybe it was good for a 2nd grader. The pedals would hit the ground when you tried to make any serious kind of turn. They spoke no English, but we finally worked out the price, about 2 dollars and that I would return it at 7:30 p.m. I brought it back to the hostel and the owner had a proper size wrench to adjust the angle of the seat, which had been flopping back and forth as I peddled.
I took a ride out to Rubu Chaka, which is a hot springs area. The road wasn't too bad, part paved and part not. A Chinese girl on a bike was paralleling me and talking in Chinese and making gestures around her shoulders. At first I thought she wanted to carry my backpack for money. When I got to the hot springs I realized she wanted to rent me a "hot springs hut" and was gesturing to indicate bathing in the hot water. Since I was biking I didn't want to have a nice relaxing soak and then just screw it up by breaking a sweat afterwards biking, so I opted to take some pictures of the area. It was quite nice. Some Chinese student artists were painting the scenery in the surrounding area. I took photos of a herd of yaks crossing a stream and then headed back to the hostel.
The hostel owner suggested I bike out to Sangdui where there are some great views of the mountains and I might run into my Israeli friends. It was a bit ambitious to start with, about 12-miles round trip and I started about 6 p.m., needing to return the bike at 7:30 p.m., but I started out in that direction anyway.
I came across a place that had awesome views of streams, mountains, Tibetan houses and dramatic cloud formtations and started taking photos. Vans were parked with people out taking photos of the scenery as well. I spend about 45-minutes taking photos of the striking landscape. It was one of those amazingly wonderful moments in my life.
It started getting colder and darker so I started back to Daocheng. I was fighting a strong headwind and made a couple miles progress when the left pedal on my bike fell off. I had no tools and I wasn't able to put it back on successfully. I ended up walking the bike about three miles back to town. I went to the hostel about 7:30 p.m., but they were unable to help me put it on correctly, but I was able to put it on partway. It was dark by now and walked it back to the shop. Fortunately they really didn't look at the bike, the pedal was on it but none too securely, and they returned my deposit. I was glad they didn't see anything wrong, as it wasn't my fault in the first place, but trying to explain it with them not speaking any English and me not speaking Chinese would be difficult.
By the time I got back to the hostel I was exhausted and frazzled. That's what I mean about my mood changing like the weather. At one moment I was in blissful scenery in a tranquil and spiritual mood, the next I'm struggling to make it back before dark with a broken bike and the prospect of a stressful negotiation about the incident between people that don't speak each others language.
I made a trip out to find dinner and discovered that the holiday Chinese tourists had started arriving and restuarants were quite packed. I ended up buying cookies and something like sugar smacks for dinner. I also bought a potato on a stick with chili pepper and salt at a roadside stand on my way back . I went to bed early, exhausted from the ups and downs of the day.
posted by Chris at 2:42 AM
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