Kangding, China - Trip to the Mugecuo Hu Lake 3700m
I managed to take a shower without electrocuting myself despite the power strip dangling from water tank next to the shower head. For breakfast, I had heard dumplings are a common Chinese breakfast food, so I tried the yak meat dumplings. They were quite good. They gave me nine of them, which was far too much for one person.
I dropped by a outdoor store to see if anyone had expressed interest in a trip to Mugecuo Lake and no one had. I walked up to the Black Tent guesthouse/cafe and found a guy, Jason, from the USA was waiting for the minibus to pick him up to go to Mugecuo lake. I aksed him there was room for one more and he thought there was. A few minutes later I was on my way to the lake with Jason and a young Chinese couple. We had been informed it was about an hour to the lake.
Our minibus driver must have been training for the Indy 500 as he passed every vehicle we encountered and hit potholes at breakneck speeds in the process. The road is quite treacherous, but we managed to avoid the other cars, trucks, buses, tractors, pigs, donkeys, motorcycles, people and shear cliffs. How our driver did that at the speed he was going, I do not know!
He dropped us off and we found we needed to take a bus to the rest of the way. The price of the bus was included in the $10 entrance fee to the park. We took the big bus further up into the mountains and were dropped off again. At this point we needed to take a smaller bus to the lake. The driver was eating lunch so things got backed up for a while. A Chinese tourist waiting on the bus was yelling at the driver the whole time.
We finally arrived at the lake, which was mostly covered with fog. We decided to hike to another area and were badgered by locals offering horses for the journey. Jason was recovering from a previous 3-day horse trip and numerous bus rides and wasn't interested. The locals dogged us dropping the price from 50 Y to 20 Y. I couldn't keep up with Jason (he's 6' 4" and in better shape!) and decided to rent a horse. These are small horses and I think the one I had was rather old. He was none too pleased with me riding him, but the local guide had the reins and walked alongside. Jason kept up with us.
There wasn't too much of a view with the fog, but the jounery was pleasant and the countryside was pretty. It is autumn in this region and the fall colors were out.
After returning to the lake we took a beautiful walk alongside a cascading stream running from the lake down to the 2nd bus stop. I had yak meat on a stick on the way down, good, but very spicy! Some Chinese tourists asked to have their pictures taken with us on the way down and we obliged. I enjoyed some good conversations with Jason as we descended.
The minibus ride down was just as thrilling as the one up. I kept wondering, who was chasing us? We made it back in one piece, just slightly bruised.
I would not recommend Kangding as a place to visit. It is more a place to go to other places from. It is rather ugly, despite being nestled in a deep valley, surroundeded by mountains and having a river raging through the middle of it. There is construction everywhere, electric towers, cable car towers and just general clutter. I haven't found a peaceful, outdoor spot in Kangding yet. There have been more scams here than any other place I have visited. I have not found the people to be particularly friendly. If I don't find some people to share expenses for excursions out from here, I may head for Chengdu earlier than planned.
I managed to take a shower without electrocuting myself despite the power strip dangling from water tank next to the shower head. For breakfast, I had heard dumplings are a common Chinese breakfast food, so I tried the yak meat dumplings. They were quite good. They gave me nine of them, which was far too much for one person.
I dropped by a outdoor store to see if anyone had expressed interest in a trip to Mugecuo Lake and no one had. I walked up to the Black Tent guesthouse/cafe and found a guy, Jason, from the USA was waiting for the minibus to pick him up to go to Mugecuo lake. I aksed him there was room for one more and he thought there was. A few minutes later I was on my way to the lake with Jason and a young Chinese couple. We had been informed it was about an hour to the lake.
Our minibus driver must have been training for the Indy 500 as he passed every vehicle we encountered and hit potholes at breakneck speeds in the process. The road is quite treacherous, but we managed to avoid the other cars, trucks, buses, tractors, pigs, donkeys, motorcycles, people and shear cliffs. How our driver did that at the speed he was going, I do not know!
He dropped us off and we found we needed to take a bus to the rest of the way. The price of the bus was included in the $10 entrance fee to the park. We took the big bus further up into the mountains and were dropped off again. At this point we needed to take a smaller bus to the lake. The driver was eating lunch so things got backed up for a while. A Chinese tourist waiting on the bus was yelling at the driver the whole time.
We finally arrived at the lake, which was mostly covered with fog. We decided to hike to another area and were badgered by locals offering horses for the journey. Jason was recovering from a previous 3-day horse trip and numerous bus rides and wasn't interested. The locals dogged us dropping the price from 50 Y to 20 Y. I couldn't keep up with Jason (he's 6' 4" and in better shape!) and decided to rent a horse. These are small horses and I think the one I had was rather old. He was none too pleased with me riding him, but the local guide had the reins and walked alongside. Jason kept up with us.
There wasn't too much of a view with the fog, but the jounery was pleasant and the countryside was pretty. It is autumn in this region and the fall colors were out.
After returning to the lake we took a beautiful walk alongside a cascading stream running from the lake down to the 2nd bus stop. I had yak meat on a stick on the way down, good, but very spicy! Some Chinese tourists asked to have their pictures taken with us on the way down and we obliged. I enjoyed some good conversations with Jason as we descended.
The minibus ride down was just as thrilling as the one up. I kept wondering, who was chasing us? We made it back in one piece, just slightly bruised.
I would not recommend Kangding as a place to visit. It is more a place to go to other places from. It is rather ugly, despite being nestled in a deep valley, surroundeded by mountains and having a river raging through the middle of it. There is construction everywhere, electric towers, cable car towers and just general clutter. I haven't found a peaceful, outdoor spot in Kangding yet. There have been more scams here than any other place I have visited. I have not found the people to be particularly friendly. If I don't find some people to share expenses for excursions out from here, I may head for Chengdu earlier than planned.
posted by Chris at 10:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home