Post by Lotus Eater on Jul 19, 2006 0:42:06 GMT 7
Just arrived back from a fabulous trip. I took over 600 photos in 2 weeks (promise I won't put them all up!!) Went through 3 batteries on my big camera, 3 batteries on my smaller camera, a 512mg card and 3/4 of a 1 gig card.
Started out by catching the train from Xi'an to Tianshui, overnighted there, then caught a 10 hour bus from there to Lanxia, another overnight, then 2 more buses (Lanxia to Hezuo, Hezuo to Langmusi)
- another combined 8 hours. Met in Langmusi by my friends, dumped bags and headed back to their business premises. Was invited to one of my friends place to meet his wife and family, but on the way he decided to introduce us to the local Lama of the monastery. Ended up having afternoon tea with him, then he took us around the monastery, especially blessed a kadakh for each of us, filled with special dried foods. Took us to an inner part of the monastery where the monks were making a glorious sand mandala, and then we were allowed into the courtyard where the monks were chanting (other tourists were behind a fence).
Afternoon tea with the Lama
Sand mandala being constructed
Next morning we were up and beginning our 5 day horsetrek, with the friend who invited us to his village to meet the wife - this time we made it, so she made us tea and tsampa. Trekked off to the mountains and spent overnight in a yak hair tent - first one complete with sheep being hung to cure, just as you walk through the door! Second tent we tried had more space - but more people sleeping in it - mum, dad, grandparents and children, plus us, all on the ground.
Making yak cheese
Next day we headed to the Home God Festival. This is a blokes only festival - but because we were mates with a local Tibetan fella (he was acting as our guide) we were allowed up to the festival, and the only thing we weren't allowed to do was walk the kora with the men.
Home God Festival - wrapping the home-made sheep wool rope along the 'prayer walk'.
Circling the sacrifice podium (sacrifices were baijiu, flour, small tree branches)
The men were mostly dressed in their best gear - but in this area they wear their traditional clothes 99% of the time. They will take off the long coats if they are hot, but the minute it cools down or looks like rain - the big coats are back on again. The jewelry stays on them - it's worth a major fortune for them.
After this we were invited to lunch in the decorated tents on the plain below. Chopsticks were made from sheep ribs, cleaned (OK - meat eaten from them!) and broken in half.
Tent city
Lunch was followed by the races.
You can see all of the guys were totally involved.
My mate on one of the race horses.
Sunset as we rode to the next stop-over was pretty spectacular
From here we rode to the next village along - slept on the floor, but still had a great time. Went walking around the village early next day and came across a family enjoying themselves out in the wildflower meadows. They invited us to eat with them and drink more Tibetan tea.
Headed off for the next leg of the ride - across glorious wildflower fields, with small creeks and soaks.
Stayed that night in another yak tent with the family, and again had a ball. These people are so incredibly kind! Played with the yaks - including having a ride on one!
The women work incredibly hard - looking after the children, making butter, cheese, milking, collecting and drying yak dung for fuel, etc etc.
Fuel creation
Butter making
When we left them we had barely gone a couple of kilometers when we ran across our guides brother in law- so clearly had to visit him - and ended up staying for lunch. This fella was interesting - his brother is the head Lama at Labulang Monastery - one of the 6 major Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. So we saw tons of family photos, including those with the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. They also showed us the 'real' living quarters in traditional Tibetan style homes - large open area with plenty of room, walls packed with woven baskets of Tibetan tea, bags of flour and rice, large bricks of yak butter. Divided into men's and women's quarters for day-time, shared space at night, separate cooking facilities. The cooking utensils were antiques - teapots and huge pots over 100 years old. Just beautiful.
Stayed that night in another village house - on the floor again, but again with kindness and openness. That day we were lucky - as there were only 3 of us, my mate took us back through a beautiful gorge that had never before been visited by westerners. This is because the gorge was in Sichuan, not Gansu, and the trek organisers had been unable to get the Sichuan authorities to allow their horses to graze there. but - my mate knew people ... so we were able to ride and walk through it. Just magic.
Climbed to neat the top of Red Rock Mountain above Langmusi on our last day. Langmusi is my favourite place in China. Arrived aback, uploaded my photos to my friends computer (they will sue the best ones on their web page) had dinner with them, then went with them to a bar to play Uno, sing and dance Tibetan songs with the locals, and the bar owner decided to join us - gave us free drinks (including cocktails) and food, and I now have another place to stay when I go back!
Next day headed off to Beijing - via a few more bus trips and as there were no sleepers on the train, plane from Lanzhou. Did all the normal tourist things in Beijing. Stayed in the hutong area (thanks Decurso!), visited the Underground City (supposedly being closed at the end of this month because the excavations for the Olympics are stuffing up the drainage systems and the tunnels are starting to flood!), Forbidden City and Summer Palace. All under renovation.
Had dinner at a Xinjiang Restaurant a Muslim friend here had recommended to me - and ended up dancing on the tables with a bunch of dodgy Chinese guys!!
Next day hired a taxi for the day and headed for Simatai to climb the Great Wall there.
Of the climbable "Great Walls' Simatai is the best one IMHO - not nearly so renovated, fantastic mountain country - even as with yesterday, covered in mist and cloud.
Came back to Beijing, listened to the taxi drivers monk chanting music - so he gave it to me as he dropped us off at the hotel!!
Caught a plane home this morning.
My Tibetan increased exponentially - I ended up translating in English, Chinese and Tibetan!! Very confusing for my poor little brain.
Great trip! But mostly because Chinese and Tibetan friends made it that way for me.
Started out by catching the train from Xi'an to Tianshui, overnighted there, then caught a 10 hour bus from there to Lanxia, another overnight, then 2 more buses (Lanxia to Hezuo, Hezuo to Langmusi)
- another combined 8 hours. Met in Langmusi by my friends, dumped bags and headed back to their business premises. Was invited to one of my friends place to meet his wife and family, but on the way he decided to introduce us to the local Lama of the monastery. Ended up having afternoon tea with him, then he took us around the monastery, especially blessed a kadakh for each of us, filled with special dried foods. Took us to an inner part of the monastery where the monks were making a glorious sand mandala, and then we were allowed into the courtyard where the monks were chanting (other tourists were behind a fence).
Afternoon tea with the Lama
Sand mandala being constructed
Next morning we were up and beginning our 5 day horsetrek, with the friend who invited us to his village to meet the wife - this time we made it, so she made us tea and tsampa. Trekked off to the mountains and spent overnight in a yak hair tent - first one complete with sheep being hung to cure, just as you walk through the door! Second tent we tried had more space - but more people sleeping in it - mum, dad, grandparents and children, plus us, all on the ground.
Making yak cheese
Next day we headed to the Home God Festival. This is a blokes only festival - but because we were mates with a local Tibetan fella (he was acting as our guide) we were allowed up to the festival, and the only thing we weren't allowed to do was walk the kora with the men.
Home God Festival - wrapping the home-made sheep wool rope along the 'prayer walk'.
Circling the sacrifice podium (sacrifices were baijiu, flour, small tree branches)
The men were mostly dressed in their best gear - but in this area they wear their traditional clothes 99% of the time. They will take off the long coats if they are hot, but the minute it cools down or looks like rain - the big coats are back on again. The jewelry stays on them - it's worth a major fortune for them.
After this we were invited to lunch in the decorated tents on the plain below. Chopsticks were made from sheep ribs, cleaned (OK - meat eaten from them!) and broken in half.
Tent city
Lunch was followed by the races.
You can see all of the guys were totally involved.
My mate on one of the race horses.
Sunset as we rode to the next stop-over was pretty spectacular
From here we rode to the next village along - slept on the floor, but still had a great time. Went walking around the village early next day and came across a family enjoying themselves out in the wildflower meadows. They invited us to eat with them and drink more Tibetan tea.
Headed off for the next leg of the ride - across glorious wildflower fields, with small creeks and soaks.
Stayed that night in another yak tent with the family, and again had a ball. These people are so incredibly kind! Played with the yaks - including having a ride on one!
The women work incredibly hard - looking after the children, making butter, cheese, milking, collecting and drying yak dung for fuel, etc etc.
Fuel creation
Butter making
When we left them we had barely gone a couple of kilometers when we ran across our guides brother in law- so clearly had to visit him - and ended up staying for lunch. This fella was interesting - his brother is the head Lama at Labulang Monastery - one of the 6 major Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. So we saw tons of family photos, including those with the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. They also showed us the 'real' living quarters in traditional Tibetan style homes - large open area with plenty of room, walls packed with woven baskets of Tibetan tea, bags of flour and rice, large bricks of yak butter. Divided into men's and women's quarters for day-time, shared space at night, separate cooking facilities. The cooking utensils were antiques - teapots and huge pots over 100 years old. Just beautiful.
Stayed that night in another village house - on the floor again, but again with kindness and openness. That day we were lucky - as there were only 3 of us, my mate took us back through a beautiful gorge that had never before been visited by westerners. This is because the gorge was in Sichuan, not Gansu, and the trek organisers had been unable to get the Sichuan authorities to allow their horses to graze there. but - my mate knew people ... so we were able to ride and walk through it. Just magic.
Climbed to neat the top of Red Rock Mountain above Langmusi on our last day. Langmusi is my favourite place in China. Arrived aback, uploaded my photos to my friends computer (they will sue the best ones on their web page) had dinner with them, then went with them to a bar to play Uno, sing and dance Tibetan songs with the locals, and the bar owner decided to join us - gave us free drinks (including cocktails) and food, and I now have another place to stay when I go back!
Next day headed off to Beijing - via a few more bus trips and as there were no sleepers on the train, plane from Lanzhou. Did all the normal tourist things in Beijing. Stayed in the hutong area (thanks Decurso!), visited the Underground City (supposedly being closed at the end of this month because the excavations for the Olympics are stuffing up the drainage systems and the tunnels are starting to flood!), Forbidden City and Summer Palace. All under renovation.
Had dinner at a Xinjiang Restaurant a Muslim friend here had recommended to me - and ended up dancing on the tables with a bunch of dodgy Chinese guys!!
Next day hired a taxi for the day and headed for Simatai to climb the Great Wall there.
Of the climbable "Great Walls' Simatai is the best one IMHO - not nearly so renovated, fantastic mountain country - even as with yesterday, covered in mist and cloud.
Came back to Beijing, listened to the taxi drivers monk chanting music - so he gave it to me as he dropped us off at the hotel!!
Caught a plane home this morning.
My Tibetan increased exponentially - I ended up translating in English, Chinese and Tibetan!! Very confusing for my poor little brain.
Great trip! But mostly because Chinese and Tibetan friends made it that way for me.
