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The sound of an endangered people

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007

Thurs-Sunday, 14-17 June

The hope of an easy day’s ride to Xiancheng vanished with the end of the paved road, just outside Zhongdian. The lady selling tickets to Xiancheng, under 200km from Zhongdian , informed me it would take 9 hours. I naturally assumed there was a misunderstanding.

But an hour later, sitting at the arse end of the bus, I realised there had been no mistake. My ordeal had just begun. Full of bumps and potholes, the road followed the contours of the land, up and down mountains, scraping around the rock faces and boulders, horn hooting. This route is known as the Sichuan-Tibet Highway (the bus was wider than the road, so “Highway” must be refering to the altitude…). Lonely Planet describes it as “one of the world’s highest, roughest, most dangerous and most beautiful roads”.
Every now and then the driver had to stop to remove a rock from the road. Another time the bus slammed into a ditch and its rear end swung out 45 degrees towards the precipice. I looked out the rear window. The back wheel was 1 inch over the edge of the road, below the sheer drop the river raged like a caged lion. The driver made a joke, some polite passengers giggled nervously. It was bump and grind all the way. At times I levitated so high from my seat, it felt like I was competing in the Calgary Rodeo. All I needed was a wet bikini and a beer in one hand. [read on]