Not Approved by LP

An early bitterly cold start for the 3 hour bus for Songpan. A picture postcard trip, heavy snow during the night had left the trees white with beautiful white snow capped mountains in the background. Could have been Christmas with the conifers all white – or at least how it appears on the cards, sadly the driver refused to bow to popular demand and stop to make snowmen – or at least photos. But then he was trying to drive and whereas the road is good, conditions weren’t, saw one bus ditched despite having snowchains on.

Songpan a nice place dating back to some dynasty a long time ago and surrounded by high walls which will probably be finished next month. The good thing with old historical places is that they get nicely rebuilt and make pleasant towns to wander around. The place is also popular for horse treking but given the conditions I will be sticking to my nice room with electric blanket.

Tomorrow will do a bit of hill walking and then hopefully head to Zoige and then Lamusi but see what happens regarding the weather as worse than I was anticipating.

After a heavy night of rain – snow higher up, forced myself out of bed into another bitterly cold 6.30am start. Considering the place doesn’t even open until 7am, surprised by just how busy it was with the pavements already filling up – and a lot of the people probably nearer 80 than 20. In these last few weeks been very surprised by the resilience of the Chinese tourist\travellers. Having spent a lot of time in SE Asian countries where a 100 meter walk is the equivalent of a death march and near wonder of the world becomes ” just rocks”, this lot lap it up. No matter how great the punishment, cost or distance they really go for it and can hold there own against the best western travellers.
Anyway did another day of mainly walking, couldn’t be bothered trying to outfight 80 year old grannies to get onto the busses. Weather not too bad, even glimpsed blue sky for a few moments and took loads more pics. Scenery is that good. But now think I’ve done my lake pics for this trip and probably lifetime !!.

Tomorrow of to Songpan. Not quite sure then, see what the weather is like. Prefer north but getting late and snow can be a problem in the mountains.

Didn’t bother going to the national park yesterday as weather still overcast and misty but today went anyway. Not ideal and certainly would have been better if visibility was better but still very good. The colours of the lakes look more like they have been produced in photoshop they are so extreme. Overall very worthwhile and will go back for another session tomorrow.

The place very tourist but equally very professionally organised with constant busses shuttling people around and nice walkways on the opposite side of the road. Certainly took way too many photos so now will have to spend tonight deleting them. The only downside is my SLR camera playing up on manual settings – but then the microprocessor inside is made by SONY so no great surprise that its …. .

Yesterday took the coach for the 12 hour trip to Jiuzhaighou. Good roads and coach so trip painless. The road follows the river with mountains both sides but with numerous HEP stations and the related pylons and other man made ugliness nothing picturesque. After a few hours improves and becomes scenic as delve further into the mountains and more Tibetan. Finally reached our destination in the dark and fog, our sister coach which we had travelled from Chengdu with managed to crash as we entered the town – so many times on this trip drivers have driven so well in hard conditions only to make big mistakes on the final stretch.

Jiuzhaighou is one of Chinas top tourist destination and a UNESCO site so gets the full works, no ugly grey buildings here !! Will go to the national park tomorrow, hopefully the weather will improve as currently foggy and bitterly cold, it has a high rating with prices to much so expect good things. In the meantime can look at my videoclips of the pandas having a teddy bears picnic, a billion other people probably have the same but I still love them.

Been out seeing some of the sights of Chengdu with the girl I met on the way here. Not that much going on, the new “old town” areas packed with Chinese, nice enough but would be nicer if they didn’t insist on knocking everything “old” down and replacing it with concrete blocks aka 1950’s style UK. In fact better if they started knocking some of the newer stuff down. Chengdu also holds its own on the pollution front, the poor auto focus system has a hard time seeing thru the smog !!

This morning went to the Panda breeding center, got there early so still quiet and some great photos. Surprised how many pandas there were. The adults did a top job doing panda poses, the cubs obviously had had a hard Friday night and slept, the babies wonderful but no pics allowed. The biggest surprise was the red pandas which I have never even heard of and they say there only 5000 left in the wild. When I was walking the hills in Tagong I came up close to one and never even bothered to get my camera out, didn’t have the faintest idea what it was, being brown and furry and left it in peace ( luckily ) as its an endangered species.

Hopefully by Monday the holiday crowds will have gone back to work and can move out, weather a bit grim at the moment, admittedly hard to really know given the smog – and this girl said to me England is polluted, lets put this into perspective. Then again an English student in Ganzi first asked me about the Darwin theory, then the Big Bang, I had to put her straight and told her to start learning about football if she wants to relate to English people !

It was good to get back to Ganzi, one of my favourite places. Love the market town atmosphere, the friendly monks and Tibetans, the great views, the monasteries and Tibetan quarters and not the police state as elsewhere, only dislike the indifferent electricity supply. Probably deserved a lot longer but decided to take the bus next day for Chengdu. With the holidays on, not a good a good time to travel and as a good a time as any to do Sichuans main city. That night a Chendu girl at the hotel asked to join me as she wanted to return as suffering from altitude sickness. So a 6am start for a 19 hour bus ride. It was basically travelling the same roads as I came so a bit tedious and my fellow passengers a miserable lot, keeping their windows shut despite the heat and worse moaning at me when I opened mine yet happy to smoke me out. Those quiet roads were now anything but with I think every car owner in Sichuan on the roads. Before overtaking on blind bends rarely met anything but a wandering yak, now invariably a parked car with camera loving Chinese. The nomads in the grasslands put tents on the side of the roads, decorated their horses for horseriding duties and provided the city dwellers a chance to get the wild west experience, all good fun. The road from Kangding looked scenic, following thru a gorge but soon it was dark so missed out on the views.

Arrived in Chendu in the early hours but usefully the Chinese girl helped me find a place to stay. Chengdu, with its 12 million people regarded as one of Chinas most laid back cities. Spent a few hours wandering around this morning, easy enough to get around, modern and functional. But after a month in the mountains still a bit strange and “normal”, no more monks, nuns and people in colourful clothes and cowboy hats. At least none of those Tibetan dogs taking a dislike to me or even the men in blue.

Its been a hectic last couple of days. I took a wreck of a thing resembling a bus to Dege – the law of bus transport says the rougher the journey the worst the bus ( if the bus is going to go over the side why waste a good one ) so at least the journey had promise. A cloudy start but the autumn colours coming into there own and a good journey. We stopped for lunch in a one horse town called Maniango which Lp says has some of the mangiest dogs in SW China ( and thats in a pretty competitive field ), it could have said the same about some of the locals. A shame as the scenery around the area as good as anywhere and had the place been nicer I would probably have stayed there. The lake close by picture postcard and some great hiking opportunities. I’m sure the Chinese will do a clean up job, certainly has the potential.

So back on the bus and along some great scenery, the crossing of the Chola mountains awaiting us. Finally we made our ascent, slowly chugging along, belching out black smoke, round and round, up and up. As you looked up rocks and huge boulders were waiting their turn to come crashing down, to look down – you didn’t want to look down !, but looking across we were surrounded by the tops of the mountains, sharp jagged edges, raw mountains. It seemed as if it would never end, the lack of oxygen tightening the chest ( my highest point to date), but eventually we took a final turn, prayer flags covered the top of the pass, the locals said prayers and threw coloured prayer paper out the windows. A quick toilet stop and then all the way back down. Finally after 7 hours the bus finally chugged into Dege.

Not for the first time it was a case of a great journey only for the final product to be a let down and not just because it poured with rain on arrival. Dege is a major place on the Tibetan religious map. Its lamesary, with the Potala Palace and Sakya Monastery make up the top 3. its printing presses are famed and 70% of Tibetan scriptures are stored here, this is big stuff. And pilgrims walk round and round the lamesary doing their prayers etc.

Thats the good bit, now for the rest. I am sure plenty of people love Dege but for me it didn’t happen. The buildings largely the typical ugly concrete block types, lots of constuction going on but hotel situation dire. It has a reputation for only letting foreigners into expensive ” foreigner approved” hotels. As it was got into a normal place no problem. Room ok, nice Tibetan handpainted ceiling but a communal bathroom. I can handle the squat toilets but to take a shower or using the wash basin meant standing in them ( seems to be quite a common design flaw ). As it was it made no difference as despite the river running past the window there was no water anyway and lights in the same vane. Also whereas I have no problem with community policing, not for the first time it was to the extreme. It seemed as if half the population were monks/nuns the other men in blue. For sure the people friendly enough and none of the negative vibes I hear you get in T itself but it just doesn’t give a good religious experience. As it was the Lamesary was just closing as I arrived, they let me in for a quick glance but I couldn’t bring myself to stay the extra night.

So another early start, first having to brave the horrible dogs roaming the street in the dark, luckily they were more interested in themselves. Arrived at the bus station – ok , the one bus, and a guy with a minivan called out for Ganzi. Not a great fan of these things, prefer the extra size of a bus but given the state of the bus opted for the minivan. Had rained the previous night but now the colours in their splendour, bright oranges, yellow and greens. Then it was another go at the Chola mountains. Again we went up, I couldn’t understand why the driver constantly looking out the window at the road, only to be answered as snow covered the mountains. As we reached those same raw mountains, now they were in their full sprinkled white slendour, totally stunning. At the top we stopped so I could take photos – the amount of ice on the road took me by surprise !. The views were perfect,excellent light with a mixture of sun and clouds, one trip when I wish I had private transport as easily the best so far. After the mountains it was another surge of colour, the grasslands with nomad tents, the yaks and the cute baby yaks in the fields, the turquoise lakes and rivers, monasteries on the hillsides, the monks, nuns and Tibetans and some great Tibetans characters sharing the minivan, we had an excellent trip.

Yesterday another 7am start for the 10 hour bus journey to Ganzi. A microbus for the benefit of locals, lots of stopping to pick up and drop off people in the middle of nowhere places and carrying this years produce to market or vice versa. Ok overall but scenery nothing exciting just meandering along the river with grassland hills. Only in the last hour with views of the Chola mountains did it pick up and become scenic.

Ganzi itself a good enough place with plenty of atmosphere and colour. Largely Tibetan and Khampa and lots of friendly monks and nuns. Even a bit grimy and dirty unlike the modern queaky clean typical chinese town.

Today out wandering around the hills, villages and monasteries. Very scenic with the mountain backdrop, monasteries, prayer flags and river, unfortunately it still has those horrible dogs – the locals had to rescue my camera when I ran so quick I left it. Also very hot and the sun very strong up this high.

No idea whats next. tomorrow 1st October National Day holiday which go on for a week so not sure how that will affect things, little in the way of English here and not much more in the way of buses so….

place to stay : Zha xi kang backpackers hostel . 35 sanchahe nanlu. good rooms with full facilities
The ATM near post office looks new and was showing visa sign so probably accepts int cards
LP implies Danba won village of year award – I don’t think Danba could win any award – need to go to villages outside Danba

After giving up on Danba due to no one going there, as I was going to get the bus to Ganzi a lama calls out ” Danba “. Good enough for me, so with a Chinese girl and two locals we went to Danba. Very scenic journey with the colours changing and the lama was great, stopping for photos and pointing things out, usefully the chinese girl was fluent in English.

Then when we got Danba after the 3 hour journey he offered to show us around so spent the afternnon sightseeing. Danba itself is nothing much, a sprawling newish town, concrete block buildings but with a river on one side and backed up by mountains so at least in a scenic setting. But its the surrounding area which makes it so famous with the chinese. Lovely Tibetan\Qiang villages nestled amongst the mountains and protected by high watch towers dating back hundred of years, and proved a lot harder to climb than I was expecting. And lots of old concrete houses with hundreds of years of history.

Last night took in my first Sichuan meal, a hot pot, Sichuan known for its spicy food, yes they are right, still suffering now, as bad as Issan food in Thailand. One good thing about this place is the low altitude, good to have a break and even hot at night.

This morning the lama picked us up at 7am and took us to Jiaju, voted top village in China in 2005, to watch the sunrise over the mountains and then a morning of sightseeing. Again lots of scenic landscapes and buildings and went and saw the prettiest lady in Danba, at least meant to be and whose face adorns all the promotional pictures. However now 40 but the lama said her daughter also very pretty. Danba is actually famous for its beautiful girls I’ve been told, I’ve obviously come on the wrong day -admitedly better than the surrounding area.

So lots of good sightseeing, certainly the lama and chinese girl proved excellent company and useful to have it all explained. But now they’ve gone back to Tagong and all being well I will be in Ganzi tomorrow.