We got on a bus yesterday morning at 7:30 AM from Shangri-La to Xiangcheng. The drive took the estimated 8 hours and we were surrounded by beautiful scenery the entire way- small ethnic villages and tremendous mountains covered in trees changing color along the winding dirt road we took. True to form, our driver was completely insane, chain-smoking the entire time and speeding around blind curves honking the car horn with all his might. It was legitimately scary as an accident would have sent the van tumbling down the side of a 3200-meter mountain. On top of that, we could not feel our toes as it was freezing cold until about noon. Even though we bought several more layers of clothes the night before, it still was not enough.
When we arrived in Xiangcheng, we tried to book tickets for the following morning to Litang but received conflicting information about whether or not the bus was still running to Litang and when the office opened. We decided to get up early the next day and try to get tickets for the 6AM bus. This morning, the driver kicked us off the bus after making a joke about us, making everyone erupt in laughter. He told us there were no buses to Litang, even though at least 5 people on the bus told us it was going to Litang. The nasty man told us to come back at 1PM to buy the ticket even though the ticket office was open. We went back to the "ticket office" at 12:30 and waited around with another 20 people for an hour and a half until the office finally opened at 2 o'clock. As the employee opened the gate, all the men rushed to the counter, shoving each other out of the way. They were waving money in her face and demanding tickets. I managed to squeeze my way through the mass of people as I knew the men would not shove me out of the way and was the second person to purchase tickets for the following morning. It did involve a fair amount of pushiness on my behalf but the idea of being stuck here for another day was painful. Tomorrow we head for Kanding, which was actually supposed to be the 3rd leg of our trip so we hope to get to Chengdu in two days and stay on schedule. By skipping Litang, we are avoiding what we have heard is the "most unhelpful bus station staff in the country". The bus ride should be at least 12 hours and we are driving at higher altitudes than before. Hopefully, our feet and bodies can endure the cold. We are very glad to have purchased all these warm clothes as we will be needing them over the next few weeks in China and Nepal.
Before this, we spent a day and half hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge, which definitely ranks as one of the best memories in China. It is 10-mile hike over a gorge that is sandwiched between two roughly 5,500-meter mountains. Over this part of the Yangtze River, there is a series of strong grapids that can be hiked down to. As tourist season is over, we basically had the entire hiking trail to ourselves. On our first day, we hiked up 900 meters on a winding trail known as "24 Bends" before arriving at a comfortable guesthouse with great food and where our room overlooked the mountains. On the second day, we hiked down to the middle gorge, which was swarmed with Chinese tourists, and then back up to Walnut Grove where the trail ends. The entire trail was picturesque. There were several waterfalls along the trail, locals tending to their mountain goats and the immensity of the mountains never stopped amazing me.
On another note, we were involved in minor car accident (no one was hurt) on our way to the gorge when our huge bus reared a small van cutting us off in the passing lane. It created quite a scene as all the locals came out of their houses and wanted to be eye witnesses for the police. S and I have already discussed numerous safety precautions to be taken should we be involved in future crashes. Hopefully, the drivers are less crazy in Nepal.
 |
| Tiger Leaping Gorge |
No comments:
Post a Comment