Litang, Tagong

Ok, time to let you hear from us again.

We had some fabulous days lately!
Litang is a small village in Sichuan, at an altitude of 4015m. These areas used to be parts of Tibet, when it was still independent, and are home to the Kampha, a people of warriors with a palpable sense of pride, as even the Chinese still fear them. Walking around in Litang should thus resemble walking in Tibet, and the people should not be and cannot be taken for Chinese.
Tibetans are so friendly!!! A sharp contrast with the Chinese, especially as these villages are being crowded with Han Chinese, who open shops here (a story is coming...), as tourism is increasing.
In Litang, tourism is low, and , for example, there is only a limited number of restaurants with English menus. One of them is Tian Tian restaurant of the ever smiling and enthusiastic Mr. Zheng, who opened the door for us at night to make us dinner. (Steven, the Belgian we shared the jeep with, knew him and kept banging on the door until he opened) Delicious!

Although the same Steven had warned us for a heavy night due to the altitude, we slept like babies.

Next morning, while having breakfast, two Tibetan farmers women came by and were staring at us, and even sat on the street to keep staring at us! Strange experience, and everybody who passed, shouted "hello" or "tashi dele" to greet us and say hi. We felt that this village is not used to tourists, or at least not Western tourists with white skins.

The first day we didn't do much, as the danger for altitude sickness is real here, and we climbed to much in one day. So we strolled around, uploaded many pictures, and visited a great and big stupa.

The next day was culture day! We had the hardest time doing the little walk to the Monastery, which was a slight incline. After 15 minutes of walking, we had to rest for at least another 10 minutes. No rushing here...
Inside the monastery, a new temple was being built, and it was great to see how these huge statues are produced. At the time, they were brushing the metal and painting the walls. We could make as many pictures as we wanted, as long as we showed them (what a difference with the rest of China). The older monastery was beautiful, as well from the inside as from the outside. The exterior was painted in red and yellow, and the bright sun made the colours breathtaking. As we were the only people there, it was even more stunning. The temple itself was also great, as the praying hall was huged and nicely decorated. A monk showed us another hall, where a large Buddha statue was decorated with many silk scarves, in which several bank notes were tied.

When walking back, we met some monks and saw an offered dead Yak hanging on the ceiling of the offering hall, scary. We left the monastery through a back alley, and after a 100 meters, we were asked inside of a home. We expected some people in there, but walked into 20 very suprised people, children to elderly, who were all having meals. We had to sit down and got a cup of 'tsampa', a baked sort of flour with butter and hot water. It was...not so good, but after adding some sugar, this heavy small meal became bearable. It was a superb experience, and we were inpressed by their hospitality and kindness. When I started taking pictures, everybody had to see of course, and in the end, I had captured every family member.
We passed a hill and a stupa covered with praying flags on our way home. The panorama over the village and the huge plateau on which it is situated was again breathtaking. Literary, as it was a steep climb, and the air is so thin.
But, in China, no great experience comes without a bad one. that day, we also bought some souvenirs from a Chinese shop. We had seen them the day before, but the price was too high. As we tried again to another person in the shop, the price suddenly had become reasonable when asking the guy in stead of the woman. But when the deal was closed, with us walking away and the money on the table, the guy started shouting and trying to pull the goods out of my hands (which succeeded with one small item), and the woman trying to stop Eline from walking away. We were furious, and kept on walking, as this was possibly just another Chinese scam, as we've seen many. When the guy pulled my camera, I stopped, turned around and stared him right in the face. Apparently it was quite persuasive, as the small man stopped touching me, lowered his voice and only mumbled some more. I think he learned that touching tourist's cameras is not the right thing to do.
We went to our room, furious and again disappointed in the arrogance and total lack of respect of the Chinese. The Tibetan friendliness will hopefully make up for it.

The next morning we had to get up early, as our bus heading for Xidujoan (or something) left at 6.30. The bus was completely full, and our backpacks had to go in the corridor, which was also full of boxes (very safe...). iPods are the best thing to have during such trips, shoulder to shoulder with women who don't know what personal hygiene means, and Chinese music enlightening us... The trip took us over passes of 4500m and higher (4660).
The problem was that we had to get out at the third stop (according to the bus station), and the bus never stopped. When we finally stopped at some restaurant (after 6 hours of driving), I asked the driver for our village, and he pointed at the village we just passed some kilometres ago... (AAarghhh Why can nothing just work here. There's only two people on the bus that don't go the final station. Why can't the driver just tell us, as he knows we don't know these villages...) But we pulled ourselves together, took our bags and walked back. In the town we found a girl that could speak English and we arranged a taxi to tagong. We left ...and started driving around in the village... He was looking for 2 more people... As he didn't find any, and we were not willing to quickly pay the double, he brought us to another guy (a very big Tibetan), that only had to wait for one more person. Then we left, with 3 old men in the trunk.
It took us hours. During the busiest days of the year (national holiday), road works had started on this road, and hundreds of Chinese jeeps with wealthy Chinese, covered in Goretex and equiped with very expensive camera drive to the West. Great!
We arrived in the evening, and booked into a guesthouse. It could be called Spartan, but it's the only hostel where foreigners come, which is also nice sometimes.
(we couldn't get a better situation, being in these poor regions during the holidays. As mentioned before, all prices double, which would be horrible in the cities)

Yesterday, we made a great 6-hour walk to a nunnery nearby. We walked through an enormous and quiet valley, not seeing anyone. On top of the hills, we could see snowy mountains and vast grass fields, it was so beautiful! You'll have to wait for the pictures.

Tomorrow we should leave for Kanding. I'll stop the writing now. See you soon!