We decided to set off late today after lunch because ZK said the next town 定日 was only a few hours drive away. We went to an ancient castle in the morning which was used to defend against the English during the late 19th century. I never know English invaded Tibet before. Apparently their army came from Nepal, India that area. The castle was under renovation and really was a disappointment. I have been to quite a number of castles in Europe and all of them are well maintained. This one here was dilapidated and abandoned. Nothing to see.
The only plus point was you can have a bird’s eye view of the town from the top of the castle as well the monastery 白居寺, located 1km to its north. The monastery looked more impressive than this castle, with its fortified walls behind (looked like miniature of Great Wall from afar). We walked to the monastery but decided not to enter because of the rather high entrance fee and also we were short of time. So we made our way back to the hostel where ZK was waiting for us.
On the way to DingRi, we stopped at the 2nd largest city of Tibet, 日客则, just to have our lunch and top up our supplies. We will revisit this city again when we return from Everest. I had the chance to witness the cook at work and his wok was constantly bursting in flame. Big flames. It was amazing.
After a good lunch, it was hell all the way. The main road was under repair and we had to take the side track… for the rest of the day. It was bumpy throughout, and ZK was complaining his hands were shaking all the time. To make matter worse, the sun was blazing hot today and ZK took off his shirt in the end.
We were in desert area most of the time and some where in front we saw a CCTV5 Toyota land cruiser parked at the side. When we passed them by, we saw 2 girls and 1 guy outside their jeep. They were TV crews from the China TV station and all of them were pissing near the river. Including the girls who were doing it behind a little mound so that the guy couldn’t see. But any vehicles passing by would have seen everything. That’s the problem of girls traveling on jeep in such places.
So it was a torturous long ride. Bumpy, hot, and dusty. Air pollution was to the maximum because even with the windows all wound down, the dust could still get in. In the end, my hair was partially grey and the wet tissue that I used as a filter for breathing had turned black. JH had a face mask but wasn’t of much help either. And because of the road repair, what was at first a 4 hrs ride had now become 8hrs or even more.
By the time we were near DingRi, it was already 9pm and there was no more light by then. Driving at night in such places is dangerous because even with the headlamps, we couldn’t see clearly. Still we managed to find DingRi and ZK brought us to this hostel which he said was affiliated or had some connections with the travel agency. I was feeling uneasy about it because he never mentioned about knowing a hostel here in Dingri before. When we were at the hostel, he just registered immediately without asking for the price, or for our opinions. When I asked how much was it, he told the lady boss, “they think you are going charge them very expensively.” His tone sounded more like, “he thinks we are trying to cheat their money.” Well, it was obvious that he felt that we were suspecting if he is a conman. I don’t deny it. I really don’t trust him now so I don’t care how sarcastic is tone was.
Anyway, it was 10+ by then we were really very tired. All we could think of was we were going to Everest tomorrow and had to do some last minute preparation like packing our bags with food and water, and what other supplies to bring.
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