During breakfast (yes, it is still 稀饭，馒头，鸡蛋), the girl who cleaned up our rooms came to us with a wallet. It was JH’s. He had left it under the pillow and forgot completely about it. Very careless of him. And he was very lucky that the girl was honest.
Today we will be heading to 芒康, through which we will enter Tibet. There wasn’t much scenery along the way, probably we were getting a bit sick of mountains and rivers. However, the moment we passed MangKang, it was a drastic change of scenery. No more greens or yellows. Just rocky mountains everywhere. So is this what Tibet really looks like?
We had a little wash-up at a river and the cool icy water was very refreshing. By the time we reached the city of MangKang it was 3pm already and we were unsure whether to go forth or stay put.
The MangKang city had nothing much to offer really and so we decided to continue on. There was a possibility that when we reached our next point 左贡, it would be at night. The driver mentioned that he tried to avoid driving at night for the safety of everyone.
We passed by a little village called 拉乌村 which was a red, arid, rocky kind of place. As usual, the kids in the village upon hearing the approach of our jeep, would rush out and stand at the sides of the road waving at us. And we will wave back or sound a horn in return.
Amidst the arid land, there were patches of light green fields presenting a sharp contrast in color. In these fields was 青稞, a kind of green barley which is the Tibetan’s staple food.
Then we came to a river called 南昌, and thereafter, it was as if we had entered a desert. All we could see was sand and a little bit of vegetation and occasionally there would be little whirlwind of sand. We had our windows wound down throughout that part of the journey. It was perhaps closed to the evening and we still have a mountain to pass over. That’s when I fully realize how drastic weather can change in Tibet.
Once we were on the mountain road, it started to snow quite heavily, with the snowflakes clearly visible. When we were near the top, we saw a breadbus stranded in the middle of the road. It seemed like there was something wrong with the engine due to the snow and the driver gave ZK a number to call for help once we reached the next town. Apparently,
I saw the driver passed some money together with the note. And there was a little girl, probably the driver’s daughter on the breadbus too.
On the way down, we decided to take a short break and everyone got out of the jeep to get a taste of the small snowstorm. It was cold esp. with the wind but it was very fun too! We were jumping around like some crazy people (except for ZK) partly because we were so excitement and partly due to the coldness.
Finally we reached ZuoGong and it was already past 8pm. While waiting for the dinner, we decided to walk around the town (their town is just 1 street with shops at the 2 sides), searching for a winter wear for CCG. He was really in bad shape and had not recovered from the diarrhea. ZK was leading the way and was really taking his own sweet time. Didn’t he need to make a SOS call? That was when we reminded him and then he started looking for a phone booth. What was he thinking? I wasn’t exactly sure of the conversation between him and the stranded driver but was ZK thinking of taking the $ and leaving the father and the daughter up there on the mountain? If that’s the case, then he was really being a bastard.
Still he made the call using the phone from a shop and CCG bought his fake 羽戎服 there too. According to the shop owner, all hotels in this town do not provide free hot bath. If we need 1, we had to pay 10rmb more. Damn. The hotel owner didn’t say that when we asked about hot bath just now. He just said there is. Since we didn’t bathe yesterday, CCG and I decided to pay that 10rmb. The rest felt it was not worth it. It was a wasted 10rmb in the end. The hotel owner will boil the water by burning firewood in a large furnace and keep doing that until we were done with our shower. In the end, it was an inconsistent supply of warm water. Half of the time, the water was ice cold.
Still, I bathed in the end, though just briefly. Just hope that I wouldn’t fall sick after the cold shower.
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