Day 16 200506: Finally Everest Base Camp

The 1st thing we realised about going to Everest Base Camp (EBC) was that the fee was rather high. 405rmb per car. 65rmb per person. I can’t remember the fee for the eco-bus. And then 30rmb for the horse-cart ride.

We stopped by a town on the way to EBC and bought a packet of sweets (about 30). Had to load ourselves with ammunition to shoot at the Tibetan children. The moment I bought the sweets, I started giving the 2 or 3 girls in that shop. On the way, we passed by a village and suddenly about 15 villagers stood on the road and blocked our way. Some of them took out brooms and started sweeping. When we were near them, some women locked arms together and demanded $ from us, saying they helped to make the road condition better for us to travel. We couldn’t possibly run them over and gave them 10rmb. They didn’t ask for more and thanked us. Polite robbers.


One weird thing that I discovered was the huts here all had blue, red and white painted on them. Like the France Tri-Colors. I wonder if the French had ever colonized this part of the world.


After some winding mountain roads and a police road check, we reached the place where we would take the eco-bus. There were 2 Americans were waiting for the bus too, and some Tibetan kids surrounded them and asked for $. As usual, they just gave them hoping they would go away. But the kids just kept asking for more.

Finally the bus was ready to go. Besides tourists like us, there were 2 Tibetans on the bus, a father and his son I guess. They were going back home. Yes, their home was in EBC. During summer when the weather was good, they would return to EBC.

It was a long bumpy ride and finally we arrived at 戎布寺. We were supposed to take horse-cart up the 2km mountain track to the base camp. The horse-cart owners were pestering us and insisted we take their offer and stay at their place. I really hated this kind of non-stop pestering. We told them we would consider later and went into the monastery. There were monks inside but their appearances looked comical. Traditional monk dress with Nike shoes and headwear. One of them even asked if he could exchange his sunglasses with JH’s.


We left the monastery and took 2 of the horse-carts. ZK didn’t come with us because he didn’t have a sleeping bag and thus couldn’t sleep in EBC. The horse-cart ride was more uncomfortable than I thought. It was cramped, bumpy (my buttocks hurt badly), chilly, and I got whipped by the boy who was driving the cart. He was whipping the horse in front but when he pulled his arm back, he would occasionally whip my leg.


The 2 Tibetans who took eco-bus with us walked up instead as they couldn’t afford to pay for the cart ride. When we reached EBC, we saw lots of big Tibetan tents around and right beside the camp was a river. And straight ahead, we saw the gorgeous Mount Everest. Yes. Gorgeous is the word because the name 珠穆朗玛 is the Tibetan name of a goddess who came down from Heaven.

There were so many tents to choose from and in the end, we went to the Tibetan who was pestering us just now. Indeed, like he said, his tent was really very tidy and clean. Moreover, there were blankets and hence there was no need for our sleeping bags. Having settled our accommodations, we decided to explore the surroundings. Kenneth as usual the “professional” photographer, moved off on his own while JH, CCG and I decided to climb a hill.

Halfway up, CCG and I were so cold we couldn’t climb anymore and hid behind a big rock, taking shelter from the wind. JH continued but the higher he went, the steeper it was. Climbing up was easy but coming down would be a lot more difficult. From where we were, we could see him struggling and I did capture his actions in my DV just in case if there was any mishap, at least there would a last footage of him. Haha. That’s CCG’s idea actually.

We also had a clear view of Everest. It looked big but didn’t look tall enough to be the highest mountain in the world, though it’s altitude is 8000m. Maybe because we were already at 5200m. We could see the entire base camp below, littered with tents as well as yaks. Yes. There were yaks everywhere, standing around.

We waited an awful long time before JH decided to come down. Then we set off to look for our lost friend, Ken. We found him at the base camp busy taking his artistic pictures. JH said from the top of the hill that he climbed, he could see an ice glacier in the direction of the advance base camp. Hence, we moved forth and it was a long and tiring walk. Cold wind, giddiness from altitude sickness (or maybe because of the sunglasses). Halfway there, we met a Nepalese coming from the other direction. He took 2 days to climb to advance base camp which is 6600m, and 1 day to descend. Wow.

We didn’t know how far the ice glacier was and decided to turn back as the sun was setting. No way we would be able to make it back safely in the dark. The wind was howling by now and my face was like being cut by thousands of knives. We came to a small hill which had a little plateau at the top. It would be a nice place to watch Mt Everest changed colour as the sun sets.

There were some other tourists there ready to take pictures. I was already squatting behind a large boulder because of the cold. I was the least prepared. No thick warm clothes, no long john, no headgear. We met a Canadian guy and a London-Born Indian girl. The Canadian guy said he was used to such cold weather condition because of where he came from. Well, he didn’t look cold at all because he was wrapped up in who knows how many layers of clothes. The Indian girl was doing voluntary teaching near Shanghai and was on vacation here. After an hour, we had enough of the sunset as well as the cold, and went back to our tent.

Back in the tent, we chatted with the Tibetans and asked what they do at night. They said they would chat, that’s all. Nothing much to do here really. We had instant noodles and biscuits for dinner and played Big2 until nightfall. Not going to sleep so early. We had only 1 night in Everest and so must really treasure it.

Using my not-so-powerful torchlight, we made our way to an open space near that hill. I looked up into the sky and it was the most beautiful picture I had ever seen. The sky was full of stars! For minutes I was just gazing out and “wah, wah…” all the time. I have never ever seen so many stars before. Though I know nothing about star constellation, I did imagine myself joining up the stars with lines trying to form some pictures.

Ken was busy setting up his tripod and camera. JH was also doing that, though he was using his pathetic little mini tripod. My role was to give light to the both of them. As for CCG, he was busy shivering. After 30min of futile attempts, both of them couldn’t get a single good night shot of the stars. My hands were numbed by now, esp. the one holding the torchlight. CCG was almost frozen. But I wasn’t disappointed that we didn’t get any pictures because I would never forget how beautiful the sky was that night.

CCG’s face was white as sheet and not wanting to have any casualties, we returned to our tent. The owner was heating up the stove and that made us feel much better. Although we were inside the tent, it was still very cold and hard to sleep. Thanks to Ken’s extra pair of long john, I wouldn’t survive through the night.

Day 15 190506: Hot Hot Hot

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.

Day 14 180506: Miss Home

Halfway through our trip, and I began to miss SG. I had already lost interest in the lakes, rivers and mountains by now. Instead of going to 日客则 straightaway, we detoured a bit to 江孜, as promised by ZK. As he claimed, JiangZi has nothing much to offer but along the way, there is a beautiful lake to see. One of the three holy lakes of Tibet. He better be right.

He was kind of lost along the way, claiming that the roads had changed and were different as compared to last time he entered Tibet. As the days passed, we began to doubt his words and his credibility was declining. He said he has 14 years of driving experience and told us his experiences in Tibet. But it seemed like he had only enter Tibet once, which was last year. All his stories seemed to be referring to that time only.

Still we managed to find that 神湖, and we decided to climb the hill to get a better view of the lake. Although by now we had got accustomed to the high altitude, we were still quite breathless by the time we reached the top. There was a little plateau on top and below us was the lake, shaped like an ‘S’. Very blue and still water. We took lots of picture in various pose, as if we were shooting music video. Like F.I.R. “我们的爱~~~~”, we were singing…


When we went back to the jeep, Ken suddenly shouted but we weren’t much surprised because he always does that when something serious, or not serious happened. He said he had lost his handphone. Oops, something serious this time. He searched under the seat in the car but couldn’t find. Guess he must have dropped it at another place before we reached the lake. He was very sure he still had it in the morning after we left our hotel. Sigh. First it was JH, now Ken. Losing things on a trip really spoilt the mood. CCG and I tried calling his hp but we couldn’t get through. He must have dropped it somewhere where there is no network.


We stopped for lunch and Ken was really “sian” mood. Still thinking of his hp and all the contact numbers that were lost. I lent him my hp for him to sms his sis, telling her to cancel his subscription. Poor Ken. Once an enthusiastic photographer in our group. Now, seemed like he lost his soul. Looked so damn listless during lunch that it was a bit comical.


After lunch, we entered a desert-like zone with occasional whirlwind of sand. Was sleeping throughout the ride as 江美奇 song was really hypnotizing. I only wake up when we were through the desert area and came to a grassland full of sheep (KAWAI!!!).

We reached JiangZi pretty early and found ourselves a hostel to stay. For half of our trip we had accommodation with TV. Today was one of those unlucky days when we reached a place early but no TV and the town had nothing to offer. I was still quite ok without TV. The only program I like to watch there was 超级女生, a female singing competition (I love that 张亚飞!) and 倚天屠龙记 (starring Su YouPeng, Jia JingWen, Chen XiuLi (TCS!)). I was so addicted to YiTianTuLongJi, I told myself I am going to buy the book back in Chengdu.

We were all in a very bored mood in this boring town and so didn’t want to have any SiChuan Dish for our dinner. Very sick of it. We passed by a restaurant which had English menu. One dish caught our eyes. Sweet and Sour Pork! 古老肉! We ordered all non-Sichuan food including that dish and realised it was actually 糖醋里脊.

Disappointed. And the sauce tasted like fruit jam. But anything that was non-Sichuan was good for us, except poor ZK. He was really in a poor state. No TV, no Sichuan food. Haha. By this time, for don’t know what reason, I had begun to dislike him, though I never showed it.

We shopped around and I bought a scarf and a headwear to protect myself from the cold for the Everest trip. With nothing much to do, we went back hostel and played Big2. ZK said he wanted to walk around the town some more. Better that way. We had more fun by ourselves without him. Ken’s sis replied but still Ken was very pek chek for the lost of all his contact numbers. But ZK is more sian then him I guess. I came up with a rap just to describe ZK’s mood. It was to cheer Ken up actually. Here it goes: “Mr. Zeng today going crazy, because no TV. Mr. Zeng today going hungry, because no chili!” Ha, it was very lamed but still quite shiok poking fun at ZK.

Perhaps I was really bored myself today, or perhaps after chatting with a few friends on msn just now, I began to miss home slightly. I never much miss Singapore whenever I was overseas, not even when I was in France for 6 months last year (except for the 1st few days). But now I do begin to feel a bit that way. Well, I still have the Everest trip to look forward to.

Day 13 170506: Lhasa 拉萨

I am really looking forward to today because we will be going Lhasa, capital of Tibet. Which also means we are closer to the biggest highlight of our trip, Mount Everest Base Camp. It also signifies that we are halfway through our jeep tour. Kind of sick of the bumpy ride everyday already.

It was uninteresting and eventless throughout the ride until we reached 加兴镇, where our dear ZK was asked by a traffic police to stop at the other end of the town. There were other drivers being stopped too and we thought it was a routine road check. ZK came back with a black face. The TP told him that the speed limit in the town is 30km/h and he was driving at 60km/h. In the end he was fined 1200rmb! We all think it was a heavy fine and so Kenneth was comforting him all the while for the rest of the trip. For me, I was laughing in my heart. I still can’t get over the fact he tried to cheat our 2 days yesterday.

We stopped at a town for lunch and it really wasn’t ZK’s day. We decided to have Muslim food for a change (sick of Sichuan food). ZK hates Muslim, 回族, because he thinks they are scheming and all terrorists. Someone like me, who is from a multi-racial society, really can’t stand his extreme thoughts. When he mentioned Muslims are all bad people last time, I told him he was being an extremist. He isn’t that righteous himself either.

Anyway, the Muslim food wasn’t that nice, but it was something new, different from the Muslim food in SG. On the way, JH and I were talking about 毛牛 philosophy. Damn, I am going to be influenced by JH The Great Philosopher very soon (was talking about philosophy on mentally-ill patients with sh that other day). These cows sitting around on the road are really wasting their time and are brainless. But maybe they are highly intellectual and had already evolved to a higher being than human such that they find it pointless to do anything. Maybe they were thinking that humans are stupid to be rushing here and there everyday to accomplish meaningless things. Ha, I don’t even understand what we were saying that day. Talking rubbish then. Must be altitude sickness.


We reached Lhasa before evening and I wasn’t impressed at all by this large city. Probably because I had seen BaYi, the previous town which was pretty big. We walked around the city and soon I began to dislike this place. It was dirty, full of beggars and peddlers, a bit chaotic.

The female peddlers outside Potala Palace were really a nuisance. They would come and pester us to buy their necklaces or praying wheels, and while doing that, they would touch us! JH got touched at his tummy while me on my back and shoulder. Felt molested. Other male tourists were also victims too.


We quickly left the place and went to 大召寺. The prayers would walk in a clockwise direction around the temple. We stopped at the entrance and saw many prayers ORZ in front. All of them went on their knees and lied flat on the ground, got up and repeated the action.

Before returning to our youth hostel 吉日旅舍, we went to 八角街, which is famous for its sales of Tibetans ornaments. We only walked around briefly because we were going to return and tour Lhasa again after this 16-day trip.

After dinner, we went back to rest but ZK decided to go and shop around himself at night. At around 930pm, the 4 of us went out for supper with only our shorts. Heroes. Lhasa is blazing hot in the day (over 30 I guess) but when it comes to night, it could be around 20 or less. We came to a shop called 好好吃 and the boss was amazed we were in our shorts. She asked where we were from and after making guesses like HK, Taiwan, etc. we told them we are from SG.

She said that she didn’t know SG speaks such good Chinese. Haha. JH usual answer to this was that we are bilingual and our education system works that way. I would normally tell the person who praises my Chinese that, “we speak only moderate Chinese. This conversation between you and me has lasted only 10min so far. As time goes by, you will find that I will start to lose stamina and converse more slowly.” I wasn’t trying to be modest. I genuinely felt that I am not bilingual. I can’t speak English as well as the British; neither could my Mandarin be compared to the Chinese. I am only good in Singlish. The boss and her friends chatted with us and told us useful info such as, we could take the military flight back to Chengdu instead of the commercial one which will help us save about 700rmb.

While we were chatting, ZK walked past and we invited him to join us for supper. He took out the guide and told us he intended to detour a bit tomorrow to bring us to another scenic place. Good. At last he did what he was told to do. I wasn’t a bit sorry for him for being fined, even though he must have swore more than 20 times “tmd” that day on that issue. I don’t really give a damn. He deserved it for speeding.

Day 12 160506: Show-down with ZK Part 1

Perhaps I had a good sleep last night (best one so far), today’s mood was very relaxed. Come to think of it, I actually slept better during this 30-day trip than any night back in Singapore. Maybe because of the care-free lifestyle here; no worries, nothing to think about.


After days of porridge for breakfast, we finally had something new: 豆浆油条. It was a luxury to find it here in Tibet, according to ZK, because it is not easy to make at high altitude. Rubbish. We could see these soyabean milk stalls in almost every town after that day. Guess ZK just doesn’t want to eat.

Although the soyabean milk was thin and quite tasteless (had to add sugar ourselves), it was something different and a taste closer to home. And it seemed to be a perfect day today, cool weather and good road condition (although music was lousy in the jeep. 梁永绮’s song played for maybe 5 times).

While we were driving into a forested area, a truck was parked in the middle of the road horizontally, blocking the passage. We got down and saw there was a major road repair some 100m in front. ZK said it should be temporary and we could only wait. There was no other way around. So we just hung around the road, doing nothing.


JH and I were really bored and so decided to make a coca-cola commercial. JH the director, told me to start running from 20m away towards the DV. My line was, “在森林喝可口可乐，另有一番滋味！“ It was a well shot advert until the moment I opened the bottle. Because I was running with the bottle, all the gas and foam spilled out. Very cock.


Even with the advert, we were really bored just waiting. ZK was taking his puffs away. A truck loaded with kayaks (and angmohs) came and stopped behind us. A group of Aussies came out and chatted with us while their Tibetan driver went ahead to find out info from the repair workers. These Aussies had been to Tibet before and they came here just to canoe in the river. We shared our travel experiences with 1 of the guys while the rest of their group was playing chap teh.


Their driver came back with good news. There seemed to be a side path into the forest which would lead us out of the place. There is no way the repair will finish by today and so was pointless to wait. ZK that useless bum. No initiatives at all. We found that narrow path at the side of the main road but it was at a lower ground. Driving down directly might damage the exhaust of our cars and so the Angmohs started carrying logs and boulders found around the forest and created a connection between the main road and the side track.


After 20min of hardwork, we let their truck try on the newly laid path and it took another 10min to finally get the truck down to the side track. Just then, 2 jeeps from the opposite end came and as the track in the forest was so narrow that only 1 vehicle can pass at a time, the truck had to reverse slowly back to the main road to let them through. When finally the passage was cleared, it was our turn to use the track and because ours was a jeep, we made it down effortlessly.

The next 10min or so was spent driving in the middle of the forest, and occasionally there were cows strolling across the jungle track, blocking our path. After a few turns, we came out of the jungle and were on the main road again. I guessed we were delayed for about an hour but we should still reach our destination in time.

Along the way, I caught sight of a magnificent scenery. Coming down from a cliff was a straight line of water. It was called One-Line Waterfall, 一线瀑. A very unique waterfall. After we passed 雅卢藏库江, there was another trailer blocking our path and it seemed like a road repair again. However, strangely, there were jeeps coming from the other end at the same time. I went over to the truck this time to find out what was going on. There was a notice on it, saying the road was closed from this time to that due to some reason. Before I could finish reading, a man came and took the notice away and said, “没事，没事”. I was confused and even more so when that man climbed into the cabin of the trailer and drove the vehicle away. What was that all about?

Anyway, we don’t really care as long as we could continue moving. Very soon, we entered a big town, 八一镇. It was more like a city than a town. A few high-rise buildings, clean streets, neat streetlamps at the sides. It had everything a city would have except for people; not a single soul at all! It was like a ghostly modern city. Our guess was this must be a new extension to the old BaYi Town and perhaps the population from the old town will move into here soon. After driving around this place for some 20min, we finally found our way out and reached the real, old BaYi.

It was still consider a big town, with traffic lights and plenty of shops. We decided to shop around for supplies as well as some warm clothes (long john in particular) to prepare ourselves for Everest. ZK said we don’t have to buy now because we were definitely going to spend 2 days in Lhasa so we could do our shopping then. That was when we realised that ZK wanted to spend the extra 2 days we have in Lhasa. However, this was unfair to us because we were paying 600rmb for the jeep per day and the jeep would not be used at all for that 2 days in Lhasa. Moreover, our intention was to pass by Lhasa (stay 1 night at most) and then move on to Everest. Because, we will return to Lhasa again at the end of our trip and we wanted to tour the capital after we have parted with the driver. It would be our last destination for this 16-day jeep tour.

The more we thought of it, the more we felt that the driver wanted to cheat that 2 days out of us. So we started to converse in English while shopping, to come out with a plan on how to tell ZK. Guess, ZK sensed that we were plotting on something, but of course we weren’t, just discussing.

When we were back at the hotel (our 1st ‘real’ hotel, with TV, personal washroom), we were undecided on how to confront him. We didn’t want to sound as if we were suspicious of him of trying to cheat us. But we wanted to bring up our points firmly too. I felt we worried too much on this issue. Why can’t we just be open and said what we feel? So I decided to do the confrontation and I asked ZK if he really planned to use that 2 days in Lhasa. He said tentatively that was the case. Then I asked if these 2 days were part of our 16-day itinerary and he said yes. I told him this plan was wrong because we wanted to tour Lhasa only at the end of the trip, after that 16 days. As such, I asked if he could find other places for us to visit in Tibet and passed to him the guide book found in his car. He kept quiet and started flipping the pages.

I wasn’t sure he was embarrassed or unhappy but I did what I had to do so that was fine with me. He was probably unhappy, because he thought he could save 300rmb on petrol cost by staying put in Lhasa for 2 days. Fat chance I would let him get his way. JH said that I could have approached him more diplomatically and less accusingly. He told me later that after that confrontation, the gap between ZK and us (which already existed in the beginning), had drifted wider. At this rate, it would be hard for us if we wanted to still keep in touch with him back in Chengdu after our trip. Perhaps he was right. We were skeptical of him at the start but slowly began to trust him as days went by. After today, I think we were back to square one, if not worse.

After that incident, the 4 of us were still talking about our relationship with the driver. Seriously, I wasn’t bothered at all. Although I seemed to be getting along well with ZK (we even had telepathy thoughts some times, haha), I only regarded him as a driver employed by us and nothing more. It would take more than just a few days of conversation for someone to be considered my friend. Especially someone like ZK whom I couldn’t trust at all from the very beginning.

PS: during our dinner, 5 big sized Lamas came in and started praying beside us. They then demanded $ and said will go back and tell how good we were to his Big Lama. We gave them 2rmb but they wouldn't go. In the end, it took us 30rmb to get rid of the group of cheaters. Sigh... if these monks were in SG, I surely would give them a good scolding. But we were in their turf then. The restaurant owner said that these people will beg for $ (extort I would say) in the day, and 吃喝嫖赌 at night. I sincerely hope these monks get punished by God.

Day 11 150506: A visit to a Tibetan village

Before we set off for our destination of the day, the handsome policeman came to us in the morning and asked if we could give his friend a ride to the village we were going. I was a bit reluctant because it meant that we would have to squeeze at the back. Later, we realised that person was the policeman’s girlfriend and she was going to the village to teach.

We told her to wait for us at the hostel as we wanted to go back to the RanWu Lake to take picture. The weather today was the best so far; clear blue sky with no clouds. So we wanted to try our luck again at the lake and promised her we will return shortly. True enough, when we reached there, it was as if we had come to Switzerland. The reflection of the snow mountain on the water was clearer and a sunnier weather added brighter colors to the already scenic picture.

Once we were satisfied with the number of pictures taken, we rushed back to pick up the teacher. Her name was 诗拉左卡 (I am sure this is the wrong spelling but sounds like that) and she said all Tibetans’ names are given by their Lama when they were born. The names had no meaning at all. We wanted to go to this village called 雅子村 in which lies the 2nd largest ice glacier in the world, known as 来古冰川. And lucky we had ZuoKa with us because this village was really secluded. Without her, I am sure the now dis-oriented ZK wouldn’t know how to go. Ever since we entered Tibet, ZK had become close to useless as much as direction-sense is concern. He had become as lost as we were. Guess he wasn’t as experienced as he claimed.

ZuoKa said that she graduated from 拉萨师范大学 (the equivalent of NIE in SG) and had to do 1 year of teaching in a village. She chose YaZi Village because that’s where her boyfriend was staying. Although she wore a face mask to protect her face from the strong UV, from her modern dressing (purple coat and furry boots), I guessed she must be quite pretty (at least for a Tibetan). When we finally reached the village, we asked if she could be our guide for the rest of the day and skipped school in the morning. She agreed without hesitation and asked another teacher to relief her. There were just 2 teachers in the school (like that means 1 principal and 1 vice-principal?) which was located on the hill not far away. She pointed it out to us and said the school was beside a big tree. We declined her invitation to the school because the school was so freaking high up the hill!

We moved off to the ice glacier area and had to pay a small entrance fee. We drove passed a checkpoint and slowly ascended a snow mountain. It was like an ice paradise hidden inside the mountain. A completely different world. There was a greenish blue lake in the middle and we saw the ice glacier floating on it. We didn’t get to see the entire glacier as part of it was blocked by mountain but it was huge enough.

Further down the mountain road was a village called 来古村. Some of the villagers who were looking after the sheep nearby came curiously. I guess this place is one of the least visited tourist attractions.

At a turn of the mountain road, we almost crashed into an oncoming tractor. Both parties had to back off slowly and it was quite dangerous as we were at the edge of the road. A bit of carelessness and we would have fallen off the cliff.

We decided to get out of the car and go on foot and slowly enjoy the scenery. ZK and ZuoKa stayed in the car though. I must say I was a little worried for the young and pretty teacher. Don’t forget, ZK had a bad guy’s face, haha.


Slowly, we made our way down the mountain, with Kenneth and JH most reluctant to leave this paradise. Back at the village, ZuoKa led us to a hut where her boyfriend’s uncle lives. We were welcomed by our host, a middle-age man. The hut was made of stones and wood and there was little light inside. There was a stove at a corner and our host began boiling water to serve us tea. The famous Yak’s Butter Tea, 苏油茶. We were warned beforehand that this tea will make you puke.

When it was poured to us, we took sips cautiously. To my surprise, it was not as bad as I was told. Probably because ZK told the host to put less salt in our tea. YES. It is salt not sugar.

We were also offered their staple food 沾巴 (or also called 藏巴), a brown color powder made from 青稞. When eating the powder, it tasted a bit like peanut but the moment the powder mixed with my saliva, it became starchy and stuck to the roof of my mouth. In fact everywhere inside and I couldn’t even talk! I might possibly be choked by it if I were to take too big a mouthful.

Next drink was a delight; 酸奶. I thought it must be some disgusting thing but it actually was yoghurt! Yummy. Too bad he only gave each of us a small cup. As for the Butter Tea, he kept refilling for us against our wish really. We decided to give some biscuits and food to the kids in the hut and they were really excited.

The host, showing his hospitality always, taught us how to eat the Zang Ba in their traditional way. Or the disgusting way. He told us to mix the bowl of powder with the tea. Then he gave each of us a big slice of butter. We had to mix everything together and made dough out of it. Then, using our fingers, we had to squash and squeeze the mixture into a ball. The end product was a brown solid ball.


This ball was completely tasteless and yet disgusting. Never had I tasted something so tasteless yet so bad to eat. Without finishing half of it, I was already full. Thinking I should drink some tea to get rid of the sticky food inside my mouth, I drank a mouthful only to find myself in a torture. After eating the dough, the tea had become Super Si Bei Pai Lim. Still, not wanting to hurt the host’s heart, we finished the tea but not the dough. We said we would bring the Zang Ba along and eat it on the road. Of course the Zang Ba ended up in the dustbin in our next hostel.

We thanked the host and left his house with the teacher. She brought us to 2 brothers whom let us ride their horses for a small amount. It was my first horse ride and one of the brothers was holding onto the rein initially. I told him I wanted to ride on my own and he then passed me the rein. At first the horse didn’t move despite me kicking it at the sides. Suddenly it started trotting and it really startled me. I was a bit panicky and sensing that I wouldn’t be able to control the horse, the brother ran forward and took back the rein. That was my brief horse riding experience.

When all of us had our fun with the horses, we bid the brothers and the teacher goodbye. It was really a unique experience and we were lucky we had the teacher as our translator and guide. While on our way back to the hotel, JH jumped suddenly. He touched his waist and looked around frantically searching for something. He said he think he had dropped his money pouch which contained all his $ for this trip. Gosh! He couldn’t remember where he dropped it but was sure he didn’t leave it behind in the hostel. As the amount was a lot, we asked ZK to turn back to the village. The problem now was: Did he drop it in the Tibetan house? Or while horse riding? Or worse, at the ice glacier area.

When we were back at the village, the teacher was still around and we told her about this. We decided to split up and so CCG, the teacher and I went searching around in the village while JH, ZK and Kenneth go back to the ice glacier. Our guess was the pouch was lost at the glacier, because we were running around there and he might have dropped it while taking pictures.

After searching around the places we had been to in the village, we couldn’t find it and decided to wait for them to come back. Really, we felt that the chances of recovering the $ was very slim. The ice glacier place was very big in the first place. And there might be other tourists or villagers who would pick it up. The teacher, still feeling worried, went with another villager on motorbike to the ice glacier. The 2 brothers went also on horses. As for CCG and I, we were left behind with the other Tibetan kids.

We just sat there looking at each other as we had language barrier. I had enough of this boredom and decided to teach them Chinese. I asked CCG to take out his notebook and pen and at first it was just writing numbers in Chinese. I got bored by that too and began drawing cows, clouds, mountains and teaching them the corresponding Chinese words. It was fun until one of the kids wanted to draw the thing that he wanted us to teach him. He drew a cactus looking thing on the paper and I thought he wanted 仙人掌 or 花. He said no, and pointed at his dick. Well done. I was really stuck that time. I couldn’t possibly said 鸟 because I had just taught that. The real meaning that is. In the end I just smoked through and said that’s all I could teach.

I played football with a boy (kicking stone), witnessed him smashed a torchlight into pieces, watched how he crushed every single ant he could find on the ground. Time crawled. At last, the 2 Tibetan brothers were the first to return and were shouting, “钱有了！钱有了！” (Found $) We couldn’t believe our luck (or rather JH’s). Soon everyone returned and true enough the money pouch had been recovered. As a display of our gratitude to the villagers, we surrendered all our food supplies in the jeep. Someone had to top them up in the next town, and that’s JH for sure.

Everyone was extorting JH $ in the jeep now. CCG and I asked for a treat as we were left stranded in the sun with the Tibetan kids. Kenneth said he caught a cold while searching in the ice glacier. Even ZK chipped in and said while waiting for JH, he had smoked a few packets of cigarettes. A dinner treat from JH seemed to be inevitable and we demanded 烤全羊 (roasting a complete sheep).

Coincidentally, we met 3 of the cyclists we met last night. They were going to the ice glacier too and they proved to be genuine seasoned travelers. We had a teacher as our guide by chance. They were a level higher. Somehow, they managed to meet the village head of 来古村 on the way and with some hand gestures, managed to hitch-hike his tractor. That is what I call truly interactive kind of traveling.

We skipped lunch as it was getting late (and we were still very full from the Zang Ba) but also because we knew tonight we were going to have a feast, courtesy of JH’s treat. On the way to our next town 波密, we met the 69 year old cyclist and he said the 5 of them had split up. Traveling on the road on bike alone for an elderly is really an incredible feat. This kind of people really showed passion in the things they do. I wonder if I would ever have such passion for something in life. We told him to take care as we moved on.

It seemed as if the autumn season had arrived (though it was summer of course) as we saw forest turned red and yellow. It was scenic and made the rest of the journey a joy. Moreover, the cold weather that we had endured for the past few days had turned warm. We arrived at Pomi near dinner time. Great timing. As promise, JH said he would pay for the meal and ZK instinctively took over the menu. We shouldn’t have let him done that. In the end, he ordered all his favourite dishes. The only food that I ate was my bowl of rice which was the only dish that wasn’t spicy. That’s the problem when you are too nice to other people. We should have said no to all his orders.

Still it wasn’t a big issue to fuss over and after dinner, we walked the street. We saw another guy from the group of cyclists and he was talking to a Korean elderly traveler. The Korean spoke some Chinese but wasn’t very fluent. As we thought Koreans are one of the better English-speakers in Asia, we conversed in English. But his English was just as bad as his Chinese. It seemed like he was traveling alone and had been taking public transport from one city to another. Another daring elderly traveler.

Once again, although the town was considered relatively modern, hot water bath in the hostel was still a rarity and we had to walk a distance to a public bath shop. A shop that charged a fee for hot shower and many of the town people were bathing here. I felt refreshed after the hot shower which was much desired. It was indeed worth the $ and effort.

Day 10 140506: Are we bad tourists?

Yesterday heavy snow continued on this morning and as ZK was warming up the engine, another jeep driver came to ask about the road condition from where we came from. He was going the opposite direction. We told him the road from Litang to Batang was under repair and hence we could only take the side road which was difficult to travel on. Later he asked our driver how to enable 4WD in his jeep (挂四驱) as now the road was partly covered with ice and snow. After helping him, ZK told us it is a shame that the driver owns a solid Toyota jeep but knows nothing about 4WD. 浩链.

After a short while on the road, I had some 屎意 and asked the driver to stop near some ruins. I quickly went behind a wall and did my business. I wouldn’t say it was enjoyable shitting in the open but it was a different experience. Facing the snow mountain, shitting among the ruins (probably an abandoned temple). Not sure whether my friends thought it was fun or they also felt the urge to move their bowels under my influence, one by one they tried it also. I did my business in a swift and JH and I plotted to sneak on Kenneth who was taking his own sweet time. He was so helplessly squatting there while JH took an artistic picture of him. I would say it wasn’t a bad shot.

We passed by a village on the way and saw the villagers building a house. Everyone joined in the construction, men, women, girls and boys. I saw a girl carry a sack of rocks and had to climb up the ladder to the 2nd level of the half-complete house. The invention of pulley system certainly had not reached this village. I really pitied that poor girl.


Thereafter, it was a long drive along a lonely long road. No other cars. Just us. Then, we saw an old man walking on the road some distance in front of us. Every 2 steps he took, he would kneel down, lie flat on the ground, stretched his hands forward and get up again. And he then he would repeat. The famous ORZ. We stopped in front of him and got out of the car to take pictures of his action.


ZK said that sometimes the wife or the son would follow behind on horse-cart, carrying food and supplies. But most of the time it was done alone. All the way from their village to Lhasa. And god knows how many had died along the way. I would say in this case faith is a scary thing. Though I couldn’t understand why they did that, I wouldn’t want to indulge in religious issue here.

Today we were making good progress because of the favourable road conditions (finally some real concrete road to travel on) and hence had a longer lunch break. TOO LONG I would say. Because ZK started talking non-stop about tea. The different types of tea, the methods, when to drink them, how to appreciate, blah blah blah. To make matter worse, Kenneth knew a bit on tea appreciation and hence added on to the conversation. I was dozing off for most of the time but I did catch the word 竹叶青, one of the most famous tea in Sichuan. Guessed we could all go to ZK’s teahouse after this trip to have a taste of good tea and buy some back.


Because of this long break, we reached 然乌镇, our stop for the day, rather late. The 4 of us went to the 然乌湖, which known for its beautiful scenery. Sadly, all we saw was a dried up lake and some puddles of water. The rainy season only comes in August. Still, we went down to the lake and walked on the cracked bed of the lake. If the lake were to be water-filled, we would get a nice reflection of the snow mountains nearby. But now, we could only get partial reflection with the little bit of water left.


Feeling disappointed, we went back to our hostel and ZK was talking to a group of cyclists and all of them were gathering around a stove, getting warmth. We went over also and it was shiok putting your hands near the stove, heated by burning firewood inside. The 2 cyclists said there were 5 of them actually, but they didn’t plan this cycling tour before-hand. Some they met along the way while others were “jioed” online. One of the cyclists was 69 years old.

While we were talking, 2 policemen stepped in and asked if they could 烤炉 with us. One of them was a middle-aged man, and he was the 局长 of the town. Another handsome young man, who looked a bit like Andy Lau was his Kah Giah. This 元局长 is quite funny. He said that some time ago, a man lodged a police report saying his car was smashed by the Tibetan kid. The reason was: That man bought a bundle of pencils for the kids. However, while he was giving out, he found that he didn’t have enough for everyone. So he decided to throw the pencils on the ground for them to grab. Those who didn’t get the pencils were so angry that they smashed his jeep with stones.

Mr. Yuan told that guy, served him right. He felt the victim deserved it as it was very humiliating to throw the pencils like that. He said if you can’t afford to buy pencils for every kid in the village, give the pencils to the teacher of that village and let her distribute. Don’t throw them at kids. Thereafter, he started giving us a lecture on tourism. He said the phenomenon of begging in all the cities of Tibet is largely due to the bad tourists around. Why give $ to kids who aren’t even old enough to count? Esp. the 老外, who are less sensitive and thought the easiest way to rid themselves of these young beggars is to give them $. A sweet or a pencil will do.

And he said most tourists after traveling Tibet, would tell their friends about the harsh weather conditions in Tibet, making it sound as if Tibet’s living condition is unbearable. Is that really so? Are the Tibetans here all superhuman then? These tourists only stressed the tough and painful experience of their trip to show how they suffered. They often fail to talk about the sunny days and the cooling light rains. I must say, I am a bit guilty of that but it is an indisputable fact that weather changes real fast in Tibet. But I would say it wasn’t as bad as one would think.

And traveling to Tibet by jeep isn’t that dangerous too. The winding mountain roads, muddy tracks, and so on do not pose as much danger as driving in a car-and-pedestrian-filled city. Traveling in the countryside is the easiest kind of driving you can get. Just have to look straight. No need to care left and right and no red light also.

Sensing he had talked too much and too harshly perhaps, he started telling us funny incidents he had. One time he was driving from RanWu to Chengdu and he was not wearing his uniform then. Some travelers wanted to hitch-hike and he agreed straightaway, doing it for free. The travelers were skeptical and thought maybe he was a bad guy and had some ulterior motives. Because in China, everything is about $. Still they took his car. Along the way, there were some road blocks and Mr. Yuan took out his police coat and wore it. Then he went over to talk to the road block guy and he was let through immediately. The 2 travelers at the back told him, “hey not bad to get a police uniform ready in the car. It really comes handy at times. Maybe we should get one also next time.” Ha, poor Mr. Yuan. Maybe he was such a funny guy that he had no credibility at all when wearing his police uniform.

After a few more stories, he needed to attend to some business (apparently there were some geography assessors in town whom he needed to meet) and we also left to take a shower. We had to pay 5rmb this time for hot bath and again it was done by burning firewood. However it was a torturous one. Some time there was no water. Suddenly, hot water would rush out. Then turned icy cold immediately. It was another half-complete shower again. Another cyclist went after us and we warned him of the inconsistent supply of water at the same time complaining to the hostel boss. That cyclist returned feeling completely refreshed and looked as if he had a good bath. And he claimed he really did. He gave 2 reasons: 1: he believed in Buddha and we don’t. 2: because the 5 of us bathed at the same time and hence there wasn’t enough water pressure to cater to everyone’s need at one go. I will take his 2nd reason.

Day 9 130506: Entering Tibet

It was a poor sleep the night before, enduring ZK’s snoring throughout as he was sharing the room with JH and I (though JH claimed that I snored too). By now, we had decided that JH and I will always take 1 room together while CCG and Kenneth formed the other pair. As for ZK, we will take turn to share the room with him.

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.

Day 8 120506: 曾昆飞跃断桥特技!

We were slowed down considerably on the road early in the morning by villagers who were ushering their cows to the field. Finally when we were cleared, a soldier stopped us along the way. He wanted to hitch-hike to his camp and so we had to squeeze a bit at the back. All the while he was talking to ZK in Chuan language and so we couldn’t understand the conversation.

After we dropped him, it was a long endurance ride through the highlands. The kind of 高原 that I expected was greens everywhere with horses galloping around. All I saw was yellow grass all around, a bit of disappointed. Hence, I slept for most part of that journey until we reached 里塘 where we broke for lunch.

ZK told us that the 2 places of interest 稻城 and 亚丁, initially in our 16 days itinerary, are not worth visiting. Moreover, the entrance fee is going to be over 300rmb, including the horse-cart ride. We were a bit skeptical because DaCheng and YaDing are known to be one of the most beautiful places along our 318 route (btw, our route is known as 318川藏线). And some people even said that they are the last, truly, Shangri-La of China. Kenneth said that the Shangri-La in Yunnan is man-made for the sake of tourists.

While persuading us, ZK kept saying that his intention was to help us save money (节约), and the scenery there will not be more beautiful then the free ones we were going to see along the way. Even though he did mentioned that the choice is still ours to make, he was strongly against the idea. In the end, we felt that he genuinely suggested that for our good (我处处都是为你们着想), and adopted his change of plan. He claimed that the 2 days spent there could now be put into better use in other more worthy places.

JH was afraid that ZK was going to cheat the 2 days out of us and after some clarifications with him, he promised that he will fully utilized all 16 days. In the end, he wanted us to write on his notebook that we all agreed to the change in plan after discussing, and I signed on it on the behalf of the team. He said this was the correct procedure so that he could report back to his travel coy.


With this issue settled, we went to visit a little monastery called 白塔公园, and I had some understanding of their religion there. The town people would walk around the temple (which is shaped like a white tower) in a clockwise direction. In their hands, they would turn their prayer wheels (转经轮) and chant a six-word prayer (MaMiMaMiHom… but sounds only 5 words, maybe I got it wrong).


At the 2 sides of the temple would be 2 rows of Prayer Drums (转经桶) which the prayers would turn. I was really impressed by their faith in their religion as there were many elderly who were obviously having difficulty in walking but still kept going round.


Other elderly would sit around in the park chatting and turning their wheels at the same time. The wheels had to be turned in the clockwise direction also. We spotted a bunch of kids playing games and singing songs and so we decided to go over and play with them. They were surprised and curious by the approach of foreigners and were a bit shy. Eventually, it was our cameras and DV that won them over and all of them were eager to be on screen.


All except for 1 little boy who all the while would just sit there quietly looking at us, with a half-smile (or half-frown? I couldn’t tell). It looked as if he had a lot of worries but he was only around 4 yrs of age. And there were 3 brothers (I guess so, since they wore similar clothes) who will always take pictures together. I realised this only after I took a look at JH, Kenneth and CCG’s pictures back in SG. The 3 boys were always together in all their pictures. The elderly sitting around were happy that the kids had fun with us.

After spending 30min there, we left to go to another temple. But this temple was hard to find and many of the locals said they never heard of it. Either that temple never existed or ZK got a problem with his pronunciation. Finally, thanks to some local kids, we found the temple. I guess the confusion was caused by the fact that the temple was known as another name to the local. It was a grand monastery with gold-plated (or maybe real gold) roofs but we couldn’t enter as it was under maintenance.

With nothing left to see, we left for our next stop 巴塘. On the way, CCG had to ask the driver to stop as he needed to shit. First diarrhea casualty. And it must be due to the spicy food that we had all this time. We stopped by a grassland area, and while he went to do his business, ZK, JH and Kenneth went to a river quite some distance away to take pictures (and they got really nice scenery from there). I was left to guard the car and wait for CCG.


CCG returned looking better but still was in poor condition and I gave him a pill. We moved off immediately as it was getting a bit late by then. However, our progress came to a halt when we found that the small bridge further up had collapsed. The workers there said the repair team might only come tomorrow morning. So what can we do? Wait? Turn back to LiTang? ZK went to inspect the bridge and after some assessment, he felt that he could probably make a dash for it. The 4 of us got off the jeep and walked across, while ZK positioned the jeep for the dash.

He reminded me of the car stuntman 小黑 and he does look like him. We stood at the side of the road waiting, recording the stunt using my DV. But we didn’t have to wait long as ZK drove across the bridge without much hesitation. It was rather an anti-climax because all that happened was that the jeep dipped slightly and then climbed back and was at the other side of the river in a second. I was expecting his jeep would fly over or something like that. Still there was a risk that the bridge might collapse completely and so we gave ZK a round of applause for his courage. If the jeep really got caught in between the broken bridge, guess that would be the end to our trip.

After getting pass this little ordeal, I thought it would be smooth sailing all the way to our destination. But the road condition is as unpredictable as the weather here. There was major road repair all the way to BaTang, and we could only take the side road (便道) which was just a mud track. This seriously limited our speed and we could only travel at 30km/h at most. At this rate, we were never going to reach BaTang unless we drove at night, which was considered dangerous, and even more so when we were using the side road.

By 8pm, we decided it was too dark to carry on and hence had to stop by a small town (more like a village). It was of poor condition, with mud everywhere and worst of all no showering. After 1 full day of traveling, and no hot bath. It was really torturous. All we could do was to wash our face along the drain using the tap. I put some powder (蛇粉) and wiped my face with wet tissue. 艰苦生活.

We were so tired that we didn’t have much appetite for dinner (esp. CCG who was still feeling sick), except for ZK. After dinner, CCG went up to sleep while the rest of us chatted at the table. I asked ZK if he is a full time driver and how many trips must he make a year to earn a living. He said that he owns a teahouse and a box-making factory, so he was doing this for the sake of passion, not the $. He said it is dangerous if the driver do this just for the sake of $, because he would tire himself out in the end and put everyone’s life in jeopardy. My trust in him grew after hearing what he said.

The rest of the conversation was on girls, his clubbing experiences and a bit on history of China. Then, we rested for the day.

Day 7 110506: Away from Civilization

Breakfast was the simple 稀饭，馒头，鸡蛋 combi. While on the road, we saw kids walking to school and when they saw our jeep, they would stop and salute. ZK said that these kids (many of them are Tibetans) used to throw stones at jeeps. But thanks to the teachers in the school, they stopped doing that and replaced the stone-throwing act with saluting.

After passing by 丹巴, we break for lunch at a place called 塔贡. It had a kind of Tibetan style, with colorful paintings on the doors of the houses.

There was a monastery and the hill behind it was filled with hundreds of prayer flags. It was there that I saw real Tibetans with traditional clothes and Tibetan monks. There wasn’t much to see along the way except for villages building a bridge, and we reached 新都桥 in no time. This place is supposed to be the Heaven of all photographers (摄影师的天堂) but to me it is just a small town surrounded by mountains.


It was still very early (4pm) when we decided to stop for the day. ZK decided upon a little farmhouse kind of inn, with a nice grass patch outside. JH was unhappy that ZK was making the decision on our accommodation because he thought we should be the ones choosing since we were paying, not him. The place we stayed at was really “ulu”, no shops, not many people, nothing but mountains around. The town further up had more to offer but ZK said the shops there are not worth patronizing.


Since it was still early, we decided to climb the hill opposite us. According to the lady boss, there was an old and abandoned temple somewhere up there. The 5 of us went off exploring but ZK backed out at the last minute, for fear of altitude sickness. We walked along the road at the bottom of the hill trying to find a good and easy spot to climb. After 15min of walking, we couldn’t find a good path to start climbing. JH and Kenneth saw a little opening at the side of the hill and decided to go up from there. CCG and I felt that there must surely be a better path and thus did not follow. It was easy to tell who were the more adventurous ones (and who were the smarter ones).


As CCG and I made our way back, walking away from the hill, we turned around to see how far JH and Kenneth had gone. They were really quite fast because by then, I could only see 2 tiny figures struggling up the hill. Using my DV, I zoomed in on them. Some villagers were curious on my DV and asked me to show them the footage. They were simply amazed. The villagers could speak a little bit of Chinese and said JH and Kenneth had gone the wrong way. They said there is an easier route and asked a 10 yrs old boy to bring us there.


This kid that led us the way spoke very good Chinese. His name was ChenWen ZhenCuo (晨纹阵措, sounds like). This boy had a handsome face and was very talkative, asking where we came from. We didn’t tell him the answer initially and he started making a lot of guesses, but all within China. Finally when I told him I was from 新加坡, he thought I was from 新疆, and kept telling me his brother is there now. Later he “jio” his younger brother to join us and also his best friend. As we passed his school (which had the words “好好学习，天天向上”), he mentioned that his brother was 1st in standard for primary 2 while he got top 5 in his level. And he didn’t care if his friend felt “paiseh” or not and told us he got 倒数第二. But I can tell the 2 of them are really very close friends. He even asked his friend to show us the wound he suffered last year after being scalded by hot water.

Finally we reached the path leading up the hill. No climbing at all, just have to walk up. To thank the kids, we took photos with them and gave them all our chewing gums. They offered to go up with us but we declined. It would be a great embarrassment if we couldn’t make it to the top in front of them.

After bidding them goodbye, we walked slowly up the hill. Somewhere near the top, we began to feel breathless and light-headed due to the high altitude (we were already on highlands by then). Once we reached the top, there was a big plateau and many cows were grazing there. From there we had a good view of mountains around us and quite far away, there was a snow mountain, the Holy Mountain of the region. We could even see our hostel from there, which was just a tiny building looking from up there.

After we caught our breaths, I shouted out for JH and Kenneth but I guess they had already made their way back to the hostel. We went searching for the abandoned temple, not so much as to see it but to take pictures of it so as to prove to JH and Kenneth that we were there too.

After we done that, we slowly made our way down, almost forgetting from which path we came come from. It was easy to find the path in the end, just follow the shit of the cows. When we reached the hostel, the 2 were already back and we shared with them our experiences with the kids.

After dinner, ZK invited us to join him at the field for some men’s talk. 2 or 3 dogs were roaming around us, and a few piglets grazing on the field nearby. It was nice chatting in the open like that (except that it was too cold), watching the Holy Mountain changed color as the sun sets behind us. And it reminded me of the days when me and RV good friends went camping in Pulau Ubin many years ago, when we had a good chat under the stars, away from civilization. By nightfall it was getting too cold and we returned to our dorms. After this chit-chat session, I felt that the distance between ZK and us was closer. I was glad that happened because I would want to feel as if the 5 of us were traveling together, rather than 4 + 1 driver sort of mentality. And I began to feel that we could trust this ZK.

Day 6 100506: My First Snow Mountain!

We had an expensive Western breakfast in Sims in the morning. Bacon sandwich with fruits. There is another breakfast set which costs 22rmb, the most expensive food in Sims. That we intend to order on our very last day of our tour. It was a rainy morning and hence we had our breakfast in their little Japanese-style hut, called the “glass room”. An old couple shared the room with us, an Austrian guy and his Indonesian Chinese wife. Both are seasoned travelers, and had been to places like Nepal and some other parts of Tibet. Kenneth was the one talking to them (esp. the Austrian guy) for most of the time as both of them knew much about the geography of Tibet.

At 8am, our jeep driver Mr. Zeng (shall call him ZK for Zeng Kun from now), came to pick us up. One of the gals in Sims came out to see us off. The first thing we had to do was to buy supplies for our trip. ZK brought us to a small mart but being inexperience, we didn’t know what to buy and how many to buy. He suggested chocolate, dried beef, and other high energy food. Water was his major concern also and he told us to buy as much as possible as it might get more expensive when we enter Tibet.

With our grocery done, we hit the road immediately. I was feeling pretty excited, even though it would only be a few days later before we enter Tibet. The ride was a little bumpy but tolerable. Our first stop was 卧龙, a rather developed town due to its most famous attraction: Panda Zoo. We had our lunch there and again it was Sichuan food. We took this opportunity to ask ZK what exactly is that spice that made our mouths numb. The answer is: 花椒. From then on, we kept a look out for this little devil in our food.

Along the way, ZK was telling us that Tibetans can also be found in Sichuan area, particular 阿坝州, and the Tibetan tribe is known as 藏羌族 (pronounced as Zang Qiang). From a far, we saw our first snow mountain, 八郎雪山 and we will be going over it. Although I have seen snow before, going over a snow mountain would be a great first experience.

After some winding mountain roads, we finally reached the snow mountain and everyone got out of the jeep. It wasn’t as cold as we would expect, and we weren’t wearing much, just a t-shirt and a jacket.

It was then when I was seized by altitude sickness and I felt giddy and headache all of a sudden. It seemed like the altitude sickness pill I ate had not taken effect yet (it is a Chinese medicine we bought at a pharmacy, 红景天). After drinking some coca cola, I was feeling much better.

On the way down the mountain, Kenneth had to ask the driver to stop as he needed to vomit. Motion sickness. He was sitting at the back, in the middle seat which suffers the greatest impact of the bumpy ride. Thereafter, CCG gave him a motion sickness pill and we told him to take the passenger seat in front. From then on, that was his permanent seat.

When we reached the bottom, we were supposed to enter a tourist attraction. It is some sort of long canal or valley, which I can’t remember because we never went in in the end. Our driver told us to give him a call once we were done and he drove off to take a break. The entrance fee was rather high, 80rmb plus 50rmb of bus ride in the area. We decided that it was not worth the money but our driver had already left. Kenneth threw up some more but felt much better thereafter. We began calling ZK using our hp but there must be something wrong with our auto-roaming service. ZK said he will not pick up the call but just let it ring and he will come and fetch us.

We went in search of a public phone but couldn’t find one. In the end, we found a store and asked the store owner if we could borrow his phone. Still, we couldn’t get through to ZK hp. Guess his hp number is registered under a different province. We went back to the tourist attraction reception area and asked the man in charge for help. He made a call to ZK using his hp and told ZK to come and fetch us. It was very kind of him.

ZK came and we all left the place, now searching for a place to stay. There wasn’t any town nearby and so we settled for a small motel along the road. A very sloppy and simple place to sleep that’s all. But still considered clean. Kenneth fell out by then and stayed there to rest.


Whereas JH, CCG and I left to explore the surroundings. We had our first encounters with kids but weren’t sure if they were Tibetans, probably not. 2 boys were playing water along a small stream and we went over to take pictures with them.

Further down the road, we met a brother and his sister, who was nicely dressed up like a doll. She asked us for $, in a sheepish manner but we didn’t give them of course. Not nice to give kids $. She was smiling all the time and looked really adorable.

We bid them goodbye and after walking away some distance, the girl suddenly shouted at us and when we turn around, we saw her spitting at us! Sigh… And I thought the little girl was cute…

We played with the goats along the road, challenged a dog which was tied to a tree, climb a little hill, etc until we were tired and returned to the motel. Dinner was some simple dishes, and our driver offered to demonstrate his cooking skills to us.

Bathing was a struggle at night. First we had to fill up the water tank. Then we had to switch on the heater to boil the water. The heater is nothing but a coil placed inside the tank. And it probably took 1 hr to boil the water. I couldn’t wait that long and decided to bathe in cold water. If the rest of the days on the road are going to be like this, no hot water bath, I think I will go mad.

Day 5 090506: Sunrise at ErMei

We woke up at 4am, had noodles for breakfast and made our way to the cable car station at around 5am. It was still pitched black outside and we had to rely on my torchlight (CCG brought 1 too but his was too dim to make a difference) all the way. A woman (in the dark, I guess she is the security guard) offered to guide us there but we declined her kind offer. Seriously now when I am writing this, I can’t help but to suspect that she did that for $. I have always believed people are genuinely helpful but after this trip to China, I began to think otherwise. Bad experiences in China made me feel that people do good things so as to get some benefits themselves in the end. Hate to think that way.

Anyway, we reached the cable car station at 530am and had to wait till 6am for the counter to open. There was a monastery called 接引殿 and it looked really spooky in the dark with lighted red lanterns. After awhile, more people came including a tour group of about 15. In that group were a few 可爱妹妹. At 6am, the manager of the station came and he told us that during the thunderstorm last night, some cables were struck by lightning and hence the cable cars were not operational. They need to do some technical check before letting tourists take the cars and that would take quite some time. This meant that we would not be able to reach the top 金顶 in time for the sunrise!

However, he pointed a building in the east to us and said we could still view the sunrise behind there. But that wouldn’t be as good a spot as on the summit of course. Still everyone though feeling utterly disappointed, had to make do with this new alternative and moved to that viewing area. Among us, Kenneth of course was the most disappointed. He had been waiting for this day to come for so long only to lose out to bad luck in the end. And we all thought with the rain last night, whatever fog and mist would be washed away and we would have a clear sky today. Who would have thought the lightning had struck the cables!?

As usual, even though Kenneth was grumbling all the way, he still professionally set up his tripod, adjusted his SLR and so on and like all other tourists, stood there and waited patiently. JH walked away to explore the surroundings for better viewing area. For the rest of the time, we were just standing there waiting, looking in a general direction from which we suspect the sun would rise. And also to admire the 云海.

All eyes were fixed towards the East, afraid of missing the wonderful scene (but sunrise very slow one mah, not as if the sun would suddenly pop up like in the cartoons).

But soon, everyone grew impatient and started to chat and eat tidbits. That was when a lady suddenly exclaimed, “出来了!” We all turned and saw the first gleam of light above the clouds. All cameras pointed to that spot and we held our breaths and waited. Then we heard another lady’s shout (not sure if it is the same one), “在那里!” and we all turned about 40 degrees to our left. That was when we realised the previous one was a false alarm. The previous spot was actually just an area that was first brightened up by the sun and hence we thought that was where the sun would rise. From this new real sunrise area, we could see straight golden lines coming out from behind the clouds.




Slowly, a little round golden curve began to appear and it seemed like getting bigger pretty fast. My initial idea of sunrise was a very very slow process, and the movement of the sun should be too minute to be witnessed by the naked eyes. Never would I think that I can actually see the sun climbing up behind the clouds. I was filled with excitement and could already picture a nice egg yolk rising up in no time.

Then, all of a sudden, the golden curve seemed to lose energy to climb anymore and stopped. The sun had stopped to rise today?! I couldn’t believe my eyes when the curve actually began to get smaller! SUNDROP!? Before I can comprehend what was going on, JH said the clouds are rising also. The clouds had risen faster than the sun. Very stupid me. Big disappointment for everyone. It was too cruel. We thought we weren’t going to see the sunrise because of the cable car issue initially. Then when we finally get to see something and everyone was so excited, we were let down again. “Hope is the last thing to die”. Even though in this sate we all knew that it would be a waste of time to wait further, we still stood there for another 15min for a miracle.

No miracle of course in the end. But good news was the cable car service was back which meant we need not climb up to the top which would take at least 2 hrs. Each car can only take 2 people at a time and we had to jump into the car quickly as the cars were circulated from top to bottom non-stop. I can tell Kenneth was really disappointed when in the cable car. He had taken very nice sunrise pictures before when he was in Vietnam and thought this time would be another good exp. As for me, perhaps I am not that interested in photography as well as scenery and so the impact wasn’t that much for me.


When we reached the top, everywhere was under construction but we were aware of that before and hence there was no additional let down. Really nothing much up there except for a golden elephant-Buddha statue. The clouds were closer that’s all, not much more spectacular. What caught my eyes (not another chio-bu if you think that’s what I am only interested) was the sight of those labourers carrying heavy loads on their backs climbing the stairs. Almost no machinery around. And as many as a third of the labourers were females, doing the same work as the men. All work seemed to be done by pure human labour only, which of course is of abundance in China. It made me think that high GDP growth in China is accredited to large number of workers thrown in, and not due to productive activities. Sheer brute force GDP growth.

We had a little picnic in an open field and the packets of biscuits we brought were all bloated up due to difference in pressure. Well, we were perhaps at 3000m at the summit and that explains this phenomenon. Mist rose up all of a sudden and soon the entire place was blurry but that mist left as quickly as it came. 妖气太重. With nothing to see, we made our way down to Lei Dong Ping (where we watched our ¼ sunrise just now).

Descending wasn’t as easy as we thought because firstly our legs had not yet recovered, and secondly the steps weren’t exactly even and were slippery due to the rain last night. Surprisingly I was able to keep up with the rest this time round. For most part of the descend, we were the only people around as most people would take the cable car down upon knowing that it would take 1.5hrs to descend. We heard 2 voices closing up from behind us and turned around only to be stunned. 2 Kungfu monks were flying down 2 or 3 steps at a time. And they had no trekking shoes! Just their canvas kungfu shoes. 天下武功出少林. They flew past us and disappeared out of sight in no time. 佩服佩服.

Finally we reached Lei Dong Ping and from there we took a coach all the way to the bottom of Mount Emei. We were not stupid enough to walk down another 10hrs. Come to think of it, we should take the coach up and then walk down instead of the other way round. Well, climbing is another form of enjoyment I guess (my foot! Literally).

We were on our way back to Chengdu (on board the bus was a chio mother wearing tight green shirt and sexy mini-shorts) by noon. At the end of the day, I feel that highlight of Emei should be the sunrise but for us, it was the joy of conquering this 3000+ meter mountain. Really felt my fitness had leveled up after the climb.

Back at Sims, we made final preparations for tomorrow. The day we began to travel on road to Tibet. There are bound to be unforeseen happenings, tough times due to poor weather and road conditions and inevitably, conflicts among the 4 of us (or maybe with the driver too). It is going to be 16 exciting days on the road. Exactly what will be installed for us on this journey? Nobody knows. (hey, remind me of Ann Kok’s song thousands of years ago, haha Nobody knows…. Nobody knows….).

Day 4 080506: 不登峨嵋非好汉!

We had already made up our minds to climb ErMei Shan instead of taking the coach. Time is of the essence as we need to reach 雷洞坪 (LTP) before night fall or else we will have to sleep in the wild. While waited at the bus terminal, I was disgusted by the sight of a guy smoking in front of a no smoking sign. And the most ironic part is, there was a banner above which reads: 人人都是文明形像，处处都是和谐环境. What rubbish! Well, this is just the beginning. I would witness more of such “civilised” actions throughout the trip.

The coach brought us to五显岗 which is actually still at the foot of ErMei. From there we would begin our ascend and according to Mr. Andy’s map, our 1st stop would be清音阁, a small monastery. It was a nice cooling walk from Wu Xian Gang (WXG) to Qing Yin Ge (QYG), greenery everywhere.

We took 5 at a small pavilion and in front of it there was a big brown stone (looked like shit) with words carved on it. Reminds me of the Rosetta Stone in British Museum. Anyway, JH and I read 2 lines of it and decided we couldn’t understand the Chinese. And so we moved on.

We reached QYG at a very good pace and from then onwards it was just boring climbing the steps. But still it wasn’t that bad, though we were starting to perspire a bit. Our next check point was a monkey reservation area, which was named as “Joking Monkey Zone” on Andy’s map. These monkeys were larger and stronger than those in my NS unit last time and we were warned to keep our plastic bags of food in our backpacks. For some of us with small backpacks, we used our jackets to wrap around our food.


From the Joking Monkey Zone, seemed like we entered Hell (at least for me). Not that we were attacked by monkeys. What we saw from then onwards was steps, steps, and… tons of steps. Infinite number of steps! We can’t even see the top as the steps wound round the mountain. Doomsday arrived for me from that moment on. Our next destination was another monastery called洪椿坪 which never seemed reachable.


The moment we reached Hong Chun Ping (HCP), we thought the worst part of the climb was over. What we saw next was another flight of steps leading to moon. This is just the beginning of our nightmare. By then, being the fattest and least fit, I had to asked JH to carry my backpack while I hand carry his plastic bag of food. I wondered if I could reach the next monastery仙峰寺 (XFS)alive.


We began to take breaks more and more often, sometimes at those小茶栈 (like in Chinese Kungfu show), sometimes at pavilion. Every time I would be the last to reach, and hence had the least amount of rest time. By then I was feeling paiseh for slowing down the team. I was the weakest link. It was during one of these breaks that I realised something which I told the rest:

为什么我们会来爬峨嵋？因为有个叫Andy的人说爬峨嵋风景比较美。 其实是因为我们没有住他的酒店，他为了报复所以dua我们，教我们爬这死人山。
所以，无商不奸，还是对的。最后祝Mr. Andy: 生意兴隆，财源广进！

Even though being the weakest link, I still will not fail to搞笑. To entertain them as well as myself so that I can keep on going.

After climbing for 4.5 hrs, we had not reached half of the journey yet. And by this time my left knee and left side of my pelvis were aching. The rest of the guys were just as tired but they had more endurance than me.

Around 1pm plus, we finally reached XFS which was covered entirely in mist. Visibility dropped to about 20 to 30m. From the map, the path between XFS and our next destination遇仙寺(YXS) is a flat straight line. Meaning: No more climbing! But what we saw thereafter was more disheartening. There were more stairs which by then we had already grew numbed. What destroyed us was the fact that these steps were leading us DOWN. Which means we are going to return all the altitude that we accumulated so far and what comes down must go up. This will only lead to more climbing later.

As expected, we reached YXS quite easily but I was already on the verge of breaking down. Just when I was thinking of giving up, I heard chanting of prayers nearby and knew YXS is just inches away. Buddha saved me, haha.

We decided to take a longer rest there to prepare for our final burst to洗象池 (XXC). This is going to be one tough challenge not just for me but all of us because by now we were all exhausted. Even the fastest Kenneth was going crazy when he saw more steps.

Finally we reached an eatery shop called 洗象池小吃 and knew that our painful times will be over soon. While resting and eating our LaoZao (I don’t even know how to spell in Chinese. Pronounce as 劳糟. It is like dumpling made from 糯米), we saw superhumans carrying loads of supplies down the steps. Really amazing.

When we reached XXC, everyone felt relieved. We were definitely going to reach our final destination in time. Well, even if we got extra time, our bodies are not going to take it eventually. Besides being exhausted, me and CCG were feeling harder to breathe due to the higher altitude. Though the difficulty was very mild.

From then onwards, we suddenly felt energised and quickened our pace. 皇天不负苦心人! We finally reached LTP at around 7pm. 10 hrs of freaking climbing! We found a hotel and settled down for the night.

By then my legs were like not part of me already and JH and I soaked our feet in steam hot water. Wooooo…. the feeling was plain shiok.

But I had the shock of my life when the moment I took out my feet from the hot water. It was pretty cold now at night at such high altitude. All of the sudden, coldness rushed from my feet straight to my brain and I was shivering like mad. It was the worst cold attack I ever encounter, consider the fact that I stayed in France for 6 months before. Even under the blanket and with jacket on I was still shivering. I thought at that point in time my heart would perhaps freeze. JH thought I looked ridiculous and exaggerating and kept shooting me with the DV.

After like 15min of non-stop shivering, I began to return to normal. That night, we all slept extremely well due partly because we were all exhausted, and partly because there was a thunderstorm that night. We were lucky we made it before nightfall. Tomorrow we had to get up before dawn to catch the sunrise and hopefully some 佛光. Though I was the slowest, I still felt that I had achieved something after 10hrs of climbing.

Day 3 070506: 乐山大佛

We brought our barang barangs down at 7am and deposited them in Sims storage room. Once again, the Sims girls were very helpful and I really like the services there. Breakfast was稀饭，馒头，鸡蛋，泡菜 (porridge, buns, eggs and pickles), plain and good for us (well, that’s for now...), esp. after yesterday’s hot food. At 8am, our 面包车(bread-looking bus) came and off we go to 新南门车站(xin nan men bus station) to take a coach to LeShan and ErMei.

The coach was not very comfortable and the scenery along the way wasn’t very nice either. So I slept for most of the 4 hrs journey. I did wake up occasionally and manage to catch a chio-bu board the bus, who sat in front of me. Unlucky for her, she sat beside a Lau TiKo who kept leaning onto her, pretending to sleep. The bumpy ride made me fell asleep again only to be waken by an SMS. Received a sad news from a friend.

Finally we reached the foot of ErMei, 报国寺车站. Immediately we were targeted by a lady from some hotel who kept persuading us to take her breadbus to her hotel. Then she began chattering non-stop about how to tour Leshan and Ermei, how it would save $ to take her bus and her package, blah blah blah… In the end we did take her bus which brought us to her hotel. We didn’t want to stay at her place because there are so many hotels around. We wanted to have more choices. She insisted we take a look at her rooms first which seemed not too bad, except the price was rather high, 200rmb per room.

After we decided to walk out on her, she slashed to price to 100 and eventually to 80. I thought it was not a bad deal but CCG and Ken decided otherwise. The hotel people showed us face and the situation was rather unhappy. Actually CCG had already researched on this place and found out there is a Backpacker Hostel called “Teddy Bear” which is highly recommended. Upon hearing that, I felt unhappy why they still want to look at the rooms when they already have a place in mind. Why not go straight to Teddy Bear? Ken said no harm just looking and try bargaining, at least now we know we can go as low as to 80rmb per room. For me, I just don’t like to bargain so much and in the end not buy it.

We went to the Teddy Bear place and JH and I both like the place. Truly for backpackers but the price is a bit higher, 100rmb/room. But still we like the environment, a little bit like Sims. But because of the price, Ken rejected the offer before we can discuss about it. At the time, we felt Ken has more say in such things since he did all the research and knows more about finding hotels in China. So we kept our mouths shut.

We continued to walk around but couldn’t find a hotel cheaper than the first one. In the end, we settled for a lousier hotel at a price of 90rmb/room. Come to think of it, the Teddy Bear price of 100rmb per double room, means each person pay 50rmb. Compared to the first hotel whose price is 80rmb/room, each of us has to pay 10rmb more only. Kao, only S$2! Really not worth all the efforts to search and bargain.

This hotel lady boss told us to take her car to Leshan, for 120rmb. She calculated that it is cheaper than to go there ourselves which I not sure how true that is. Still we took the offer and set off with our driver 小王, Wang.

Wang is a young lad and upon knowing that we are from SG, began chatting with us about Sun Yan Zi and JJ. He gave us some info on Leshan as well as Ermei. When we reached Leshan entrance, he said he will wait for us outside and once we are done touring the place, give him a call and he will come fetch us back.

We got the entrance fee for student price and the first place to visit was the 睡佛, Sleeping Buddha. At first I thought it was a natural scenery; a mountain in the shape of a Sleeping Buddha. After eavesdropping on a tour guide’s explanation, it is a big statue carved on the hill during the end of Han Dynasty. After hundreds of years, the place was covered by soil and vegetations. Some 20 years ago, a torrent rain caused a landslide which washed away all the soil and the Sleeping Buddha was discovered.


There wasn’t much to see at the Sleeping Buddha except for statues in the caves and some carvings.
Although not a religious person, I made a prayer in front of Buddha for the well-being of a friend.

We climbed a super long stairs to another big Buddha statue and there I bought a 平安锁 (Peaceful Lock). What I have to do is to engraved my name on the lock, locked it to the chain nearby (there were millions of locks all over the place) and then throw the key towards the big Buddha. Hope my Peacefulness won’t be locked up there forever.

After 1 hrs, we moved on to Leshan to see that gigantic Buddha statue. It was said in the end of Song Dynasty, the river beside Leshan caused floods every year, killing thousands of villages. So a monk (forgot his name. Quite famous one) decided to carve this Big Buddha on the mountain to 镇住 the floods. Miraculously, after the project was completed, every year the flood water never rise above his knees. Well, that’s just a legend I guess.

There were even lesser things to see here than in Sleeping Buddha. But that Giant Buddha by the river did remind me of the movie 风云 (Wind and Cloud). Still the sight wasn’t as spectacular as I would expect, when I looked at it on land.

It was getting quite late but before leaving, there was still 1 thing left to do; to view the Giant Buddha from the river. We found our way to the East Gate and from there took tricycle to the jetty. We told the boatmen we want to 渡河 which was the wrong way to say it! Du He means to cross the river! What we should say is 游河 which means to tour the river. So much so for 10 yrs of Chinese education.

From the speedboat, the sight was very different from what we saw on land. It was magnificent. The Buddha was embedded in the mountain and the tourists at His feet were so tiny. After spending 20min on the boat, we returned to the jetty and Wang was already there waiting to send us back.

Back in the hotel, the lady boss started persuading us to take the tour package to go ErMei. She said the bus will leave at 630am in the morning and at the end of the day bring us back to the hotel. Our plan was to go to the top of ErMei and stay for a night so as to view the sunrise the next morning. She said the hotel at the top is very expensive and when we asked about the monasteries, she said those are under constructions. We felt that if the bus leaves at 630am, we will reach the top around 9am, how to see sunrise!? She insisted we can still see sunrise because of the high altitude, the sun will only rise above the mountain after 9am. Still we want to walk up ErMei ourselves and she still didn’t give up and said that we might lose our way, the paths are of poor conditions and we will have no place to sleep.

We said we will consider and reply her after we return from dinner. At this point of time, we had divided opinions again. JH and I were for the lady boss’s plan while Ken and CCG were against. For us, we really fear that we might not have any place to stay in ErMei. Ken and CCG felt the lady boss was lying. We decided to consult a 2nd opinion and went to Teddy Bear for dinner.

The boss, Mr. Andy came and talked to us and asked why we didn’t want to stay at his place when we came in the afternoon. Later he told us the tour package is a big cheat. If we take the tour package, not only will we miss the sunrise, we will miss all the scenery along the way. And we have no choice but to take the bus down back to that lady boss hotel to stay. It is a common thing for hotel owners to collaborate with such tour packages. He also told us how tour guides would bring tourists to souvenir shops and earn commissions from there.

He later gave us each a map of Ermei and said we can come borrow walking sticks from him tomorrow morning. The walk would be 8 to 9 hrs and the sticks not only aid us in walking, but can be used as weapons against ferocious monkeys. It was a beneficial lesson learnt from Mr. Andy, so when we returned, we rejected the lady boss offer straightaway. Surprisingly she didn’t insist further. I think she saw us coming back in the direction from Teddy Bear. Guess her plot had been spoilt by Mr. Andy before. Although there is a saying 无商不奸, but honest businessman like Mr. Andy will outlast those cheaters who care only for 1 time profit. What Mr. Andy will gain is a good reputation in the end.

Day 2 060506: Exploring Chengdu...

Had a very bad sleep the night before even though I was very tired. All thanks to the stupid bullfrogs in the pond as well as inconsiderate guests who were still making a lot of noise after midnight outside. The next morning we had to shift to a 12 men dormitory as we didn’t make reservation for that night in advance.

We set off for our 1st place of interest, 文殊院, some sort of museum beside Sim’s House. But we were such cocks when we mistook an old building as Wen Shu Yuan; that’s the consequence of not doing research before coming here. Eventually we found the real Wen Shu Yuan but decided not to enter. Reason: Not Interested (museum = boring).

We got on a cab (在中国叫“打滴”) to一环路南三段, to get our trekking equipment. Chengdu city centre is surrounded by a river and the roads are in circle, hence there is一环，二环，三环 (1st ring, 2nd ring, 3rd ring). Along that street there are a lot of outdoor sports shops but we decided to get everything from one shop; for convenience as well as to save time. For me, I just want to “bio” that 2 Sichuan salesgirls (wonder if the other guys felt the same).

Now that we got what we want, we went searching for ATM with Mastercard or Visa function as we know the $ we brought won’t last us 30days. Seems like only Bank of China (BOC) has such service. The rest like China Construction Bank, China Agricultural Bank… all provide local service only. We asked a大婶, where is the nearest BOC and she told us very near, about 200m in front. We followed her but very soon, she like got kungfu like that; we fell behind in no time. And the worst part was, it seemed more like a 2km walk than 200m! After crossing a river and walking for some distance, we finally found our BOC.

We stood in front of the ATM and just 2nd day in China, we let our guards down. We were counting all the $ we have in front of dozens of hungry eyes so as to gauge how much more we need to withdraw. The security guard in the bank saw that and told us to come in and count. The moment we stepped out of the bank, some men approached us and offered to exchange currency with us. We quickly left the place.

Half a day had gone and we decided to settle for traditional Sichuan dish for lunch. 麻婆豆腐，凉拌兔肉，回锅肉，呛抄菠菜，冬瓜汤. The Rabbit meat was the shock of our lives! We thought Liang Ban supposed to be cold dish but when the dish came, it was 1 big pot of red chilli oil with the meat inside. In what sense is it凉? We ate a bit and decided to leave that pot untouched. Our mouths were really numbed after the meal and it was all because of a little devilish spice which can be found in almost all Sichuan dishes.

Next we went to Carrefour to get some food supplies and then back to Sim’s to rest. A couple had just joined us in the 12-men dorm and we were speculating whether they were Japs. True enough they were and the girl was really cute. Jap gals have always been my all time favourites, followed by SiChuan Meimei (for now, haha).

After briefly packing our stuffs for tomorrow’s Er Mei Shan trip, we went to a big bookstore beside Sims (经典书局). Very big and full of books but the place lacks ventilation. I already had eyes on some of the books and will definitely return here on my last day to make my purchase. JH wanted to search for the “凉粉aga aga” store recommended by Sims but we couldn’t find it. We couldn’t take Sichuan spice anymore and hence decided to eat Mac for dinner.

Coming to China to eat麦当劳, really not what I really want but the spice here is really buay da han for us. But we did try a different Mac flavour, 四川烧烤鸡. And the Mac is different from those in SG, the manager will use a microphone and say to everyone, “麦当劳喜欢你来，喜欢你再来!” Her voice is so sweet and “diah”! After dinner, we returned to Sims.

Best part of Sims is they have a nice little area beside the pond for guests to sit and relax. We spent the evening there playing Chinese chess, Big 2 and eating Banana pancake (with honey). We had to rest early as we will be visiting周芷若tomorrow: to Mount Er Mei (actually ErMei Shan is also associated to蜀山奇侠, not just倚天屠龙记).

After 2 days in CD:
1. People here are very friendly and hospitable. Cashier in supermart will ask you got discount card. If you don’t have the one behind you will lend you.
2. CD people like SG people. Like to talk to us.
3. 四川出美女! At least it is true for me (the other 3 guys seem doubtful of this). They have good complexion (with a bit of reddish cheeks), sweet voice, looks demure and gentle (but heard from local guys they can be as hot as the Sichuan food).
4. The 4 of us building rapport. Well we known one another for more than 10 yrs so not a surprise. Really like the jokes shared among us such as: who invented the chess game ‘checker’ (also called “dumb”).
5. 川话: although quite close to Mandarin but still hard to catch.
6. 川菜: 4 different flavours. 辣，麻，油，咸 (hot, numb, oily and salty).
7. Love the people here but not the city as it is too polluted.

Day 1 050506: Fly fly fly to Chengdu...

We were all set and ready to go by 9am at Changi Airport. Looking at our backpacks, we looked indeed like some professional mountaineers… Whatever the case, we can’t wait to fly! Off we go to 成都!

Silkair service is quite good, plenty of food and drinks during the 4.5 hrs of flight. But too bad, there are just 2 toilets and there was always a queue to use them. Still it was an enjoyable flight, playing Big 2 helped to kill time…

Finally we reached CD! First thing we did was to buy an IC card so that we can call the travel agency.

We have decided to let Kenneth do the talking since he was our expedition leader. His classic starting line: “你好，不好意思。想请问你。。。“ Whenever he asked for info, that would be his opening line. SOP. Still it pays to be polite since we are not exactly that good in speaking Mandarin.

We got our card, called the agency and headed our way there. The taxi driver chatted with us and found out we intend to drive into Tibet from Chengdu (自驾车旅游) and volunteered to call another agency to ask about the price. Turns out to be same price as ours; 600rmb per day for the jeep. This is going to exceed our budget easily.

We reached there in no time and the people there seemed to be expecting us too. We started negotiating with them, reading the terms and conditions (which were in Chinese) carefully, all the time they were eager to please and persuade us to take the offer. They gave me a feeling of being overly zealous to sell. I was a bit sceptical about their credibility but still maybe I was being too careful.

Although we had to pay extra 3000rmb for the 5 days of return of the jeep (this was only made known to us at the later stage), we still settled for this. Our driver, Mr. Zeng was nice enough to send us to our lodging, Sim’s Cosy House. This Mr. Zeng had tiny eyes and one look, I had a feeling he is a bad guy. Most villains have tiny eyes.



Sim’s Cosy House is owned by a Singaporean backpacker (老沈) and his Japanese wife Maki, also a backpacker. They met in Tibet many years ago, fell in love and decided to open a youth hostel in Chengdu. They have 2 lovely daughters, aged about 5 and 1 I guess. It is really a home away from home.
We settled for the nearest restaurant for dinner; 四川名菜：串串香. 1 stick only cost 1 cent and people were grabbing like free like that.

Then dump into the鸳鸯锅 and cook. Once done, dip the stick into chilli oil before eating. It really upsets our stomach. Too much spice and oil. Still it was a unique experience. We will throw the sticks into a bucket and in the end, the waiter will come and count the sticks.

With our stomachs full, we shopped around at the supermart and went back to prepare for our trip to Er Mei Shan (峨嵋山).

The Beginning

Why did I choose Tibet as the destination for my graduation tour? Remember about 2 years ago, after attending a kind of confidence-boosting seminar, we were told to write down 25 things that we would like to achieve. “Traveling to Tibet” was at the top of my list. I was very much enticed to unveil the secrets in this religious land, to explore the mysteries there and to know more about the culture of the people belonging to this old race. <<西藏生死之书>>, a book I read many years ago, is another major factor.

Some time last year, I was talking about graduation trip with some RV friends and a few places were brought up like East Europe, Japan, New Zealand, etc. Kenneth suggested Tibet out of the sudden and everyone just agreed to the idea without much questioning, which is a surprise to me. Choosing such an exotic place to go for graduation trip is really unconventional. But still, we made up our minds (though there are still some doubts during our pre-trip preparations) and began working on it.

Credits go to Kenneth who did most of the planning. Starting from beginning of the year, we met up now and then to plan our itinerary but it was a half-hearted effort partly due to our academic commitment, and partly due to our… slackness. Still in the end, we managed to piece together a plan until the very last day, 4th May 2006. The very next day will see our adventures unfold… Tibetan gals, here I come!