Left the Luminn GH with a note to give to the nice lady or man at the bus station. Travelling in China gives one that 'child' like feeling – you walk around somewhat helpless with notes firmly clutched in your fist – scanning the crowds of people to try and determine who might take the time to read your note and point you in the right direction. I do pride myself on reading people and situations, usually quite well….but, here in China, I really suck big time. Seems the person I think might be well educated/kind/empathetic is often an a****** in a hurry or someone I seem to terrify with my request. Never have I had such a poor percentage for help as I have found here. But, given that, those who do help, really go out of their way to assist. So…..bad and very good.

Anyway as it usually happens, I arrive at the station and scan the faces and find one other backpacker. He had already scoped out the situation and he too is searching for Shangri-la. In fact, are we travelers not all searching for this elusive place?????

Asmok is a twenty something Indian, just finished his Master’s degree in computer engineering which he did while working fulltime, quit his IT job in Bangalore and is traveling Asia for his first time before heading home to his hometown to pursue a quieter life. He has the best manners I have ever seen in a young guy and is just all around adorable. We team up and as it happens, have been assigned seats across from each other, in the front row of one of those super fancy buses. What this means is that we are pretty much sitting up against an IMAX screen sized windshield, of which we will be the first to see Shangri-la.




We head out of thoroughly modern and beautiful Ligiang, onto a thoroughly modern and beautiful super highway. All good. Contrary to the guidelines posted at the Shangri-la bus stop which insisted that ‘patrons not attempt to chit chat with bus station or any bus personnel"  and to board the bus "in a civilized manner, sitting only in the seat assigned and not to chit chat while boarding the bus”, there was a lot of chit chatting going on as this was the holiday week and the patrons were all still on vacation. Our bus had a stewardess, as do many of the more expensive rides in Asia. She had completely failed to heed the no chit chat role and was chatting away with the driver and peeling some apples when we had our first incident. Before getting to the first toll booth, we entered a very congested stretch of highway and waited in the traffic. Once we finally were able to see what the delay was: a funeral procession and the body and casket being removed from the back of a truck and hoisted onto the shoulders of a large group of men and carried up into the mountains, we were on our way. The road was very steep and crowded and very quickly I got to witness my first incident of Chinese road rage. Remember I told you that they drive big honking full sized vehicles here? On this highway they all seemed to be full sized SUV’s – Porsche Cayenne’s, big Toyota Tundra’s and the like. Big wheels, big egos. The driving was crazy: vehicles passing on the mountain turns without being able to see ahead.   Within 20 minutes of Ashmok and I sitting up front, we nearly bit the dust before even getting to see Shangri-la. A SUV passed a couple of buses and trucks and got caught in a head on with us. The previously chatty attendant started screaming and just couldn’t stop. We sensed this was a closer than usual. OK, she finally calmed down, only to start up again as we nearly bit the dust in a second identical situation. So close. Asmok and I had tied ourselves in with our seatbelts but we both knew that we were the first to be flying through the big screen – well maybe the second after the driver and the screamer. We finally entered the toll highway and the vistas began. 

 

This four hour stretch of geography is in Yunnan province, north – stretching up towards Tibet. The mountains are very big – Snow Mountain, which you could see from Ligiang is 5396m…..very high.   The roadway – another Chinese marvel – blasted over and through the mountains, goes from 1850 m at Qiao Tou to 3300 m at Shangri-la in two hours. This is so high, altitude sickness is a real worry and many travelers have to turn back at Shangri-la to head for lower altitudes. As soon as we reached the halfway point at Qiao Tou the landscape and architecture changed completely. This section of Yunnan has very little Chinese influence – the buildings, the stupas, the prayer flags, the prayer wheels and even the language is Tibetan. Many minority people live in this area and the colorful garb of the farmers working in the fields and selling strawberries at roadside stands made for a stunning change. Very beautiful. I even saw a man holding two handfuls of large snakes – really large – 7 or 8 footers – hawking them to passing cars.








As we pulled into Shangri-la and saw the wide streets and the very cool Tibetan houses and office buildings, I knew I would love it here. Some places just seem to grab me immediately and others, not so much. This was a grabber.  


 

 
 

I had booked at Kevin’s Trekker Inn and Asmok had booked somewhere else but we decided to share a cab into town from the bus station. Long story, we got lost and I called Kevin’s and he sent a girl to find us, and Asmok ended up coming with me to my place. As we headed up the hill towards Kevin’s, Asmok with his backpack and me lugging my bag, we both realized how difficult we were having with just that little exertion. My lungs were screaming and I was panting. I never understood why Everest is so hard – OK, other than the freezing cold and the crevices and the storms, but in the end it still is just a long walk.. uphill…..but wow – altitude makes a huge difference. I get it now.


Shangri-la was renamed by the government from Longshien or something like that. They claimed it was the actual place written about in some English writers’ novel – (novel – rather important missing part of the new factual history) – anyway it was renamed for tourists and no doubt will become another Ligiang in the next few years. 

 


It is also home to a huge 1600 year old Tibetan monastery as well as a few smaller ones. The big one has between 600 and 1100 monks (I saw 15) living there. Fantastic architecture – beautiful wood carvings and attention to detail – completely unique to anything I have seen before and the Tibetan people were friendlier and more colorful than parts south.


 

 

 




  The markets were especially colorful and happy. Lots of Yak butter and Yak stuff and Tibetan Fashion shops selling fur trimmed neon outfits.
 

I really liked the vibe here. Most of all I loved the evening dancing. In the large town square, which is used by barbeque vendors through the day (yak, chicken, squid and vegetable skewers), dancing takes place every evening starting at 6 pm. At 6 pm the food stalls are packed up and music begins. The old girls in their traditional outfits start the circle dances and, as people get off work, or kids from school, they join in and by 7, there are about one hundred Tibetans, of all ages, dancing (very seriously), folk dancing in the round. Everyone seems to know them all and they get quite a workout in the chilly evening air. The nights here were quite cold – around 4-5 degrees and I loved the fact that my room had heated mattress pads – Thanks Kevin!!!!









The tourists sometime join in, Asmok and I included, and some of the locals like that and some just think we were in the way of their artistic expression. This is such a lovely ritual, repeated every evening. The rich and the poor, the minority people and business men to teenagers in their hip hop wear, all going around and around to the folk music. I loved it. They even had (as all towns do) a local village idiot who hooted and hollered and could really bust a move once he got going. All were welcome.





My plan, once seeing how much I liked the Tibetan culture, was to fly up to Lhasa, join a 7 day return tour over to Everest base camp and back, or continue overland to Katmandu and then back down into India.   Tibetan travel this month, (changes monthly,) is restricted and you cannot enter Tibet without a $200 permit and you cannot be unattended in the country without a guide - $55 day. Since the last skirmish a number of months ago on the border where there were a number of deaths, it has been locked up again. I still don’t understand the politics of the money grab – talked to a few people and got differing stories depending on whether they were pro China or pro Tibet. Nonetheless it is really expensive to go and many are not going because of this. I did book the group thing but had to cancel because my ears just did not settle. No other symptom of the altitude except sore ears and Lhasa is even higher. They suggest you stay at different altitudes for a few days and try to acclimatize, but even after 4 days in Shangri-la my ears were still a little sore – maybe a residual of the head cold from Vietnam.

So…no Tibet this time….plus it was cold and I do not like that……but I think Shangri-la deserves the name, even if it is a fictional factual one and I am very happy to have seen it before it gets Chinesed to death. Example – at the ancient Monastery – a new mega Hotel is nearly completed, a third Monastery is under construction, a huge mall is planned with the pictures showing a Starbucks complete with signage from Las Vegas!!!! They are calling it the “Holyland City” and the parking lots alone predict the scope of the planned project. Yikes – Tibetan Buddhism Tourism.


You definitely will be forced to only shop in a clockwise direction though.   That is a really really big thing up here – everything done has to be done clockwise and without sun glasses…..hmmm…..too bad the guides only spoke Tibetan and Chinese because I had lots of questions. Bet that surprises a few of you huh???