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18 August: Shangri-La

We left at around 07h00, as we walked out the lady met us and requested we pay her 5Y each for showering, this was just a chancer and we left without paying. As we walked down the road we met up with a minivan driving past, the woman was from the guest house where we had eaten the evening before. According to her there was no bus going to Shangri-La today and she said that they would take us in their minivan. The price was the same and we would be able to leave immediately without waiting long for our ride. She drove us back to the guest house/restaurant where we enjoyed a noodle breakfast, it was evident that her driving was lacking more than just a little and on the way there the minivan had stalled twice. In China foreigners aren't allowed to drive but we decided because of Antone's ability to communicate in Chinese he should drive, the woman was more than comfortable with this so we boarded our own personal transportation and headed off.

The road was a winding one, with steep ascents and descents, the view was amazing with valleys, waterfalls, shear cliffs and rivers below. It was almost like having our own tour, we were able to stop at scenic spots to take photos to our hearts desire! Along the way we picked up one of the locals, driving down the mountain where we dropped him off.

In Baishuitai we once more picked up a couple and gave them a lift to Shangri-La, they sat behind us and constantly chewed on their gum with open mouths and blowing bubbles, highly irritating but not the first time we have experienced this on a bus! We passed what looked like some sort of tractor mixed with a motorcycle, filled with people sitting at the back with their umbrellas to protect them from the falling rain. Later we saw a yak, a Tibetan breed of oxen, with their long fur and horns. The scenery had changed rapidly, we had climbed up to 3 000m plus and the landscapes were filled with Tibetan prayer flags, pagodas and huge houses with even larger pillars to support the wooden structures.

We reached Shangri-La in just over 3 hours, 2 less than the bus would have taken. As soon as we came into the town we stopped to pick up someone else and Antone moved to the back. We didn't want to take chances of being pulled over in a city by police and having to explain. The new driver took us to a hotel with cheap rooms, they were only 30Y for the both of us. The smell of stale smoke however permiated the small room, making it almost impossible to breath and there was no bathroom or shower. We had to use a public toilet a floor down and it wasn't the cleanest either, there would be no showering for today!

We left the hotel in search of a restaurant and lunch, surprisingly they were all a lot more expensive than we had expected. We settled for one and ordered a chicken dish, fish flavoured pork and some vegetables. The chicken really wasn't that good and didn't even look good, but the rest was great. We were also able to find the 100 year eggs, these were totally translucent with a black interior. The story goes that they were placed in hay underground in horse urine for a month. Nowadays there were faster methods of preparing them, but Antone wasn't sure how. Afterwards we found a taxi to take us to the main Tibetan monastery, but we had hardly driven 200m before we turned around and headed for another free monastery. The main Tibetan monastery's entrance had risen from 5Y to 30Y to 85Y in a 5 year period of time.

The Tibetan temple was a little different to that of other Chinese temples, but in essence the same. Mostly the brightly coloured prayer flags, prayer wheel and some Hindu depictions made it a little different. After the temple we walked to a museum displaying the route the red army had taken to get to Shangri-La and other Tibetan strongholds. The information was well presented and informative but wholly propaganda, telling more of their support from the tribes than how they tortured them into giving support. Next we walked across the road to the museum of Tibetan Medicine, in the foyer they had a graphic display of the surrounding countryside with the mountains and villages, this was able to give us quite a nice indication of how everything looked. We met up with a Tibetan doctor who had apparently traveled a fair amount and could speak English, he explained some of the history about Tibetan medication and how many monks had devoted their lives to specific fields and became experts in the treatment of those diseases. He explained which herbs and plants were used for different ailments before taking us to his private consultation room for a free diagnosis each. First looking at our palms then at our tongue and afterwards giving a verdict...

After this we walked around in the old part of town, filled with cobblestone streets, shops on both sides and houses with gray tiled roofs. The streets were busy and filled with all kinds of touristy ornaments and so on. We bought some Yak biltong, very nice but not nearly as good as ours! In the square we sat down for a Yak kebab, before finding out about how to travel to Tibet and how much it would cost. Just as we finished a group of locals gathered in the square where we were and started dancing to traditional music, we stood there watching as young and old joined into the circular dance. The leg movements were just a little complicated for us else we would also have joined in. On our way back Antone helped me bargain down the price on a sword from 1 200Y to 600Y, below that they wouldn't sell it. They had demonstrated the quality of the steal by hitting the blade on a metal pipe, making cut marks on the pipe, but no dent or bluntness on the sharp sword. I had started feeling a little queezy by this stage whether from dehydration, lack of water or dispensing so much cash I don't know.

From there we found a minivan, that was used to transport workers and paid him to take us back to the hotel. We went in search of dinner, stopping along the way to draw money, first the Agri bank didn't work then the Post and finally the Construction bank. Antone mentioned that I may need to draw out small amounts of money at a time and a few in turn, this worked and we withdrew what we needed before walking on. On the way passing a square filled with carnival games, mostly throwing a ball into a basket, shooting balloons and so on.

We stopped at a Korean restaurant, apparently they had really good food, but Antone was unable to decipher the writing and could not communicate with the waitresses. All she said for chicken was hearts, intestines and other parts. In the end out of pure frustration we got up and left, finding another restaurant a little way down. We tried some deepfried wantons and salty goose eggs. One last stop we went in search of an internet cafe to check mails and whether any of the applications had been successful, none were and we headed back to the hotel.