The highest lake in the world, and more!

No, i'm not (yet) in jail for barking vainly at the chinese!

Since i had a few days to wait for my VISA to Nepal, i thought i'd better use my time checking some countryside..

Nam-tso lake seems to be the place to see for a couple of days excursion out of town, so saturday morning i wake up at 5 to look for a bus -which i'm not sure even exists- to Damxung, the nearest town. (the traditional option is to rent a shared land cruiser, but i'm just too cheap!)
The taxi tours all the bus stations in Lhasa (there's at least 4 that he took me to!) to finally find one where a bus will leave an hour later.. so far so good, i didn't miss it!
The 200km bus ride to Damxung costs me 30yuans but there's no public transport to the lake, so it'll cost me a 100yuans in a shared cab to cover the last 40km!
But i'm there! And the view is breathtaking -the guide didn't lie.. this one definitely comes second after the Baikal in the world lake competition!
Now the altitude is pretty breathtaking too! Lying at 4700 meters, Nam-tso lake is advertised as being the highest in the world, and at that altitude, walking uphill a couple of hundred meters to check out the sunset is quite an exercise!

some views of the lake.. to give you a remote idea!

With Chen, my tent mate..

After such an incredible sunset, of course, i had to check out the sunrise too! So after a terrible sleepless night, my chinese tentmate and i wake up at 6 and rush -as fast as we possibly can without fainting- up and to the end of the hill.. We get there just on time for the rise, totally breathless, but it was worth it! Is this beautiful or what?!

We get back down around 9 and i'm more than ready to crash back to bed.. when my tentmate goes "hey, we got a 20 yuan ride back to Damxung and there's a horse festival there! hurry, we leave right now!"

Aaaaarggghhh!

A couple of hours later we're in the nomad camp of Damxung.. the biggest concentration of nomads i've seen so far.. fantastic tents, beautiful people, incredible traditional clothing.. just so many colors i think my film is going to burn!

The horse festival is probably exactly like all the ones i missed all over Sichuan! But this time i get to see it! and it even seems like i'm the only foreigner there! (i've stopped counting the chinese tourists).. Several disciplines include grabbing scarfs laying on the ground, shooting a bow and arrow and shooting some kind of crazy old style rifle, all at full galop... very impressive!

Later in the afternoon, there's traditional dance festival.. great costumes! as you can -or not- see on the picture below!

With Ci Ren Djoma, my sweet tibetan guide in Damxung!

I'm back in Lhasa for a couple of days.. i'll pick up my VISA tomorrow and then try to figure out how to make it to the border.. again the most popular option is to form a group and rent a jeep, like i did in Mongolia.. but this time i'd rather try to stay autonomous and go with public transport... i just hope it's possible and that the permits and other "closed to foreigners" bullshit will not get in my way again..

We landed on the roof!

On the roof of the world i meant..

Just got to Lhasa today...
Via the official way and after having properly paid for my invisible permit to the Chinese government..
Sorry but the more i'm here and the more i feel sick about this tibetan mess... i don't mind the Chinese in China! But all over Sichuan and Tibet, when i see them parading in expensive cars like they own the place it gives me the creeps..
The whole world knows about this and.. or does it? I realize i didn't know much about it myself before reading some ("The mountains of Buddha" by Xavier de Moro) and getting here...
So as a quick reminder, in 1950 China entered Tibet and decided it was theirs.. in the process they tortured and killed thousands of monks, destroyed temples and monasteries and settled massively..
The Dalai Lama being an extremely influent figure, they tried everything from buying him to killing him and he's now a refugee in India.. He's been calling for help to the world community for years but everyone is more interested in keeping China's huge market (possibly including tibet!) than helping non-consumer contemplating monks..
Since then chinese school children are tought that Tibet is a province of China and when you ask chinese people what they think about the Tibet situation, they go "what situation? Tibet is just another province!".. the scary thing is that they apparently really have no clue... really makes you think about what you were yourself taught in school as the "true" history of your country! There's always an official way to look at things..

I know; one half of you will tell me that this is also a very simplified version of the story, while the other half will argue that there's much worse going on in the world... both are probably true but being here i'm obviously more sensitive to it, and it's just been itching for a while...

anyway.. here are some pics from the sky.. just to change the mood!

and the imposing Potala palace.. first thing you see when you get here!

No elephants yet...

..Sorry Albin!
But some cute pandas instead...
Did you know there were only 1500 giant pandas left on the planet? So you should feel lucky that braved all the dangers to go out in the wilderness of Chengdu's panda breeding center and bring you these rare images!

i even found out there were red pandas... you'd think they're giant racoons but they're not!

i also got you a peacock while i was there... you can't say i'm not trying my best!

Other than that, Chengdu is nice city... for a big chinese city i mean... nothing like the tibetan countryside but nice atmosphere... and there's even a funny huge boat parked on the sidewalk.. what else would you want?

Kangding love song festival!

Well.. to be honest, the festival was so packed that i didn't get to see much!
So instead i went to dress up and dance my own kangding love song with a crew of chinese students on vacation!


and here's the only image i actually managed to bring from the festival...

Cool bread :-)

more random photos..

i'm just emptying my memory card!

some more yak..

a small tibetan nomad camp..

tibetan architecture..

i'm not sure if i posted this one already..

and don't ask me why i shot this!

F*ck*d Up!

.. So Ganzi was THE place.. beautiful people, beautiful scenery, beautiful light, beautiful sky.. well.. beautiful place!
And it's only 13 hours of nasty mountain roads in a beat up bus to get to Kangding so really nothing to complain about!

Now, after hearing as many different stories as i've met different travelers, i finally went to the police here in Kangding and for the first time got a clear definitive answer to my question from a competent authority in charge: this "st*p*d f*ck*ng ch*n*s* g*v*rnm*nt" -as i would personnaly call it without yet having the balls to write it it full letters!- won't let me reach Lhasa by land.. no land permits for foreigners, period.. makes you wonder what they're so ferociously trying to hide from us.. the only way is to get to Chengdu and get a packaged flight to Lhasa..
I'm still convinced that it's not impossible.. but in the end, if it requires non stop driving for 5 days without being able to visit anything.. and for twice the price of the plane.. well, screw it..
So the bottom line is that i'll change my plans.. no Lijiang and no Tiger Leaping gorge for me.. Hopefully at least it'll give me some more time to hang out between Lhasa and Kathmandu.. (well, yeah, believe it or not i'm running short on time.. the september appointment with my parents is coming quick and i already had to forget about Myanmar)

Tomorrow is the "Kangding love song festival"! So whatever it is, it's probably a good excuse to chill here one more day before hopping on the bus again!

The Lonely Planet (which i keep reading from fellow travelers as i don't have one myself) describes Kangding as the entrance gate to the Tibetan world, expecting people to come from Chengdu.. so for me it's actually a temporary exit gate from Tibet..
Kangding, just like Maerkang did, looks to me a bit too much like a settlers town: the whole region and neighbouring villages are obviously tibetan, but in town everything and everyone is chinese.. the few tibetan places are tourists attractions and the tibetans in town look like an ethnic minority, selling some vegetables on the sidewalk.. pretty sad if you consider the town is originally theirs .

Anyway.. i'll be in Chengdu on the first of august, trying to get a plane ticket to Lhasa..

Karate kid..

I managed!
After 20 days in China, i did it! I caught a fly with my chopsticks!!


...well, ok.. this one was swimming in my soup, but still, you may appreciate the performance!

Hospitality vs courtesy

Amongst the things that strike the western mind when we come to asia, is the difference in values.. to not say the total inversion of values!

For instance, tibetans are extremely friendly and welcoming. Anywhere you go they yell at you the only few english words they know, so it usually goes "Hello! I love you!" (sounds almost like Jim Morisson!)
They stop you and invite you to join their picnic, invite you to their house, to their tent.. have a tea here, some tsamba there (tibetan breakfast/snack consisting of flour mixed with salted tea and some yak butter).. from comfortable modern homes to more modest dirt houses.. the nomads tents are an incredible display of food and drinks; tea, sodas, biscuits, fruit plates, nuts... all nicely arranged on the central table.. they give you everything they have, and it's often very difficult to not accept at least a little something!
Communication is always extremely limited but smiles and generosity come by the truck load!
You got the point; hospitality is a must, and far more important than anything we know in europe.. bring a gipsy looking tibetan to a french village and everyone will rush home, closing doors and windows until the "danger" has gone by!

On the other hand, the "courtesy manners" and other "rules of life in society" that we usually take for granted, seem to have no correspondance here! Without a second thought will they spit right on your shoes, blow their cigarette smoke in your face in restaurant or buses, stare at you while you take a shit (thanks to their "voyeur friendly" type toilets), fight for a seat in the bus...

Go figure!.. it's just another world!

Ganzi..

..where was i?
Sertar.. i didn't decide to stay.. so the next day, the 6 hours bus ride to Ganzi actually took 11 hours.. and here I am in Ganzi!

The Lonely Planet says that "it's impossible to take a bad picture in Ganzi" (makes you wonder why i ended up here!).. Well, after a day and a half and 7 rolls of colour film in a row (very rare), i would say that it's not impossible.. but it does requires some creativity! (although, i don't mean to seem pretentious but i may have gotten some pretty bad shots myself!)

At least, we've got some decent light now.. ever since i left Mongolia the light has been horrible, and i've been shooting almost all black and white.. the light is finally back to normal (normal+ i'd say!) so i'm pretty happy to switch back to color..

some random images taken on the road..

(on the first one for instance, you may, if you have good eyes, see a nice tibetan village on the mountain..)

5am.. waiting for the bus...

and some shots around Ganzi..

Bruised bottom..

3 hours of bus to get from Xiahe to Zorge, from there, 3 hours of taxi to reach Honguyan, and 4 more hours of taxi to finally reach Maerkang in the evening...
One day to chill in Maerkang and 9 more hours of bus and bumpy roads to get to Sertar...
I'm making my way slowly towards the official Tibet.. visiting loads of small and beautiful Tibetan villages and landscapes..
But the closer i get to Tibet, the more I hear that my chosen route is closed to tourists... it seems like it's not gonna be an easy task...

i'll keep you posted :-)

Local artificial stuff

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