Tuesday, 23rd August 2005

Hey Hey and a Big G'Day to you
After breakfast French and I left Deqin and bussed it 7 hours to Mingyong. It was supposed to take only two hours but with the loading and unloading of everything from food stuffs to animals along the way it honestly took us nearing seven hours. We were hoping to do the walk and head back on the 8:30 bus the following morning. We ended up arriving in Mingyong nearing evening and stayed in a comfortable guesthouse right beside a gushing river. I sat outback and drank a few beers and watched the water come racing from the mountains. After it got dark it got too cold to sit outside, so my sandals and I headed back inside. There was a little bar attached to the guesthouse. It was empty so I sat in the warmth to relax and read.

The bus ride from Deqin beat the one from Zhongdian to Deqin. It was very scary in parts. We were driving so high up and the roads were not only dirt but very wet. Several bus bodies were spotted below. I hoped we wouldn't end up down there with them and I'm sure those whom were riding in those broken bus bodies were thinking the same thing.


Wednesday, 24th August 2005

After a cold shower and breakfast we headed up the mountain (Kawa Karpo or Taizi Shan, 6740 meters) to the Kawa Karpo Peak to view Mingyong Glacier (Mingyong Bingchuan) which is 12km in length. Breathing was very difficult and it took several hours to get there. Most Chinese tourists made the journey on the back of a donkey. Pretty smart move I'd say but I wouldn't have forgiven my self later in the day. It was the clearest day Mingyong had had for weeks, but the mountain top was still covered by cloud. We sat amongst a million Tibetan prayer flags relaxing and staring. I know it's just ice but it was my first glacier and I was just opposite it on a viewing platform. By the time we arrived at the platform we were completely stuffed. I was glad I only had my sandals on and was down to my singlet top.

After a couple photos and getting our breath back we headed back to the halfway point which was at Lotus Temple (Lianhua Miao) and a little shed that sold tea. We then decided to do the White Lotus Temple walk which was an hour back up the hill in the opposite direction. Breathing was difficult so we had to stop every ten minutes to gather our breath. I think we were nearing 4000 meters and parts of the trail were getting steep. There wasn't much zig zagging on this pathway, a lot of it pretty much straight up!

We finally reached the temple there we sat with the Lama. He was a happy man and we all pat and played with his cat for an hour or more. Just as we were leaving it began to rain and rain it did. We got soaked. My umbrella done its best but I still got soaked so I ended up putting it away. We were doing our best to walk down hill in what was now becoming a muddy river of water mixed with donkey sh*t. We finally made it home to find hot water for the shower. We sat with the family who ran the guesthouse around little bowls of coals to keep warm. Mingyong is such a beautiful little town. It's the type of town where herds of goat etc roam up and down the tiny main road. The family cooked us dinner and helped us keep warm for the evening by filling up our little coal bowls and tea mugs.