Tag: sichuan

22 October 2014

Sangdui 桑堆 – Xiongba 雄坝 – Up a Hill and Down a Mountain

Startled awake by a voice in broken Mandarin. Squinted eyes. Instant noodles? Reality slowly setting in, the image on our retinas solidifying. We stare right into Sunday’s friendly face as he wishes us good morning, lights the stove and sticks the kettle on. He points the packages of instant noodles with beef flavour and announces with an apologetic gesture that he’s got to go. We gather our stuff and thoughts as he shuffles out. The lawn outside the building is covered in brittle frost. Our breath forms woolly clouds in the morning chill. We munch pensively on our noodles before re-arranging the monk’s living quarters and, failing to find him, buying 100 RMB worth of karma through the monastery’s donation box.

Hotel Monk
Hotel Monk

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19 October 2014

Xiaoxueshan Daoban 小雪山道班 – Xiangcheng 乡城 – Hello Road

After a very fragile sleep interrupted by a pee break in the middle of the night, we wake with the first rays of the sun. The gate is still closed so we have to wait for the Daoban boys to head out. We make some coffee and oatmeal, wash our dishes and have a stare-off with the chicken that’s interested in the contents of our tent. At this altitude, when it rains, you get snow. The rocky peaks on the opposite side are covered in virgin snow gleaming yellow in the early sunlight.

Sun and snow on the mountain
Sun and snow on the mountain

The gates open and we head out in the crisp mountain air, watching the morning fog burn off as we creep on towards the pass. When we finally reach it, our excitement is quickly smothered by the discovery that we can barely roll down faster than 15 km/h. The cold, exacerbated by two rear wheel punctures in 15 minutes, makes our descent a difficult one.

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