Oh! the Yaks butter

The bus ride from Litang towards Kunding was horrible. The ride was about 8 hours and the bus was a reck. The seats were bolted down abritrarily, meaning that one row might have leg space, whereas the next row would have none. The seats were so narrow that I had to sit at an angle becasue there wasn't enough room for my shoulders. After 6 hours, the bus stopped and 4 of my friends (minus the Duestch girls) got off the bus to head towards the Tigon grass lands. On a whim?I joined them and set off towards a small one street town nestled in a river valley. Tigon had much of the feel of Litang but was much smaller. The views of the surrounding moutain ranges were amazing thanks to the lack of trees and flat open valleys, which might have otherwise blocked such vistas.

The first day in Tigon, the fellowship decided to climb a moutain and head towards a small tent village of yak hearders. The climb took at least two hours due to the altitude, and picnick along the way. At the top, we were given a fantastic view of the surrounding moutains, valleys, and town. Off to the south was a view of one of China's 5 tallest moutains towering above the clouds. Also at the top of the moutain we were on, was a signifigant heard of yaks. Down the otherside of the moutain we ran into some heardsmen/women who said they were going to get their yaks and would be back in a second to hang out with us. Shortly after this we reached the tent village and were invited into a tent. In the tent I sat down in what I later realized was weeks worth of baby yak dung and hung out with the family. Jesse was 16 and lived with his family hearding yaks. He spoke Mandarin well enough that the group I were able to communicate with him easily. He told us about his life among the yaks, and I how sometime bandits (specifically yak rustlers) raided the village with guns. Tigon does indeed live up to the description as the Tibetan wild west. Jesse was missing his left eye. I regret never asking him how he had lost it.

On our way back to Tigon, we stopped by an abandoned monastary in a small river valley. It was amazing, and I was happy to get some good pictures of it.

The next day, the fellowship and I set out for a traditional Tibetan breakfast which turned out to be a mistake. My advice to anyone reading this blog is: if anyone ever offers you dried yak butter buns, say "no". If your curiosity gets the best of you and you decide to try them, be prepared to chip your teeth on some of the richest tasting butter paste you will ever eat.

One of the fellowship (Wim from Belguim) turned 30 on the trip. We had a quiet noodle dinner to celebrate. The next day Wim and I had coats made for us in the traditional tibetan style. My coat, for winter in Russia cost 14 US dollars and is 100% wool. In the US, the same jacket, if hand made for me, would have cost upwards of 400 US dollars. When I have a picture of it, I will post it.

When we finally got ready to leave Tigon we started looking for a minibus (van) that we could hire to drive us to Kunding. We did this because hiring a minibus was the same price as the normal bus to Kunding, and our last bus experience had been so bad. This became a little bit of a nightmare, which, for the most part, worked out in the end. I will save our story of how we got to Kunding for later seeing it had an exiting conclusion for me.

Just a side note. Anyone who wants can leave a comment for this blog. Blogger makes it seem like you have to sign up to do it, but that is not the case. Also, my parents have been sending me the comments so I get to read them whenever you make them. Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all doing well.