Tibetans and grains of salt
Tibetan translation notes pertaining to minority groups along the northern Yunnan, Tibetan border.
Shortcut(downhill)- Yeah, just head down this hill, its much faster than following the road. Sure, there are no trails, most of the it is a sheer cliff, the hillside is made up of loose gravel and prone to rock slides, the goats will try to gore you if the yaks don't, you will have to cling to rock faces as you traverse along the side of the mountain dangling over deep valleys/intense rapids, but hey, my three year old son/daughter can do it blindfolded so you shouldn't have any problems.
Shortcut(uphill)- This way is much quicker. Its straight uphill and
you will face many downhill conditions but my grandmother hikes it 5 times a day with 80 pounds of firewood on her back so you should be fine.
This hike will take 3 hours- This hike will take me 3 hours. Its up hill and at an elevation well over 9000ft, but I'm a 65 year old chain smoker, and I don't break a sweat when I do it, so you shouldn't have any problem.
My trip began when I headed for the town of Deqin 68km east of Tibet. I spent very little time there and immediatly made my way to Felia Si. Felia Si is a small town built around a temple and an amazing view of Mei Li snow Moutain. I spent the night in a small guesthouse overlooking... you guessed it, Mei Li snow Moutain. That night I heard the story about how about 20 years ago a team of 13 Japanese Moutaineers died trying to climb Mei Li which translates to goddess (and prostitute). I was told that it was a good moutain becasue it obviously hated Japanese by my friends at the guesthouse.
My destination was a small town called Yubong at the base of Mei Li, which I knew very little about. I was told that it would cost well over 100 yuan to get to the Xidong hot springs where the trail to Yubong began so I decided to walk along the road. I was told it was a three hour walk (this was not true at all) and so at 8am I set out for Yubong.
After about an hour of walking along the road I ran into a tibetan whose truck had a flat tire. He was "nice" enough to inform me that it wasn't worth walking the road and that it would be much faster to take a shortcut down the hill to the small village of Xidang. Convinced I headed off ready for a little treking through rough terrian.
Two hours after I set off down the hill I reached the bottom happy to be alive. The small foot bridge that gave access to xidong was completely covered in Yaks. Litteraly there were 10 Yaks standing, doing absolutly nothing except blocking my way across the river. After a good 20 minutes I was able convince enough of the Yaks to move that I was able to enter Xidong. Already tired and aching I decided to stop for lunch in Xidong. Three balloon hats, a bowl of rice, and 5 glasses of warm Yaks milk tea later, I set off towards the Xidang hot springs taking a shortcut uphill the villagers had been "nice" enough to inform me of.
Just as I was about to reach the hots springs I became violently ill (too much Yaks milk tea) making the last 200 meters to the hot springs a death march of sorts. After getting medicated and having a short break at the springs I decided I had traveled too far (20-27km) to give up on Yubong now. So with a kind invitation from an old man with a mule train for company I set off for Yubang, which was straight uphill. The old man, who I didn't catch his name, was for all intensive puposes my personal trainer up the moutain pushing me harder with phrases like "almost there", and "just around the bend". Trying to keep up with this man turned out to be a huge mistake seeing that his estimate for climbing the moutain was three hours and I was in no condition to make the hike in that amount of time, even when I was rested and not sick. Half-way up the moutain we parted ways seeing that my back was starting to spasm, and there was a rare level area for me to rest. Not knowing that I was only halfway up the moutain, and feeling somewhat rested, I set out again with renewed vigor. Still feeling sick from lunch each step became more and more difficult as I found new physical to limits to push.
At 5pm I reached the top of the moutain and thats when I began hallucinating. Up until this point I had beleived that a former trip through the Diablo hills was the hardest I had ever pushed myself, but as I made my way into the valley towards Yubong, I realized just how hard I had tested my limits that day as little lights and blurs danced around my vision.
At 6pm, having hiked 40-47km through some of the most intense terrian I have ever seen, I reached Yubong. Shaking I checked into a small inn, ate dinner, and went straight to bed.
I will post the rest of what happend to me to in the next two days with pictures of Yubong village.
Shortcut(downhill)- Yeah, just head down this hill, its much faster than following the road. Sure, there are no trails, most of the it is a sheer cliff, the hillside is made up of loose gravel and prone to rock slides, the goats will try to gore you if the yaks don't, you will have to cling to rock faces as you traverse along the side of the mountain dangling over deep valleys/intense rapids, but hey, my three year old son/daughter can do it blindfolded so you shouldn't have any problems.
Shortcut(uphill)- This way is much quicker. Its straight uphill and
you will face many downhill conditions but my grandmother hikes it 5 times a day with 80 pounds of firewood on her back so you should be fine.
This hike will take 3 hours- This hike will take me 3 hours. Its up hill and at an elevation well over 9000ft, but I'm a 65 year old chain smoker, and I don't break a sweat when I do it, so you shouldn't have any problem.
My trip began when I headed for the town of Deqin 68km east of Tibet. I spent very little time there and immediatly made my way to Felia Si. Felia Si is a small town built around a temple and an amazing view of Mei Li snow Moutain. I spent the night in a small guesthouse overlooking... you guessed it, Mei Li snow Moutain. That night I heard the story about how about 20 years ago a team of 13 Japanese Moutaineers died trying to climb Mei Li which translates to goddess (and prostitute). I was told that it was a good moutain becasue it obviously hated Japanese by my friends at the guesthouse.
My destination was a small town called Yubong at the base of Mei Li, which I knew very little about. I was told that it would cost well over 100 yuan to get to the Xidong hot springs where the trail to Yubong began so I decided to walk along the road. I was told it was a three hour walk (this was not true at all) and so at 8am I set out for Yubong.
After about an hour of walking along the road I ran into a tibetan whose truck had a flat tire. He was "nice" enough to inform me that it wasn't worth walking the road and that it would be much faster to take a shortcut down the hill to the small village of Xidang. Convinced I headed off ready for a little treking through rough terrian.
Two hours after I set off down the hill I reached the bottom happy to be alive. The small foot bridge that gave access to xidong was completely covered in Yaks. Litteraly there were 10 Yaks standing, doing absolutly nothing except blocking my way across the river. After a good 20 minutes I was able convince enough of the Yaks to move that I was able to enter Xidong. Already tired and aching I decided to stop for lunch in Xidong. Three balloon hats, a bowl of rice, and 5 glasses of warm Yaks milk tea later, I set off towards the Xidang hot springs taking a shortcut uphill the villagers had been "nice" enough to inform me of.
Just as I was about to reach the hots springs I became violently ill (too much Yaks milk tea) making the last 200 meters to the hot springs a death march of sorts. After getting medicated and having a short break at the springs I decided I had traveled too far (20-27km) to give up on Yubong now. So with a kind invitation from an old man with a mule train for company I set off for Yubang, which was straight uphill. The old man, who I didn't catch his name, was for all intensive puposes my personal trainer up the moutain pushing me harder with phrases like "almost there", and "just around the bend". Trying to keep up with this man turned out to be a huge mistake seeing that his estimate for climbing the moutain was three hours and I was in no condition to make the hike in that amount of time, even when I was rested and not sick. Half-way up the moutain we parted ways seeing that my back was starting to spasm, and there was a rare level area for me to rest. Not knowing that I was only halfway up the moutain, and feeling somewhat rested, I set out again with renewed vigor. Still feeling sick from lunch each step became more and more difficult as I found new physical to limits to push.
At 5pm I reached the top of the moutain and thats when I began hallucinating. Up until this point I had beleived that a former trip through the Diablo hills was the hardest I had ever pushed myself, but as I made my way into the valley towards Yubong, I realized just how hard I had tested my limits that day as little lights and blurs danced around my vision.
At 6pm, having hiked 40-47km through some of the most intense terrian I have ever seen, I reached Yubong. Shaking I checked into a small inn, ate dinner, and went straight to bed.
I will post the rest of what happend to me to in the next two days with pictures of Yubong village.
posted by Robert at 7/16/2005 05:17:00 AM
1 Comments:
"I was told that it was a good moutain becasue it obviously hated Japanese" sounds just like something my grandma would say.
when you get back i will have to ask you the best way to get a yak to move for you.
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