hitch-hiking tibettan style

I woke up this morning to a beautifully clear day, there was, for the first time, not a single cloud in sight and i could see clear across chinas biggest lake to the snow capped moutanins the encircle it on the other side, well not straight across, thats a long way. It's a stark contrast to the usualy fog that covered the area, threatening to rain but never really letting anything out, a little snow here and there but thats it. Distances are hard to judge when the air is so thin and clear, mountains that rise 1200m seem small and the foothills that roll out from the peaks seem like a few hundred meters. In reality its more like 1000m to the base.

Yesturday we went wandering the town, its not really a town, more a community sprawled over a 15km radius around the lakes edge. at each home, we visited about 5 homes, we were ushered in, sat down and poured tea and offered deep fried bread. It's rude to refuse hospitality as everyone is excited to have a visitor. For us however, it's really strange, they sit us down on their beds/dining tables and serve us food and bread then stand and watch us eat and talk. There is very little communication between us and them. I'm told its because in Tibeten culture women cannot really speak with men, the order it is said is... Man, his donkey, then his wife.
We walked from house to house, wandering the tibettan plateu amongst Yaks, sheeps, goats and horses that were grazing the tufts of grass. The Bright sun was shining, making life very pleasant indeed, a little exercise and fresh air never hurt anyone.

Have you ever seen one of those television programs that show an icy, snowy tundra that the wind blows across. The wind makes the ice sheets look like their flowing as whisps of snow float across it in the streams of air. I can tell you now that it takes a fair wind to do that. Though the sun was out and warming our faces as afternoon went on the wind picked up and quickly stole from us what hte sun had so generously given. it was freezing to say the least. a day that would not have been much colder than -3c, quite nice to walk in if your rugged up with 5 layers, scarf and beanie, quickly turned into a frozen, hellish experience. Well that may be a bit of an overstatement but it was cold!

Anyhoo back to this morning. we took a trip to Chapcha (that is definately not how you spell it but if you read that out loud you'll make the right sounds!) We were planning to hike over the mountain ridge and along the road here, about 30-40km in all and up across 1 peak. however, as the perpetual cold wears our team down slowly and health begins to fail we decided it would be smarter for us to get a ride.
hitch-hiking here in tibet is quite simple. walk to the road, start walking in hte direction you want to go, wait for a car to honk ferouciously at you, wave it down and jump in. just pay a few kwai (about $1aud) and you're on your way. though its interesting to get to here you're going when you cant speak the language, we just repeated our intended destination and hoped for the best. Oh and thats not to mention who else will be in the car with you. Chinese, tibetan, sheep? we were fortunate enough to get a ride with 2 tibetans and the fresh hide of what appeared to be a goat, head still on... they also cram you in like sardeans. Chinese cars are small and cheap, we still managed to fit our team of 5 largish westerners into a car that was alread containing 3 people. we jammed people in and sat them on the floor. piled bags on top and hoped for the best. It didnt quite beat our record of the previous day though, 13 people in the same sized car.

Chapcha is a great place. Its the trading hub of the area and full of markets selling fresh fruite, piled up tea and spices, tibetan clothing (their coats area amazing) and a pile of fireworks (chiense new year is coming up in 2 days!) we met some of carlsons old students who showed us the streets and have just been resting and catching up on some much earned downtime! its a refreshing break.