the wild west: part two

And on to Danba we went. This drive was a bit more harrowing and irritating than the first. The road was bumpy and I had been relegated (granted, self-relegated, but I think it is nice for the smallest people to acknowledge their size) to the back seat where four of us jammed together on rickety seats. If my butt wasn't up against the cold side of van, it was balanced precariously on some sort of metal bar. We all took turns stretching our shoulders out or our butts up. It was...snug to say the least.

So we passed over some pretty terrible bumps for a few hours and got to Danba by lunchtime. We located a hotel that allows foreigners (maybe?) and dropped of our bags in the filthy rooms. Quite literally, it was the worst hotel I've ever stayed in. Ever. The bathrooms reeked and the sheets were questionably clean. Instead of being given keys, the proprietor had to come and unlock the doors when we got back from town. Dana and I struggled in our sleep to share the tiny blanket on our double bed. I also realized at this point that I had been relieved of my iPod at some point during the day's journey. I am now using a tiny Sony for school. I am sad, but life sucks, especially when you own expensive things.

Ah, by the way, I don't think I've really showed you where I was.

 

 

So looking west from Chengdu, you can see Kangding, Tagong and Danba. Past Kangding, you reach a part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, though not "Tibet" as we know it in the West. The area is mostly inhabited by ethnic Tibetans, however.

 

In a beautiful valley. Not-so-beautiful city.

Danba's location is stellar, with several rivers merging in deep valleys. The city is typical Chinese concrete architecture that never takes into account the scenery. In the hills, you can see little Tibetan villages in orderly clusters. The view must be amazing!

We hiked up some stairs we saw off the side of road that just kept continuing up the slope. There were few people on a very well-laid path with nice rest stop pagodas every few hundred meters. We were heading up to the Tibetan villages, but it seemed quite far. I wasn't prepared to hike in my flippy-floppies and lack of coat, so I stopped once I reached a high point on the trail. I also didn't have my camera but once I get a few pics, I'll post 'em here. I was lucky, because about an hour after I turned around, it started pouring rain.

 

Tibetan villages.

 

Alleys into mountains.

 

My horrific sunburn and amazing Tibetan wear.

One night, we came back from hiking in a village and the hotel owner's wife decided that I should try on some of her traditional clothing. She is a Danba native and had the entire outfit, plus some. Once again, I was showered with unnecessary compliments about how nice my figure was (oh stop!) which Lucas decided to awkwardly translate every time she said it. I got an embroidered skirt, a colorful woven belt, a white silk shirt and a fake hair headdress. As I posed, Dennis walked in the door and the lady asked genuinely, "Would you like to wear girl's clothes?" He looked confused and then decided to accept her offer. Hence, the skirt. It is not a man outfit, Dennis is wearing a female costume. I love unique cultural encounters!

Our second day, we visited the tourist stops of Suopo and Jiaju. The first was a couple of miles down the road so we decided to walk. Unfortunately, we turned the wrong way and walked in a muddy road with trucks passing us and drivers looking concerned at the eight random foreigners trekking through the muck. Eventually, a car stopped and told us that we were going the wrong way (they recognized us from the bar the night before). So we went back to the bread truck stop and hired a guy to take us around.

We stopped at a suspension bridge where we were met by a bunch of young boys wanting to "guide" us in the village. We told them no, but they hung around for a good while practicing English and messing around with the older boys.

Suopo is famous for its collection of ancient Qiang watchtowers that were used to protect villages in the olden days. They are quite imposing structures, though I'm not sure what kind of invading army would attempt to capture these steep mountain villages. We also paid to get into this village, though the guys that climbed to the villages the day before said they saw a bunch up in the hills behind our hotel fo' free. Oh, well.

 

Watchtowers.

 

We had some guides.

  

He was a fly little guy.

Next we drove to Jiaju Ancient Village, supposedly the "most beautiful village in China," according to Chinese National Geographic. Some of our companions raced up a road into the mountains, but a couple of us decided to chill and wander the village. I wanted to get some watercolors done in the pretty mountain area.

We walked along the road to a viewpoint and plopped down to chat and ponder the sky. Herds of Chinese periodically passed through, asking hello and looking closely at my painting. They used long camera lenses to take our photo and especially enjoyed artistic shots of me with my moleskin and watercolor set.

 

The beauty in Jiaju.

 

Corn into cliff.

 

Mountains in the distance.

We sat and wandered for several hours, admiring the quiet paths interspersed with jabbering Chinese tourists and motorcycles. I would love to stay in a guesthouse here at some point in the future, but we didn't have time. The quiet and expansive setting was so refreshing after Shanghai. I'm pretty sure I'll be back.

 

Setting sun.

We returned to our driver as the sun was setting, involving ourselves in a fair bit of photos with curious tourists. We tried to charge some money for our photos, but the Chinese just laughed along. I mean, we were kind of serious...

We returned to town in darkness and ate a final meal as a group. We were now splitting up, as Lucas and Dennis went further into Western Sichuan and the rest of us returned to Chengdu. The parting was sad because I really enjoyed everyone and truly missed my old friends. I think we'll see each other again, traveling in some exotic locale.

Our bus left at 6am, with some minor troubles which I will discuss in another post. That...and PANDAS!

 
Parting shot.

Love,

ellen