We never made it to Tagong and instead stayed the first night in Xinduqiao as Zach's SO was apparently in dire need of a shower. About 40kms from the town, the ubiquitous engine noise once again erupted to new life. Getting off to inspect the problem, I noticed that this time the nut I had tightened was apparently too tight and snapped the threaded stud coming out of the head now completely disconnecting the pipe from the engine.
Blurting our way into town, Zach went to find some lodging and I went
immediately to a repair shop. All of them were closed. Whelp looks like an
early morning tomorrow, I'm sure these guys open up early right? It's tourist season.
Meeting up with Zach he informs us that all the guest houses with the showers were already booked and were asking ridiculous prices per night. I understand that dealing in tourism means dealing with highly season business traffic but wow! When they turn on the tourist pricing they really turn it on good! Places which would normally cost about 40 yuan or would go for over 300! With the five percent drop in the US dollar, I can say that you do feel more pinch than before.
The cold rain began. Xinduqiao, now mostly guesthouses, was swamped with travelers; some motorcycle groups but mostly cars, SUV's and busses. Guesthouses were taking their pick and those situated in the southern side of the town near the road junction must have made out like bandits. Together we asked and inspected 8 or 9 places and many of the few available accommodations lacked shower facilities, forget about having one attached to your room. We finally decided on a place with a hot water shower outside the building.
That chilly night as I was suited off and organizing things in our room, all the crappy food I overate the night before decided to lodge a complaint...and fast. Faster than any other bad guts I had had before. Spam, fish stuff and instant noodles from earthy bowls, run up to high altitude then shaken, not stirred, by about 90kms of dirt road, gave up the ghost and was wanted out, now.
It was sudden and determined at the same time. All at once the Jane's Addiction line "COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAAAINNNN!" shot into my head. Doing my best to hold my shit together - literally - I pinched my ass as hard as I could and ran out the door like Redd Fox going for Liz'beth. It's amazing how motivated I suddenly became. Another person was waiting outside the bathroom; which incidentally was the only shower stall. I really don't like to cut in front of people in line but I qualified this as an emergency.
Luckily WenLing was inside. I knocked on the door and said "Yeah it's me. I REALLY need to get in." "Okay hold on a minute." Shaking and twitching like a jumping bean I replied: "I mean like NOW." She opened the door, I went right in and the rest doesn't need to be described. Suffice it to say...I didn't make it. Good thing this place has a shower, I felt better afterwards anyway. On the bright side of things, that cleared plenty of room for dinner at a proper restaurant, a package of crackers and the liter of water I was sure to consume that evening.
Fresh, bright and early the next morning, I got up alone and at eight went to see about getting the exhaust fixed but the doors at the repair shop were still closed until after nine when some finally showed up. I showed them what was wrong and they said it shouldn't be a problem. Hopeful, I forgot the number one rule of experiencing China: don't believe anything is going to happen, until it does. Sometimes, unless you make it happen through dogged, even sometime loud persistence, it wont.
One thing turned into another. They tried to file the broken stud down and
reverse drill it. That didn't work. Then they tried to weld a bolt to it and
twist it off - and that only succeeded in destroying what was left of the stud. Two hours later the head was off the engine and two people were trying to extract the broken stud having zero success. Although more expensive, I realized it was better if I just paid for a new head, about 10 USD, and got back on the road. This decision led to another half-hour of trying different heads on the engine as they had apparently taken some out of their boxes and not replaced them correctly. I felt bad that I was holding everyone up with this nonsense but after noon we were ready to go again with an attached exhaust, new head and valves - total about 40USD.
Back on the road I forgot about the bike problems, extra money and unexpected repairs. Riding through these grasslands surrounded by high snow-capped mountains is enough to make you forget about lots of troublesome worries. Gentle essing roads wind through the green hills dotted with nomads, hitchhikers and happy people on holiday enjoying clean air and open horizons.
We arrived at a town called Tagong which was once a Tibetan trading village and is now known for its famous Tibetan horse races. Four years ago this place looked completely different. Now, brand new guest houses and shops line the newly paved main street which was once nothing but rutted dirt and rocks. With this naturally came gridlock on the main street. Cars, trucks and busses were locked up and out the northern side was a two kilometer traffic jam leading into town. I couldn't believe it. We were in the middle of nowhere and there's a traffic jam. Again, being on a small bike proved handy in weaving the obstacle of bumpers.
- Yala Snow Mountain -
To get past one section of the jam, we rode onto the grass and up to a popular old monastery seen in the background of the picture below. I quite fancied a stop to appreciate the madness and snap a panoramic of Yala Snow Mountain. A curious Tibetan woman greeted us and wanted a try at the camera. It was nice to see she went for the optical viewfinder and didn't stare at the back of the lcd screen. I zoomed the 18-50 while she was looking though it and she said "Oooooo." I'm not really sure what that meant but it didn't sound bad so that's good.
- Camera fun -
(WLP)
And it's not really a trip report unless someone takes a territorial pee break.
It was time and a nice spot to take a short, relieving break. Nice beautiful view and a sold 15 meter drop right in front of me. Wind direction, check. Fly clearance - check. Good to go!
-T minus... -
(WLP)
Oh yeah! That's a relief! While enjoying the moment I noticed a spot further down which looked like a couple walking around a bike. I'm not sure if they saw me or not but I didn't mean to pee in their general direction. Zipped up and ready for more water, we coasted down the switchback and check to make sure the couple down below was okay. No worries, they were just doing the same thing as us!
Garther monastary was less than 100kms away and my eyes started to tear...and not the emotional kind. Very shortly after, my nose began to run but I figured that was all effects of the cold air. Wrong. I wasn't cold air, but a cold. I was starting to get chills and riding became more uncomfortable with all the pressure in my helmet. We wanted to make it to Garther monastery that night. Monasteries often put up travelers and Garther was no exception.
- Garther Monastery and main courtyard -
A few minutes after pulling into the gates a young monk greeted us and offered to show us around. We said we were also looking for a place to stay. He said that shouldn't be a problem and suggested we first store the bikes. He led us to a nice tractor adjacent spot, where we began unloading.
- Imagine the conversations they'd have -
Before too long another monk showed up who looked to be the man in charge of the lodging.
"How much for a person?" We asked the "monk" in the Terminator sunglasses.
"40 a person."
"Okay, how about food."
"No food."
"Well we have to eat right?"
"You can buy the materials from us but you have to make it yourself."
"What? Okay."
Since my head was ready to explode and I had been here before, I laid down to rest while others explored the beautiful grounds for a while.
- Dormatories and Lamas to be -
(WLP)
Looking out the window I could see the sun was setting and knew some golden light was about to arrive and quickly disappear. Having only had a short rest I still felt much better and decided to tighten up my boot straps, blow my nose and prepare to head out for some pictures.
- Temple Deluxe -
Walking around, I noticed a new five story temple being built behind the old
one. The old temple's interior was in quite good shape and made me wonder why they needed a new one. Over only the past few years this place has clearly become more tourist oriented. There was once a huge hand written scroll inside which told the story of the temple in both Chinese in English. It told a classic tale of an early Dalai Lama being carried here by his mother who told him to construct this temple and then it's successive destruction and rebuilding over the past 200 years.
- A picture of that hanging four years ago -
- The Reflective Zach -
Downstairs I caught Zach on the front steps contemplating the day. He looked at peace with himself so I continued inside to visit their room of ashes.
All of the rooms, including our guest rooms, were elaborately decorated in carvings and paintings like the one shown below. Even in it's newness, endless trails of animals and stories hand painted on the walls still tease the senses with craftsmanship, color and detail. Behind the many small windows which line three sides of the wall, are small paper folders - each with the ashen remains of past monks.
- Dem' Crazy Bones -
Moving on up to the roof, sunset lighting cast the temples shadow across the courtyard. The rich blue sky, puffy clouds, green grass and strong red walls of the dormitories screamed 10-20mm lens. Now, it's all waiting.
- Whhyyyyyde -
- Last slivers of Sun -
-Shooting the slivers -
(WLP)
The sun set behind the temple and darkness would fall fast. Ready to lay down again, I returned to the guestrooms to find Zach and his girl friend already making dinner by flash light in the kitchen using a full size wok!
- Go team! HACHOOO! -
I tell you there was some sizzle going off that thing and the food was good. A grounds keeper was keeping them company while helping them find the tools and food. The odd thing is that the grounds keeper looked like he was hungry so we shared our meal with him. I wondered when and where he was supposed to eat dinner.
That night was absolutely miserable. I worried about not being able to ride
tomorrow. Maybe Zach could just go on ahead? I wouldn't want them to wait for me. Am I ruining this experience for WenLing, on her first trip? Then my body spoke to me. My bones ached and despite having a clear fever, had severe chills. My nose ran into forests worth of tissues that ended up making their own Gonga-Shan of snot and paper next to my bed. We turned out head-lamps at ten but I didn't get more than 2 or 3 hours of sleep. My eyes watered so badly that when I squinted I got that earthquake rumbling sound in my head. You know...the sound you get when you make tight fists and stick your thumbs in your ears. Yeah, it was that kind of night. All night I sweat while my body fevered and burned the sickness away.
Away!
Final Part: The next morning and unspoken goals home