Trekking in Qinghai
On Thursday with the prospect of a quiet weekend looming Jamie and I decided to go trekking for a few days in the hills around Jensa. Jensa ( Lat 35 56 15.69, Long 102 01 47.70) is the town we are based in for the three weeks we have in Qinghai Province, NW China. Check it out on Google Earth. Google Earth has proven to be very useful as there are a lack of maps written in English for this area. We spotted a Mt of rocks the other day while going for a day walk and we decided to head for that using the info from Google earth.
So on Friday we headed off to a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery high on the hills, which was beautiful and colourful with scary looking figures painted on the interior walls and chanting monks. A monk provided us with some brick tea and bread for lunch and through a friend who interpreted for us we spoke to a couple of wizened old guys who protect the forest around the Monastery from people who cut the trees for firewood. This has happened to such an extent that there are very few trees around. It gets down to 20 below here in the winter so I can understand why people try to get wood for their fires. The old guys had a dog which took a dislike to our taxi driver and decided to playfully? grab his leg and give it a good shake!
After the Monastery we headed back down the hill and got out where we could just see the Mt poking out of the clouds. We bid goodbye to our beer drinking, chain smoking driver and our friends and based on the advice from a local lady headed down the hill to a river valley. In the river valley some guys ran up to us and started gesticulating to us. We thanked them very much for their interest in us and started to head off thinking that we couldn't deal with more tea so soon after the Monastery (the people here are incredibly generous and kind). They seemed quite determined though and tried to get us to sit down and made poofing noises???! We finally realised that they were saying that they were dynamiting the road and would we please sit down! We sat down. 30 seconds later BOOM!.
Advice number one when in Qinghai: Sit down when asked!
After the boom experience we headed up the hill on the other side of the river and walked to a village on the ridgetop called NueSheZon. Wheat, Peas and some blue flower crop on terraces surround all the villages at this time of year. We continued on through and up the ridgeline. We found a friendly three wheeled truck driver who took us to his village Lua. At Lua we were surrounded by about 20 people who stared and giggled and were very interested in our photos of family..hehe. It was still only 5pm so we decided to push on and cover some more ground before dark. There was a water reserviour in the valley far below the village so we took off downhill. We still couldn't quite figure out where we were. We ended up camping in a lush valley of poplar and birch trees and wildflowers, next to a river. The next day we followed a track up the valley. We finally ended up climbing a steep hill (500m) to see what we could see... and we saw it, our Mountain. So after Jamie had done something unspeakable beside a Marmot hole (he doesn't seem to like Marmots)we headed down ANOTHER hill we hit ANOTHER river and surprise surprise we had to climb up ANOTHER hill. Halfway up the hill we came across two gobsmacked men who were shaping the local vegetation in the protected forest reserve. They really looked like they had seen ghosts and just stood there speechless and shocked. We decided to leave. Quickly. We pointed up the hill and took off. The next 2 hours we had to force our way through rhododendrons, azaleas, rose bushes and other shrubs. These would look very beautiful in spring in full flower at a distance, but amongst them all I could think of was a nice big machete.
We finally made it to the base of the Mt and set up tent in a little bowl shaped grassy space on the top of a ridge. It really was perfect. Thunder and lightning were talking to us and it was an incredible view watching it close in. After all the talk we only had an hour or so of moderate rain. In the night we woke up to munch, munch, munch. The local livestock had arrived in their perfect spot. They were fascinated with the tent and we had visions of Yaks tripping over guy ropes and News Stories about how two foreigners were squashed to death by stupid *@#@%#$% yaks. Jamie said he'd never felt so small and squishy before. I reckon it was payback for the marmot hole personally :)
Advice number two: Don't poo in Marmot holes!
Jamie decided to frighten the Yaks away by headtorch and yelling, which worked except then the bull felt morally obligated to protect his girls so we quietly pretended we didn't exist through an hour of stamping and grunting next to our tent.
The next morning we climbed the Mt - 3850m(Jamie for the 2nd time in 12 hours)huffing and puffing all the way. Then headed back down the hills to Lua. We picked up two very kind Tibetan Ladies (mother and daughter) after spending an hour with their family and drinking Yak butter tea. We arrived in Lua at 1 pm and were spotted by the locals who sat us down and taught? us how to eat Tsampa, much to their hilarity (see Tsampa recipe posted below).
4 hours later we were back in Jensa after catching a couple of rides with Farmers on the back of their trucks. I sat in the back of one truck holding on for dear life with my hands curled around the sides. We accompanied a little boy who wouldn't say boo to us. The truck drove over some cow poos, which were flung up and splattered all over my hand. The little boy laughed and laughed. Well I'm glad I can be of service.
Advice number three: Just stay away from poo and dynamite!
So on Friday we headed off to a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery high on the hills, which was beautiful and colourful with scary looking figures painted on the interior walls and chanting monks. A monk provided us with some brick tea and bread for lunch and through a friend who interpreted for us we spoke to a couple of wizened old guys who protect the forest around the Monastery from people who cut the trees for firewood. This has happened to such an extent that there are very few trees around. It gets down to 20 below here in the winter so I can understand why people try to get wood for their fires. The old guys had a dog which took a dislike to our taxi driver and decided to playfully? grab his leg and give it a good shake!
After the Monastery we headed back down the hill and got out where we could just see the Mt poking out of the clouds. We bid goodbye to our beer drinking, chain smoking driver and our friends and based on the advice from a local lady headed down the hill to a river valley. In the river valley some guys ran up to us and started gesticulating to us. We thanked them very much for their interest in us and started to head off thinking that we couldn't deal with more tea so soon after the Monastery (the people here are incredibly generous and kind). They seemed quite determined though and tried to get us to sit down and made poofing noises???! We finally realised that they were saying that they were dynamiting the road and would we please sit down! We sat down. 30 seconds later BOOM!.
Advice number one when in Qinghai: Sit down when asked!
After the boom experience we headed up the hill on the other side of the river and walked to a village on the ridgetop called NueSheZon. Wheat, Peas and some blue flower crop on terraces surround all the villages at this time of year. We continued on through and up the ridgeline. We found a friendly three wheeled truck driver who took us to his village Lua. At Lua we were surrounded by about 20 people who stared and giggled and were very interested in our photos of family..hehe. It was still only 5pm so we decided to push on and cover some more ground before dark. There was a water reserviour in the valley far below the village so we took off downhill. We still couldn't quite figure out where we were. We ended up camping in a lush valley of poplar and birch trees and wildflowers, next to a river. The next day we followed a track up the valley. We finally ended up climbing a steep hill (500m) to see what we could see... and we saw it, our Mountain. So after Jamie had done something unspeakable beside a Marmot hole (he doesn't seem to like Marmots)we headed down ANOTHER hill we hit ANOTHER river and surprise surprise we had to climb up ANOTHER hill. Halfway up the hill we came across two gobsmacked men who were shaping the local vegetation in the protected forest reserve. They really looked like they had seen ghosts and just stood there speechless and shocked. We decided to leave. Quickly. We pointed up the hill and took off. The next 2 hours we had to force our way through rhododendrons, azaleas, rose bushes and other shrubs. These would look very beautiful in spring in full flower at a distance, but amongst them all I could think of was a nice big machete.
We finally made it to the base of the Mt and set up tent in a little bowl shaped grassy space on the top of a ridge. It really was perfect. Thunder and lightning were talking to us and it was an incredible view watching it close in. After all the talk we only had an hour or so of moderate rain. In the night we woke up to munch, munch, munch. The local livestock had arrived in their perfect spot. They were fascinated with the tent and we had visions of Yaks tripping over guy ropes and News Stories about how two foreigners were squashed to death by stupid *@#@%#$% yaks. Jamie said he'd never felt so small and squishy before. I reckon it was payback for the marmot hole personally :)
Advice number two: Don't poo in Marmot holes!
Jamie decided to frighten the Yaks away by headtorch and yelling, which worked except then the bull felt morally obligated to protect his girls so we quietly pretended we didn't exist through an hour of stamping and grunting next to our tent.
The next morning we climbed the Mt - 3850m(Jamie for the 2nd time in 12 hours)huffing and puffing all the way. Then headed back down the hills to Lua. We picked up two very kind Tibetan Ladies (mother and daughter) after spending an hour with their family and drinking Yak butter tea. We arrived in Lua at 1 pm and were spotted by the locals who sat us down and taught? us how to eat Tsampa, much to their hilarity (see Tsampa recipe posted below).
4 hours later we were back in Jensa after catching a couple of rides with Farmers on the back of their trucks. I sat in the back of one truck holding on for dear life with my hands curled around the sides. We accompanied a little boy who wouldn't say boo to us. The truck drove over some cow poos, which were flung up and splattered all over my hand. The little boy laughed and laughed. Well I'm glad I can be of service.
Advice number three: Just stay away from poo and dynamite!
posted by Jamie and Katie at 4:40 am
1 Comments:
Jamie, you da man. Who else gets their toileting practices so graphically explained to such a wide international audience. You'll be pleased to know that Googling for "poo Jamie marmot" misses the jackpot... so far.
Hey Katie, loved the story. I'll be back for more of your photo-realistic observations. Yeuch!
I'm guessing the mystery objects come from a Marmot hole!
Love you guys. Hope you make it to Chch at wedding time. Congrats to the bride and (no doubt) beaming parents.
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