Some of the pics are taken by Chuen Yee and Master Chin, photo credits go to them =)
Woke up at 6am in anticipation of sun rise at Meili.
Don’t think got much luck as it was a rainy day yesterday. Went out in the dark and the viewing platform already have people congregated. Locals were selling breakfast. Some gathered around fire to get warmth. We waited in anticipation but sad……no sun rise. We took photos of the glacier whatever spared below the clouds. We bought some breakfast and ate them before we started the journey at 8+.
Mistakes we learnt later:
We had too little breakfast and too little ration for the climbing later.
We started off too late.
Today is 13 August, don’t push luck too far and be extra cautious.
Never bring any medical supplies.
No day pack.
No proper track shoes.
Well, we didn’t give a damn to it at the beginning, Car ride started, and at a junction that leads on to Lhasa, Tibet, we turn left to head to Xidang (西当), which is the starting poing of the trek to Yubeng Village (雨崩村).
We can see the Lancang river is a few hundred metres below us and our road is perched to the cliff of high mountains.
Once we bought the entrance ticket to enter Yubeng, we crossed the bridge and the car started to run on unpaved roads. Some local hitched-hiked our car to go up to Xidang as well. It is a norm for the local to just hop on to tourists’ rented car as we are all heading to the starting point, their businesses there are diff from ours of course. I kinda noticed that there are some egg-like rounded pebbles that you can only find in river bed, stuck to the cliff surface.
The driver told us, the road that we were on now, were once the river bed. Hence the pebbles. The gorge has deepened to where it is now today. I was like….wow! Considering we were a few hundred metres still above Lancang River, the gorge has really ventured down a lot from where it was.
10am and we reached the starting point. Reality started to overwhelm me. The gradient of the trek right from the start is NOT gradual. And it is not solid trek – muddy and full of shit – donkey dung. And pig’s as well. We followed a group of local to go up, still naively thinking that the mountain pass is only a short distance away. Hell no. There is a donkey man who throw a statement to a fellow trekker who asked him that same million-dollar question : if the mountain pass really so easy to reach you think people will take donkey!? Haha, kena suan. Anyway the view is quite soothing. Away from the civilization, u can hear ur own heartbeat and enjoy the lush greenery. I am very friendly to the fellow trekkers and donkey leaders, greeting them Zasidele (扎西得勒，I think it means how are you? In Tibetan language.) Those who are going downhill also cheered us on, keep telling us the pitstop is not too far ahead. Right.
We took a long while before we reached the first resting point. There are still a good many many metres above us. Those in donkeys are not any faster than us. But avoiding the donkeys constantly has really been annoying to the max – not to mention avoiding their… ahem. We grudgingly trudged on. My feet started to sore. Worse still – my hunger pang! I only had very little breakfast this morning, now I am feeling super hungry! I looked at everyone’s food with lusting eyes! I even went to ask those who are coming down whether they wanted to sell me their extra supplies since they are already going down anyway. So ashamed! Anyway they told me that the next pitstop is not too far up, just need to tahan a bit more and I shall be able to replenish my supplies there. Their advice is – got renminbi will do!
Chuen Yee offered me his choc bar but I declined. Couldnt be robbing the dead could I? Finally finally, when I thought I m going to faint due to low glucose level, I have reached the pitstop. Yinhuan and Chuen yee told me they only have instant noodles. Refused to believe them, I spoke to the cook myself. The cook told me he has fried rice with yak meat! Yahoo! Rice is all that I need! I ordered three bowls of rice and asked him to add an egg to each. Meanwhile I learnt my lesson – quickly went to the tuckshop and buy choc bars as energy source later. God knows how many more km ahead we have to trekked before we reach the pass (垭口). I also ordered the butter tea to replenish my salt content. The cook was so glad I bought so many choc from his shop that he said the eggs are free hehe. Not long after that a big group came and we are lucky that we were slightly ahead of them. This is indeed a life-saving pitstop. Phew.
Once the meal is over, we continued with energy and supplies. We finally reached the pass at 12+. We can see the Meili snow mountain a bit nearer now. Also we could see the Yubeng village from the top – it does look like a Shangrila by itself. Serene, peaceful, dotted with lil houses. Like Switzerland. So green.
View of Yubeng from the top
The trek downwards prove to be difficult as the sole felt slippery on this kind of trek. I fell finally and scratched my hand. Bleed. Bloody 13! Totally demoralized. While Yinhuan and Chuen Yee speeded down like rocket, I can only slowly felt my way down in fear of another fall. The roots and the slippery rock surface are the culprit.
After 2 hours, we finally reach Upper Yubeng Village. I found a stream and dim my bleeding palm into the icing cold stream water – shiok – promised to heal any wounds haha.
Mini-"senoko" for Yubeng
A lady met us half way and introduced us to a Guest House. He is actually a tuck shop lady. We enquired and only the lower rooms available. The boss of the guest house didn’t have plaster for me though – he promised to give me alcohol to wipe away the germs.
When I went downhill, I noticed there were some girls going up the mountain on donkey wearing the army boots. I asked the tuck shop lady if her shop sell good trekking boots. She told me those are called Liberation Shoes (解放鞋) – worn by the Liberation Army and has spikes over the soles for better grip. I quickly went to the shop and try on. Aha! I found my size. Chuen Yee brought a pair as well. The 20RMB that I spent is well worth it – the shoes proved to be my faithful trekking companion throughout the two days. I regained all my confidence, uphill or downhill =)
The sky is still shining. We wanted to marched on to Shenpu (神瀑), the legendary waterfall that Tibetans pays tribute to every year. The innkeeper advised us not to as it takes at least 2 hours to go and 2 hours to come back. Given that it is already 3pm now, we might not be able to make it back before the sunset and we might get lost in the dark. We tot, summer mah, no big deal, sun wont set before 8pm anyway. The tuckshop lady advised us, if really the timing was too late, just ask her sister who also open a tuckshop at Shenpu to bring us back and pay her some money. We agreed.
When we passed by 徒步者之家，the guy that we met in Migatory Bird wanted to go there as well. So a big group joined us. Together we trekked 1000 metres down to the river to cross it and reach Lower Yubeng Village.
From there we carry on to go to Shenpu. Have to passby some pig farms cos that’s the road leading to Shenpu. Sigh. According to the tuck shop lady, there are 4 pitstops along the way. We know we are in trouble when we only reach the first at 5pm. We underestimated the distance, again! Yinhuan suggested if by 6pm we still have not reach the Shenpu, we should revert back to the inn as we don’t want to get stuck in the dark and lost our way.
The stream is just beside us. The pebbles stacks made by the Tibetan pilgrimage are everywhere along the river bank. As we walked on, the road started to get steeper and finally it is 6pm. The China group continued on whereas we U turn back to the inn – one of the painful decisions we have to make but out of no choice. We have only seen the second pitstop. Those who came down from there told us it is still a long way from the waterfall.
We cross the bridge and wanted to go back fast as the drizzle has come. Easier to say – the rain has made the trek harder to step on. Also the temperature has gone down. Uphill some more. Luckily Yinhuan brought extra rain coats to lend me – I as usual never bring the rain gear – never learn my lesson. I found it very hard to move on each step. Partly I was already very tired due to the trek this morning. So by the time we passed by徒步者之家, I suggested we took dinner there before we head back to our inn. Another mistake – there were so many people waiting for dinner there that we don’t even have seats to rest our legs. Finally we were so frustrated that we cancelled our order and trekked back to our inn. By the time we reach the inn, we were already half drenched. Hyper thermia. No appetite for food. Those cold words from another guide who laughed at us don’t hell at all. We sat round the stove and get some warmth, wondering what blunder we have brought ourselves on today. All the food we ordered we hardly touched, just left there.
Took a warm shower in the public toilet. The water is quite respectable. Lukewarm but at least the flow is quite strong. Once we finished washed up, we hang all our wet stuff outside for drying. I took some alcohol from the innkeeper to wipe on my hands. Lighted a candle in the room and hid myself inside the blanket to get warmth. Really cold. Really demoralized. We started to discuss whether to go head to Base Camp tomorrow. Looked like we have to cancel our plan. We are so unprepared for this gruesome trekking. We underestimated so many things. Finally we decided to see the weather tomorrow. If it is still raining, we will go back to Xidang and spend another night at Feilaisi.
It has started to get warm and cosy once we are in the room. We continued to play the game that we have been playing in hotel room – anyone can ask anyone a question and the person can only tell the truth and no lies. Heehee so fun. I found out so much more about Yinhuan and Chuen Yee.
Another sleepless night for Yinhuan but I must say I slept very well. The creaking of the floor above is noisy and annoying but I did catch a good sleep. Woke up and realized that it has drizzled all night long. Spoke to one guy from the floor above. He called himself green pepper (青椒). I asked him about his experience at the Shenpu yesterday cos their reached the inn earlier than us – they took donkeys and they have a guide (yah, that guy). He told us they reached Shenpu at 6pm and have to rush back to the inn before dark as the guide told them that it is no fun getting lost in the dark. He literally run them bak to the inn in the drizzle.
I told him I probably will be going back Xidang today and how about them. He said they will go to the Base Camp today if their clothes dry cos they were all drenched when they reached the inn at 9pm last night. He told me there is handphone signal if I climb up to the silo above the roof. I was thinking, forget it, climb the ladder to go to the top is too dangerous for making a call. The innkeeper told me he got a phone in his room and I can use it if I want, think he sensed my desperateness to get out of this place. I tried using it to call the driver but cant get through. We ordered egg noodles at the same time and WOW, I must say the noodle is good cos of the sausages supplies we bought. Otherwise the noodle is another plain thing that throw all ur appetitie away. With the sausage, I managed to finish half a bowl of noodle, not bad heh.
We bid farewell to 青椒 and wish him all the best for this trip today. We set off and again without taking donkey. I managed to find some signals near the mini hydro-generator and sent out an sms to driver that we were cutting short our stay at Yubeng and heading to Xidang now. Chuen Yee is the fittest among us. He is always ahead. This time round, not much traffic of donkeys. No drizzle either. We reached the mountain pass in a very good timing of 12pm. Even managed to catch a glimpse of Feilaisi from the pass, which we didnt know it was Feilaisi till I clarified with the driver after that.
Got a reply from driver that he will be waiting for us at Xidang. Then we sprint down the downward phase and managed to reach Xidang at 3 plus. If not because we were too yaya and trying to take a short cut which lead to a wrong road, we would have reached Xidang even earlier.
lil pig eating donkey shit
Nobody spoke a wordin the van. We just stoned. Getting down the van to take photo prove to be so difficult. Whole body aching. We reached Feilaisi finally. Went back to the same room. Put down our luggage. Lied on bed. Had Dined in the hotel. Didn’t even go out to take picture when the other table of Hongkie shouted that Meili show its face. Which it did, I later learnt from the people. Too tired ba.
Tv signals are back, yeh!
