Langmusi to Xiahe, CHINA - 24 may 2002
Moons ago, a Japanese tourist apparently died in a bus accident in the Gansu Province and the bus company was sued. As a result, all foreigners travelling in Gansu Province needed to purchase a travel insurance from bus companies.
Now, this is the part we could not understand. Purchasing this insurance did not mean that the tourist would be compensated in the event of an accident. It just meant that the bus company could NOT be sued in the event of an accident. Go figure… Or maybe I just grossly misunderstood this.
In some towns, if the tourists refused to buy the insurance, they would not be sold the bus-tickets. Sometimes, the insurance-less tourists were just charged a more expensive price for the bus-tickets.
Langmusi is on the border of Sichuan and Gansu Provinces so I had just entered this problematic province. And true enough, our bus-tickets from Langmusi to Xiahe were more than double the true price. What a rip-off!
Xiahe is a more modern town compared to Langmusi. The major claim to fame is Labrang Monastery which is one of the six great monasteries of the Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism and one of the two in China itself.
I noticed a few more differences in the Tibetan people here. They almost always wore only the left sleeve of the yak-coats. I had thought that they left the right sleeve hanging around the waist because they needed to reach for money to pay for bus-fares, were too hot to be wearing the right sleeve, sleeve was too long to carry their bags, etc… but, it seemed, it was the fashion to be wearing just the left sleeve.
The inner coats which used to be mostly sheep fur were now faux leopard, tiger, cheetah and zebra prints. Many shops lining the one road of Xiahe were selling these fanciful fur materials and other religious items for the pilgrims and monks. There were various shades and quality of maroon and fuchsia robes for the monks to choose from.
Many of the ladies were also wearing hats, only a few covered their hair with scarves. So, with the hats, the thick yak-coats around their waists, the small eyes, brown faces and ruddy cheeks, they look very much like their counterparts in Peru and Bolivia, who wear bowler hats and multi-layered skirts. The resemblance was uncanny!
Xiahe, CHINA - 25 may 2002
We found that the 15th of the Fourth Lunar Month would be tomorrow. So, Jane and I decided to visit the Labrang Monastery then when more pilgrims and monks would be there for the special day.
Today, we joined a tour to the grasslands around Xiahe. The surrounding area was rolling hills and green pastures with grazing sheep and yaks. It was very pretty. Walking up the hills at some points, we just wanted to break into our out-of-tune rendition of ‘The Hills are Alive… with the Sound of Music’.
Apparently, yesterday was a special festival for the Tibetans but because it had been snowing, they postponed the celebration to today.
We were lucky to encounter one such event in the grassland. There was a basketball match going on, huge tents were set up with food and drinks flowing. Curious children and friendly Tibetans welcomed us around. Main colour among the hat-wearing Tibetan women was hot pink, how about that?
Later, we went further up in the hills and I was rather mad to for our guide had not informed us that there was no food available anymore. We were starving. Near a village, our taxis were stuck in the wet mud (Zöige flashback). We wandered into the village and came upon another celebration. This time, the villagers actually invited us to partake of the food and drinks. Yes, they FED us tourists! OK, it was yak butter, some oat-stuff and tough buns, but it was food…
Through a young chap who could speak Mandarin, we asked if the villagers wanted some photos and we would send to them once developed. They were delighted and went about gathering their infants and children and placed them before our lenses.
Xiahe, CHINA - 26 may 2002
The Labrang Monastery was busy since early morning with pilgrims and monks streaming clock-wise around the monastery grounds and spinning the prayer-wheels.
Jane was not with me so I tried my best to assimilate myself among the pilgrims without arousing suspicion and made the rounds with them. I was elbowed out and out-paced by wrinkled grannies and skinny novice monks as they pushed and hurried past me along the prayer-wheels.
As I walked around the grounds, I was especially impressed with the devotion and passion of the prostrating pilgrims - they walked three steps, kneeled down and slid forward down to their faces to pray, got up and repeated the process all around the monastery perimeter.
Many had also changed money into one jiao (1/10 of one yuan) and set about giving one jiao each to the beggars lining along the route. Some beggars were indeed old and poor-looking. But others were well-scrubbed and wearing nice sweaters.
With all my planning to coincide my visit of the monastery with the 15th of the month, I still missed the chanting ceremony held there. What a shame. I heard that the monks wore elaborate robes and high yellow punk hats and the chantings were impressive.
That evening, I wandered around the Muslim Quarters of Xiahe which actually consisted of rows of mud-huts, housing families of all origins. I happened upon a few Tibetan boys of age 9 to 13 playing.
One of them quipped, “Wo Jai Xiang Ni. Ni You Xiang Wo Ma? [I have been thinking of you. Have you been thinking of me?]” What a charmer! I replied, “You, Wo Yi Zhi Dou Jai Xiang Ni. [Yes, I have always been thinking of you.]” That broke the ice and soon, they were clamouring around me, examining the lock on my bag, my camera, etc… They requested and got some photos and made me promise to send them the photos when done. They took me to the edge of the mud-huts and a few demonstrated some acrobatics on their bicycles. They requested that I visit them again tomorrow. I just might. It seemed I could only attract guys this age.
Xiahe, CHINA - 27 may 2002
Jane and I had wanted to rent bicycles to cycle out to the grasslands so that we could really sing ‘The Sound of Music’. We scrapped the idea when she woke up with a cold and a headache this morning.
I simply spent the day wandering around town slowly.
I bought some fruits and headed back to the Muslim Quarters by evening to meet my boyfriends. I wondered if I would be able to recognise them again. Well, I did not have to worry about that. One of them came running and smiling when he spotted me. I gave him the fruits and he went around yelling for his friends to come out. They went through more examinations of me and my bag and made more requests for photos. They were really friendly and mischievous children. I had a wonderful time with them.
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