Chengdu to Songpan, CHINA - 15 may 2002
I decided against going to Chongqing, which was on my original plan, to take the Three Gorges Cruise as I did not fancy being cooped up in a tin can for a few days with smokers and spitters.
Instead, I headed north to Songpan for a horse-trek so that I could be in the wilderness for a few days with smokers and spitters.
Songpan turn out to be located at an altitude of 3000+m. Ooops. I had not planned on going to such high altitudes yet so I was not prepared for it, clothes-wise.
Songpan used to be a walled city and still has some remaining walls, gates and bridges around town. It is a very charming little town, I thought. There is just one main road with tiny streets branching to the left and right. Most of the buildings are rather old. At night, the road is lit, if at all, by strings of bulbs.
My hostel window opened up to the North Gate. What a lovely view. But there were no hot showers in this hostel. So, one had to use the public showers which were permanently heated by hot stoves. Hot stoves were more reliable than electricity here in this town. Indeed, the shower was hot but the shower curtains putrid. I believe new mould was growing on top of old mould.
Songpan, CHINA - 16 may 2002
There were eight of us on the horse trek: Nathalia, Fanny, Nadege (from France, also on RTWs), Robin and Louise (from England), Yuval and Tal (from Israel) and myself. This meant there were eight horse-guides, one for each of us. We were on a 4-day trek to the Ice Mountain.
Along the way out to the countryside, the horse-guides were singing and yodelling ‘mountain songs’ and sometimes, Chinese pop songs. We climbed slowly up the hills for about 5 hours. We were surrounded by pristine alpine scenery. There were pine trees, rushing streams, Tibetan prayer structures and villages and a wonderful sunny day… it was brilliant.
At the first campsite, the horse-guides dismounted everything, prepared lunch and set up the tents. We did not need to do anything at all. We simply wandered around the area, took naps, waited to be fed and got fed.
That night, we had a huge campfire. And like all campfires, one, regardless of country or creed, training or talent (in my case, lack of), had to sing. I had been suffering from a cough for a while now. I coughed and coughed and coughed whenever my name was called upon and managed to save them the ordeal of hearing me sing. The horse-guides had been drinking whiskey like water the whole day and were quite merrily drunk by night-fall. Thankfully, they took over most of the singing. This was especially true of our ruddy-cheeked leader, Tong. He had the typical sun-burnt and wind-swept face that one saw quite commonly around these areas. He just sang song after song.
It was freezing cold. It must had been close to 5°C. My horse-guide (hereafter named as ‘Old Geezer’) helped me into a Tibetan yak coat. The middle portion of the coat was gathered around the waist and then a sash was tied just below the waist. I felt like a pregnant whale.
Songpan, CHINA - 17 may 2002
The second day was a shorter ride but up much steeper terrain. At a muddy portion around a hill, my horse tripped and threw me off! I was glad my boots were not caught in the stirrups and I managed to get on my feet in a second, albeit with muddier pants now. I had fallen on the side of the hill. If I had fallen off the other side, I would have plunged down into the abyss below!
A few horse-guides jumped down to try and save me and, noting that I was still alive, struggled to get the horse upright which, by now, had started panicking and squirming around in the mud on the narrow ledge.
We were camped near a Tibetan village. I wandered around and chatted with some of the locals sunning themselves in the hills. The kids all had snot half-flowing out of their noses. They requested photos which I would have to try and send to them after I got them developed.
We played cards among ourselves and with one of the guides - Nigatow. He looked 9 or 10 but must have been made to tell us tourists he was 15 so that we would not be too disgusted. He was always ordered around to do stupid errands by the other horse-guides. He seemed to be constantly blamed or whacked for certain things done wrong (even if he put down the wrong card in our card games!). Poor dear.
It was colder tonight. Then, it rained. And the tent leaked…
Songpan, CHINA - 18 may 2002
A very drunk Tong had broken his tooth trying to open a beer bottle with his teeth last night. Today, he was still bleeding. For painkiller, Fanny gave him morphine (!!) and I was to translate to him that he should not drink alcohol if he took this medication. Asking him not to drink alcohol must be like asking him not to breathe. Surprisingly, he promised me.
I was changed to a different horse which appeared more steady and less likely to throw me off on the ride today which was up steeper hills, round and round mountain tracks and finally, up a switch-back of track on loose slate rocks.
At the valley to view the Ice Mountain, we dismounted and the horses were gathered to be brought down by the guides. We lingered around to view the Ice Mountain. A pity the mountain was blocked by heavy clouds today. After a short rest admiring the freezing surrounding, we trekked down back to the campsite.
Yuval was wearing the thick yak coat when, at one point while trying to cross the stream across a fallen log, fell in. The current took him for quite a distance! When we came upon the stream, he had just dragged himself and the heavy wet yak coat up, hahaa…
Back at the tents, we played poker for the rest of the evening. The winner would give the losers a forfeit to perform the next day. As the game continued, it was left between Tal and I. I had the majority of the pebbles for a long while now. But each time I raised every pebble that Tal had, he would win them back. So, the game just went on into the night. Finally, at 9pm, I had a good hand - 2 Queens and 2 Eights and I decided to put ‘all in’. And Tal followed! In the end, he won with Full House! And this was his fourth Full House in the past four hours. Such luck he had, argh! So, Tal won.
At the campfire, two horse-guides were drying their boots, socks and clothes. Oh, they had gone and done the Yuval-thing and had fallen into the ice-cold stream too! We laughed at them hysterically.
The horse-guides now blamed me for disallowing Tong to drink. According to them, a sober Tong had made life miserable for them today. Whiskey-less Tong did not even sing one song tonight. We took over and taught them a lot of silly English, French, Hebrew and even Malay (the only one I know) songs. Naturally, to orchestrate them, I was the one who had to provide translation for both sides to the best of my ability.
Songpan, CHINA - 19 may 2002
I continued to express concern for Tong’s bleeding gum. The horse-guides mocked my concern, saying that if Tong died, they would just chop him up and eat him… no problem.
Two horses were missing this morning. A couple of horse-guides rode up the mountains to look for them and it took a good two hours or so before the horses were located.
Tal finally thought of his forfeit for us poker losers. We were to kiss our horse-guide on the lips. Huh?? My horse-guide was Old Geezer with bad teeth and bad breath! “Tal, I can’t do this forfeit. I’m Asian. I’m conservative.” I stated.
We returned to Songpan by a different route today and passed by even more Tibetan villages. Nearing a particular village, our horses seemed to know that this was a rest-stop and raced one another to get there. It was really fun! We stopped for lunch and wandered around the interesting village for a while.
We finally reached Songpan by late evening. I felt like the Lone Ranger riding into town. Yee-ha! Yuval’s horse freaked out when it neared a truck and threw him off! Meanwhile, my horse would not cross a bridge and had to be dragged by Old Geezer forcefully. I wonder why they reacted like this.
This had been a wonderful horse-trek and I would recommend it to anyone coming to Songpan. We used Shun Jiang Horse Trekking Company.
Songpan to Zöige, CHINA - 20 may 2002
I left the next morning to Zöige in a muddy, rattling bus. The only other tourist on this bus was Jane from Ireland. The passengers were mostly Tibetan men and many were dressed in their typical thick yak coats. They had wild hair and very dark complexions. Many also had reddish sun-burnt and wind-swept cheeks. Tied to their sashes were gold, elaborately-decorated daggers.
After 3 hours of bumpy, jiggly, bouncy ride uphill, we reached a plateau and a few Tibetan men threw tiny square-shaped multi-coloured Wind Horse papers into the air and chanted. I guess that must had been an important place because the whole area was strewn with such papers.
Then, it was 4 more hours of even wilder, bumpier, jigglier, bouncier ride across the barren plateau. I am not joking about the ride. Many times, I was flying in the air. And sitting next to a bale of barbed wire, I was very nervous about falling off my seat. Jane actually hit her head on the roof of the bus and slammed her chin against the seat in front of her when she crashed down!
The plateau was eerily cold and empty. A few yurt settlements lay in the distance. Why they were here, I had NO idea.
The grounds by the side were soft peat so the only possible road was this awful muddy track. Soon, the mountains by the side had snow on them. Then, the ground on either side had spots of snow. Yaks became more and more common. Finally, the whole area was covered in snow. I started to get nervous. I had no idea what I was getting myself into as I was not mentally prepared for this part of the trip.
Finally, in the distance, out of nowhere, we spotted a settlement. It looked like a gulag in Siberia (if I may hazard a guess on how a gulag in Siberia might look like)… like a re-education camp in the middle of nowhere. Zöige was freezing cold, windy, muddy and utterly, utterly bleak and depressing. There were a few half-yaks-half-men, Tibetan monks and beggars wandering around in the biting wind. Sad-looking motor-trishaws drove around the near-empty streets, looking for fares. And as if things could not get any worse, it started to rain. The temperature dipped below 5°C.
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