Saturday, October 01, 2005
TREKKING, DANTE THE GOAT & A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
It has been a while without electricity, let alone technology so here it goes.
Last Sunday, in the Lisu village of Dimaluo I went to a Protestant church service. The whole village attended, men on one side women on the other. They sang in Lisu and Mandarin. Using all my years of choirboy experience I was able to sing along. We then came across Dante the goat.
Dante was born in a little village in western Yunnan to a peasant family. As a kid he joined the Communist party and quickly rose through the ranks. One day it was discovered that Dante was running a factory and exploiting his workers. He was exiled from the party for being a capitalist and sent to live in the foothills of Tibet. For many months he battled the yaks and wild goats before sneaking back into Yunnan. We came across Dante and brought him up the mountain with us on our trek. On the second day we ate him. He shall ever be remembered as Dante the delicious imperialist goat. But back to the trek.
The trek took us from Dimaluo in the Nujiang (Salween) valley to Yongzhi by the Mekong. I am estimating the we hiked 40ish miles over the 4 days. This was the only was to get across the mountains without driving 400+km. We hired a guide to take us and also got some horses for our packs & food (otherwise I suspect it would have taken much longer) We hiked up to 9000' the first day and stayed by the side of a river. Day 2 we crossed the summit at 13,000' and then descended to an abandoned yak herders camp. We ate lots of delicious goat. Day 3 was a two hour hike then a rest for the day. We explored the wilderness and went off on our own for a few hours. Finally we arrived in Yongzhi, a tiny Tibetan village without electricity. The town was neat except most of us got sick from the food and there were no bathrooms. This morning we caught a ride to Daqing where we're spending the night.
Today is the 56th Anniversary of the founding of the PRC. People are given a 3 day holiday and Daqing - normally a small Tibetan town is filled with Chinese tourists. Today is Nationality Day and tonight the streets will be filled with drunk people partying and dancing in the streets. That's all for now.
It has been a while without electricity, let alone technology so here it goes.
Last Sunday, in the Lisu village of Dimaluo I went to a Protestant church service. The whole village attended, men on one side women on the other. They sang in Lisu and Mandarin. Using all my years of choirboy experience I was able to sing along. We then came across Dante the goat.
Dante was born in a little village in western Yunnan to a peasant family. As a kid he joined the Communist party and quickly rose through the ranks. One day it was discovered that Dante was running a factory and exploiting his workers. He was exiled from the party for being a capitalist and sent to live in the foothills of Tibet. For many months he battled the yaks and wild goats before sneaking back into Yunnan. We came across Dante and brought him up the mountain with us on our trek. On the second day we ate him. He shall ever be remembered as Dante the delicious imperialist goat. But back to the trek.
The trek took us from Dimaluo in the Nujiang (Salween) valley to Yongzhi by the Mekong. I am estimating the we hiked 40ish miles over the 4 days. This was the only was to get across the mountains without driving 400+km. We hired a guide to take us and also got some horses for our packs & food (otherwise I suspect it would have taken much longer) We hiked up to 9000' the first day and stayed by the side of a river. Day 2 we crossed the summit at 13,000' and then descended to an abandoned yak herders camp. We ate lots of delicious goat. Day 3 was a two hour hike then a rest for the day. We explored the wilderness and went off on our own for a few hours. Finally we arrived in Yongzhi, a tiny Tibetan village without electricity. The town was neat except most of us got sick from the food and there were no bathrooms. This morning we caught a ride to Daqing where we're spending the night.
Today is the 56th Anniversary of the founding of the PRC. People are given a 3 day holiday and Daqing - normally a small Tibetan town is filled with Chinese tourists. Today is Nationality Day and tonight the streets will be filled with drunk people partying and dancing in the streets. That's all for now.
