Yading. the supposed Shangri-la

10/13/05   2-3 hr ride from Daocheng to Yading in a mini-van. The entrance was nothing too special; it gave no signs of what beauty hidden within.  On the hike to Chung-gu Temple, we saw lots of Money Stack.... not that money, of course, but they were pronounced "money." After settling down our packs at the cabin close by the temple, we headed out to Luorong Cattle Field.  We rode horses up to save some time and energy, since we were now at 4000m+ altitude, hiking became quite stranueous.  Along the way, there were beautiful snow-capped mountains, clear green water streams. The cattles were not cows though.  They were yaks; Kenny went up to a medium size yak in attempt to pet it.  The yak didn't like strangers too much, it was getting ready to charge kenny.  Kenny ain't dumb.  He backed away. On the way back to the cabin, we saw the moon next to one of the holy mountains there. Kenny went uphill to join some professional photographers for a few shots of sunset.  Kenny suffered from minor headache and couldn't sleep well due to high altitute.  Amy seemed ok though. Then we found out that atheletic poeple are more prone to the high altittude sickness.

10/14/05   An early hike to Pearl Lake.  It was all uphill, but the view could only be described as magical.  There were already a group of hardcore photographers waiting for hours for the clouds to clear away from the mountain peak.  That never happened.  I think the reflection of the mountain from the mirror-like lake surface did it for us.  The prayer flags added to the spirituality too.

We hired a minivan back to Daocheng. Then a short trip to the famous but disappointing red-grass field.  There were a few Tibetan families tricking people to take photos of their children and then ask for money.  When we tried to give them some candies, the kids actually turned down the offer. They wanted money. There was also a field of nice trees bearing their autumn colors right outside Daocheng.  We had to stop and take a few shots. Ok, this was our last trip with the fellow travlers. Near our motel, we found someone else who were heading to the same destination as we did. They were Andrea from Brazil and Virginie from France.  There was also a Mr. Ma from Shangdong province.  He found a driver and another one of those shotty minivan thingie.  We were to take off for Zhungdian tomorrow morning.