April 17, 2004

One pass, two pass, three pass, four

Daocheng, Sichuan Province, China

We've discovered why there's a distinct lack of activity at the bus station. No buses can get over the four passes from Kangding to Litang, on the route to Daocheng.

With just about every distraction in this town exhausted though Bradley and I decide to strike out anyway, first taking a share taxi to the nearby junction of Sangdui, then hopefully hitching from there.

Things are looking pretty good at the start. Blue skies all round. Cheap fare to Sangdui. We stop in at a small cafe for some breakfast, downing a tasty plate of Chinese ravioli, before looking up to see a blizzard outside. Where did that come from? We step outside to investigate but are quickly convinced we are going nowhere for the time being. Resigned to our fate we go back in to the cafe and huddle around the fire with the locals, drinking cups of tea.

The snow continues bucketing down for a good hour or so then, just as quickly as it started, it stops again and we are once again confronted by horizon to horizon blue skies. Where did it go?

No time to ponder this question though as a four-wheel-drive dual cab Nissan pickup truck comes around the corner past the cafe. We wave it down and find that the driver is going to Litang, our next destination. Some quick negotiations and we're on our way. A little disappointed to not have visited the local monastery, complete with hermit monk up in the mountains, but you don't turn down a 4WD when it comes your way.

The drive to Litang is spectacular, traversing up and down small passes, running alongside a rich green valley, and with snow everywhere brightening the scene.

It turns out that the driver is going all the way to Kangding, potentially a two day trip depending on road conditions. Bradley is heading towards Tibet whilst I'm heading away so our paths separate at Litang, the most Tibetan-looking town I've seen yet.

I was pretty keen to go to Tibet but it's still a bit of an ordeal to get in as an independent (read: cheap) traveller. And once you are in there are quite a few restrictions on where you can travel. Tempted as I was I decided to leave Tibet for another day. Now I turn eastwards.

The road to the east, to Kangding, is a spectacular series of passes and valleys. I get a taste of things to come as we head out from Litang and begin to climb and climb and climb. We rise above the snow-line and I'm soon looking at a scene of snow-covered mountain peaks all around. We finally reach the top, 4718m, before dropping down and down and down in to the next valley.

The scene is repeated three more times. On the second peak we have to negotiate our way past an army convoy of 75 trucks. The third pass was pretty uneventful but on our approach to the fourth pass it was clear that our luck had run out. A huge traffic jam had formed just over the crest as big trucks struggled to put on chains and managed to run in to each and off the road in slow motion. With several vehicles totally incapacitated chaos reigned. Every attempt to clear a path for one direction of traffic was thwarted by some idiot in a small vehicle racing up to jump in to the new "space". I took advantage of the delay at least to get out and take a couple of photos in the last light of the day. In the end we were stuck there for two hours before finally extricating ourselves and heading off down the road.

My driver decided to make up for lost time and, oblivious to the terrible condition of the road, proceeding to race down the mountain and along the final valley at breakneck pace. Nevertheless we made it to Kangding by about 9:30pm and I found myself sharing a room with two Korean guys who I'd met in Xiengcheng. Turns out they were stuck on the same pass overnight the night before last.

As for myself, I had a nice hot shower. My first in a week.

Postscript: Much later I ran in to Mili again, about 2000km away, in Yangshou. Turns out she got in only a day or so before me because of all the snow. She was also stuck for 24 hours on one of the passes. She was particularly impressed by the generosity and charity of the local monks, who came down from their monastery to sell the hapless travellers 2 yuan packets of instant noodles for 10 yuan a pop.

Posted by David at April 17, 2004 11:35 PM