Following lunch, my luck changes and I spend three hours walking prior to getting a lift. Several tractors, bikes and trucks later, the sun is about to set and I’m still three hours drive from my destination. Not wanting to hitch in the dark, I walk to the nearest Tibetan village (Zhengdou).
Zhengdou village.
The reception I get is of morbid curiosity, all the people within sight approach me and say hello, I ask for a hotel or guesthouse using the universal gesture of hands to cheek and tilted head.One of the shopkeepers says something to one of the girls, who in turn tells me to follow her.
We enter a Tibetan house and she asks me to join the gentlemen sitting in the living room while she pours me a cup of Tibetan butter tea. After exchanging some words with one of the men, she explains to me that there are in fact no guest houses or hotels in the village and that after some discussion with her father, it’s ok for me to stay with them. She leaves me with her father and his companions to drink beers and it’s soon clear to me that they don’t want me there.
When dinner is ready, the men (including myself) eat at the table, while the women (the shopkeeper and her daughter who brought me here) sit and on the floor by the fire.
The following morning, the mother cooks me a Tibetan breakfast of Baba bread and butter milk tea. When I leave, the family refuses to accept any money for the food or accommodation.
Walking along the road I pick up a lift on another Tibetan motorcycle and finally get a lift on a local bus to Xiangcheng where I decide to spend the night.
I walk through Xiangcheng with my laptop asking locals if there is an internet cafe I can go to. Eventually I come across the office of three bludgers that let me use their computers, since all they do is play computer games all day (my kind of job).
After uploading my latest photos from their computers, we grab some dinner and walk to the local monastery, where we are chased by wild dogs. I decide to call it a night after that.
The following morning I board a bus bound for Litang as I’m too tired from the past few days to hitchhike.
The scenery from Xiangcheng to Litang is amazing and there are several spots along the way where I wish we’d stopped to take photos. I decide to continue hitchhiking from Litang.
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