I woke up at 8.10am and was surprised to find that I am not only still alive, but feeling rather fine. Met up with Pema and Mr Shi downstairs at 8.30am so we could all go for breakfast. We had dumplings and porridge (yes - the white teochew kind - ahhhhh...) then make our way to fax a copy of my visa to the Xining for processing before heading up the hill to the monastry grounds to catch an annual ritual performed by monks from the Jie Ku Shi monastry overlooking Jyekundo.
Mr Shi leaving after an unspecular breakfast. I thought is was great to have comfort food (white porridge) for a change.
The shop which charges RMB5 for a copy and another RMB5 for a fax.
The old and the new (niu)?
Street of Jyekundo
Playing hide and seek
At a cross road junction
A monk hand-paints the face of a building
Lama riding through dusty streets
We arrive at the monstrial grounds before 10am. But it didn't start on time.
And waited...
And by noon, a string of young monks enter the stage area. But nothing very much else happened.
Until about noon, did we see some monks arrive at the centre of the ground
And presented local government officials at a viewing tent with kataks (ceremonial scarves)
And then closer to 1pm, a drum arrives
And finally, the procession marches down from the monastry...
and into the ceremonial ground
But the wait was worthwhile
Monks playing a variety of wind instruments - from the shell...
To the horn...
To cymbols and drums...
Then the dance began
The ceremonial ground was suddenly alive with colours and sounds. But we couldn't stay till the end as we needed to be on our way. We were already delayed for 2 hours. And so, we headed back to the van to get on our way. Thanks to Mr Shi who had been nice enough to walk back to pick up the vehicle and drive it to the ceremonial ground - otherwise, we would have to walk for about 20minutes back to the Guesthouse in the cold.
We decided to have a quick lunch in town before we set off - and so we gobbled down a bowl of chilli-oily noodle soup with strips of beef. We departed Jyekundo at 2.30pm.
Throughout the ride, I drifted in and out of sleep and somewhere pass Rato along the Sharpu Karpur range, we had to get off and register ourselves. This was a checkpoint imposed by the local authorities to control movement into and out of the county which was famous for caterpillar fungus picking. And this was the season.
We had to go into a long house with many doors and blankets (which made perfect sense - it kept the place nice and warm, a stark contrast to the chilly surroundings). The man - who looked rather plump, and speaking with importance - asked to see my passport. Pema spoke to them, allegedly telling them I was the tourise. He smiled when he heard "Xing-ka-pu-ra" and then turned to me and spoke in mandarin.
"Ahh, your country has very tight laws and strict control"
Sigh. Our reputation for being a "fine" country travels far and wide - even to remote areas in the midst of mountain ranges. In any case, perfects our reputation for being a lawful state helped the process - for he must think of me as a law-abiding citizen? I didn't care to find out more, just happy to know that we were given the green light to proceed. The assistant sitting at the table furiously copying Mr Shis driver's license and details finally looked up at us and returned Mr Shi's documents with a slip of paper. That was our permit.
We returned to the vehicle and drove through two "checkpoints" - each with a red rope tied across the dirt track, which upon arrival, two man would untie so as allow vehicles to pass. That was about the most exciting things that happened en route through the Sharpu Karpa area.
I slept most of the way and when I awoke, I saw the beckoning sign to Dzato. Somehow, I managed to sleep through the bumpy ride of about 300km. We arrived at Dzato town at 6.30pm.
We stayed at Ji Da Bin Guan - a guesthouse adjoining a monastry and run by a middle-aged lady who lives in one of the rooms (next door to my room). I could feel the temperature change drastically - it must be about 6 degrees or so with a gusty wind blowing right through the dusty town.
We went to the restaurant just downstairs and had a sumptous dinner comprising of beef noodles (with chilli oil), mutton fried with chilli, beef stir-fried with chilli and salty tea.
After dinner, we couldn't go back to the room because the land-lady had gone out for dinner. So we sat in the vehicle to stay out of the cold. It began to drizzle. I kept my fingers crossed that AMS doesn't strike again, and that the weather would be much better, and that the next part of the journey would be smooth like it has been thus far.
This is after all the last stop before the source.
And I have much to pray for...
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