Kangding

Travelling independently in Sichuan proves to be challenging every day, with the lack of English speakers and up to date travel information in English, the crowds, the public transport system, …. But today, our travels began to take a down turn!

Today we were travelling from Chengdu to Kangding, on our way to Tibetan China, and what was expected to be the highlight of our holidays. It was supposed to be an easy 7 hour bus ride. We were told the day before to buy a ticket, but not surprisingly to me, when we tried to do so we were waved away and told to come back tomorrow. That night the reception staff at the hostel were very surprised so they booked a ticket for us (for an extra fee) for the morning. Anyway, this morning we went to the bus station, queued up for our reserved tickets, only to get to the front of the line to be told we couldn’t go on the 8 o’clock bus but the 9 o’clock bus instead, then waved away without any tickets at all! By this time I was getting really frustrated so we walked back to the hostel and complained about the tickets. Of course they couldn’t understand what the problem was (this only happens to foreigners!) but eventually escorted us back to the station and got our tickets without any problem, and on the 8 o’clock bus! I could have strangled someone!!!

As soon as we stepped onto the bus for Kangding, we noticed an immediate change in friendliness, with people saying hello and helping us to find our seats (Thyson down the back and myself up the front), the friendliest we had experienced so far! It was going to be a great bus trip!

The 7 hours turned into about 12 hours! The roads were in terrible condition and traversed through mountain ranges, with ascents and descents and hairpin turns the whole way. The traffic was jammed up and everybody in a hurry. Vehicles overtook whenever they could, even coming up to the hairpin turns where it was impossible to see what was coming around the corner (usually massive trucks!), blaring the horns so other vehicles get out of the way! Meanwhile the scenery was gorgeous, looking out the windows down into the gorges below with their raging rivers, reminding me of that show about the world’s scariest roads!

Anyway, about 2 hours into the trip, a truck behind our bus rammed into us (in the back corner where Thyson was sitting!), putting us on the side of the road for the next 2 hours! When we finally got back on the road, we broke down another 2 times, each time leaving us on the side of the road for over an hour!

When we finally arrived in Kangding, it was dark and pouring with rain. We tried to get a taxi to take us the our hostel, but even with a local’s help, no taxis would pick us up (the driver would have to get out in the rain to put our backpacks in the boot!) so the local who was helping us borrowed some umbrellas and walked us all the way to the hostel! How nice! Of course we were saturated by the time we arrived, and we also hadn’t realized how high in altitude we had come and the cold evenings associated. Luckily our room had a heater and electric blankets!

We spent the next day looking around Kangding, a small city of about 80,000 people. We ate at a local Tibetan café – tsampa and potato dumplings – and bought a warm coat each, ready to head to Tagong.