Tagong

Kangding was 2700 metres in altitude, and 5 hours later, we arrived in the small Tibetan town of Tagong, 3700 metres in altitude. Tagong is a tiny town up in the Tibetan grasslands. In the heart of the town was a beautiful (if not a little run down) monastery, surrounded by a few shops and restaurants. This is the place where we planned to do some lovely hikes and also a nomadic homestay, but before that could happen…

As soon as we arrived in Tagong, I immediately began feeling the effects of altitude sickness! The pounding headache, loss of breath, dizziness, nausea – Thyson was fine, just a little short of breath – so we spend a couple of days doing very little, trying to acclimatise to the altitude.

The one main activity that Thyson really wanted to do (I did too actually) was a homestay with a nomadic Tibetan family. Only days before, nomads had just moved their herds of yaks to their summer pastures high up on the grasslands, and it was an opportunity to experience their way of life and give Thyson a chance to herd and milk the yak. By day 4, I was feeling better so we decided to give it a go.

We were still quite out of breath so we didn’t think we would be able to hike in to the area we were going so we decided to ride in on horses, stay 2 nights then hike out back to Tagong. The horse ride in took 6 (painful) hours and the scenery was just beautiful as we followed a river, cut across hills and valleys. At one stage we were joined by a family moving their herd of yak (their possessions all tied onto the backs of the yak) to higher summer grounds. Anyone we came into contact with greeted us warmly along the way.

Unfortunately, halfway along the ride (we were passing 4000 metres in altitude) Thyson began feeling the effects of altitude sickness, and was quite unwell by the time we reached our destination – a large black tent, on a hill, surrounded by yaks, nothing else! We went inside the tent and greeted the very friendly family, and then Thyson lay down and slept for the next few hours. I had a cup of milk tea (yak’s milk), and a bowl of tsampa (ground barley mixed with yak butter and tea) before I too started feeling very unwell again due to the altitude.

That was the longest night in my life! Apart from feeling quite ill, the conditions up on the grasslands were very basic indeed. In the middle of the tent was a central fire where all the cooking was done. There was no covering on the ground. For a bed, shrubs were bundled up from the hills, laid out on the ground to act as a mattress, and covered with some blankets – it was so uncomfortable! In the evening, the yak calves were all brought inside to keep them safe from wolves (and away from their mother’s milk) and tethered along a rope no more than a metre from where we slept (they were so gorgeous! Until they all started peeing!) The level of hygiene was very poor with no washing of hands and the mother picking lice from the children’s hair. And as for a toilet, I was told before we left that one just goes behind a bush. Unfortunately, there were no bushes left on the hill! The family just waved their arms, indicating anywhere is OK! They don’t need bushes! That night was the scariest storm I think I’ve ever heard, with the thunder pounding over us and the rain coming in through the holes in the tent. We pulled a tarp over us which kept us mostly dry but it didn’t stop all night – we were cold, wet, uncomfortable, dirty and sick! What a long night!

The next morning Thy and I were still suffering from altitude sickness and we knew we couldn’t stay any longer but we also knew that we were too sick to walk out, so we arranged to be picked up by motorbikes and driven out (for a price!). It was cross country riding, some parts over grasslands, some along tracks – Thyson just loved the ride, it was quite exhilirating and as we descended in altitude, we started to feel much better. I was also enjoying the ride, until my driver took a bend too quickly and the tyres just slid out from under us and we hit the ground! Luckily my beanie took the brunt of the impact as my head hit the track, and my coat protected my body, but I stupidly put my hand out to break the fall. It was so painful that I thought I had broken it, I could barely move it without feeling the pain. But apart from my hand, we got up and walked (unsteadily) away without any more injuries. The rest of the bike ride back was not pleasant. I thought we were going to come off again every bend we took and was so relieved to get back to town! The hostel owners who spoke English took me off to the hospital to get x-rays, and luckily no bones were broken so they dosed me up with pain killers and sent me on my way!

The next day, we decided to head back to Kangding. As beautiful as Tagong was, and even though we were over most of the altitude sickness, we were not going to be able to do the hikes – I was in pain and couldn’t use my right hand at all. Thyson labeled me ‘Crips’ but didn’t complain when he had to do things like tie my shoes and carry my bags!

We were quite relieved to arrive back in Kangding and looked forward to a good nights sleep before the long bus ride back to Chengdu the next day. We went out for a quick tea but unfortunately chose the wrong place to eat! That night back in the hotel, I was as sick as a dog all night long! It took the next 2 days in the hotel room to recover my strength enough to get the bus to Chengdu! And it was that moment that we both decided that we had had enough of this trip! The next morning we flew back to Beijing and booked tickets home to Oz – should be a relaxing time catching up with family and friends for a couple of weeks!