Finally the weather is with us! We woke up to a nice and sunny morning today. Shir had a bit of a fever last night but it wore off during the day. The kids were overjoyed to spill out of the RV right after breakfast and run around the gravel around the motorhome. Not that they don’t like their current home. In fact, both Shir and Orr can now say RV! We crossed the border into
It was snowing a bit at night but by morning only 2 or 3 inches accumulated on grassy patches, and the road was clear. It was very cold outside, probably -5 Celsius. Outside the RV the cold and wind were bone chilling, but inside it was nice and cozy, except right next to the windows.
The kids woke us up at 6am after several episodes during the night. Ron puked twice for some unknown reason. (more…)
Silver Sky RV Park,
Today was a long day on the road. That road is called Route 50. It starts in
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We woke up to a cold rainy day. I went to the campground office to check road conditions and although it was snowing in the
Today is an all Tibetian day. The city of Shangrila (Zhiongiang) sits at the elevation of 3450 meters.
the highest point of today’s escapades was 3700 meters. Around us we can see the mountain tips of the eastern part of Himalaya with snowcaps on top. We went to see the highest lake in the Yunnan Region, elevation 3600 m. (remember lake Tahoe?), the lake Bita (Alon in hebrew) named so because of the trees surrounding it. At this hight in Europe or the States the mountains are bare, but here everything is green and many forests. Again we had to walk on a kind of boardwalk about 3 km, and at that altitude it is quite an achievemnt. Rachel did quite well. We saw a lot of chinese people there – remember they have a week off in honour of the May 1st labour day. Many of them walking with oxygen masks. The air was thin, but pure and with perfect visibility. Since our arrival to Beijing and up to Xian the visibility was quite poor.
Our local guide is a Tibetian women of 24, Dorma is her Chinglish name. Her real name is quite complicated. When they enter studies of tourism and the English language, they get an english name. She is single, living in Shangri La in a rented room withouth toilets and bath. She is taking a shower once a week in a public place. When some of us invited her to take a shower in the hotel, she refused explaining that this is customary here. Her parents are farmers living 600 km away, deep in Tibet. She is one of 5 children. She is nice and speaks not so fluent Chinglish (Chinese English).
Later we visited a Tibetian Temple, a replica of the big one in Lhassa. quite impressive, colorfull with Tibetian buddhas everywhere. Situated on a top of a hill, it has a very impressive view, but the approach quite difficult. Again Rachel did not disappoint and saw all the buddhas, as most of the group (but not all).
Everywhere one can feel the preparations for the Olympic year. The road to the temple is being reconstructed, The entrance to the lake reserve is being built from scratch, a lot of chinese working everywhere to get ready on time.
The evening we spent dancing in the main square along with a million or so chinese and in a tea house sipping some butter tea with cookies (chinese of course).
Tomorrow early we fly to Kunming, the Capital of Yunnan, elevation 2000.
Goodnight
Abraham