When I last left off, I had seen the beautiful eclipse in Kangding. Later that day, I spent some time walking around the city (see the Kangding Album), which has about 80,000 people and is nestled into the mountains between the city of Chengdu to the east and the Tibetan plateau to the west. Besides streets of shops, the surrounding mountains, and a raging river that runs through the center of town, Kangding doesn't have much of interest. Hence, I just took in the scenery as I made my way to buy a ticket to the city of Danba for the next day.
Later in the evening, after I had eaten dinner, I made my way back to the hostel where I was staying. As I walked up the hill toward the hostel gate, I passed the manager who was carrying a bottle of reddish brown liquid in a water bottle. He recognized me as a guest, and told me that when we arrived at the hostel we would have to "He yi bei (Have a glass)." I asked him what the liquid was, and he explained that it was moonshine that he had picked up from a friend. Awesome.
We arrived soon enough, and food and large Dixie Cups awaited us. The first cup was filled all the way to the brim (the liquid within probably being equivalent to 5 shots), and the boss attempted to pass it to me. Sensing imminent disaster - and very aware of the fact that I had to wake up at 5:30am the next morning to catch my bus - I immediately grabbed for a new cup and quickly filled it one-third full. With that gesture, I had saved my own liver and set the stage for an interesting night, since the full glass then defaulted to the boss.
What followed was a series of "Gan bei(s)" (the Chinese equivalent of "cheers"), and the inevitable sloppiness that ensued. What began as a discussion of the beauty of the area and the differences between the Chinese and English languages quickly gave way to discussion of the relative attractiveness of Chinese women and men in various parts of the country, as well as the compulsory drunken "I love you, mans!" Of course, the drop in quality was instigated and perpetuated by our fearless leader with the full Dixie Cup.
Thanks to my earlier decision to serve myself, I was spared the drunkenness, but I was not spared from the taste of the disgusting brew. For those who have drunk the Chinese rice liquor called Baijiu, imagine that diluted with vodka. For those who haven't had the privilege, imagine taking all of the 80+ proof white alcohol at a bar, mixing it together in equal amounts, and then adding a splash of spiced rum for color. That would probably be a decent approximation.
Hence, with a foul taste in my mouth, but feeling pretty content, I went to bed. My bus was due to depart at 7:00am the next morning, and just to be safe, I woke up at 5:30. The staff at my hostel assured me that I would be able to catch a cab to the train station. However, after descending to the road at 6:10 and waiting for more than 10 minutes - in the rain, of course - with no success, I began to feel uneasy. Therefore, I began to walk towards the bus station (which, in total, would be a 1 hour walk . . .eek). As I walked, I still saw no taxis, and I started to become very nervous. Trying my best to disregard the huge backpack that I had on, I began to trot, and then as I still saw no taxis, I began to run. Now I was a runner in high school, but we didn't run with 30 pounds of stuff on our backs, nor did we run at 2,600 meters in altitude, so this was tough. However, at 6:50pm (and about a ten minute run from the bus station), I finally found a cab. My clothes were soaked from the outside with rain and from the inside with sweat, but I would make my bus on time. Excellent.
Well, not really excellent. After frantically running through the bus station and not finding anything headed toward Danba, I asked around and found that my bus was cancelled. As it turns out, there was a landslide on the road between Kangding and Danba; no buses would be going there for several days. Welcome to China.
At least I got my money back.
After returning to the hostel, I found that other people were scheduled to ride on the same bus, and they were arranging a mini-bus to Danba (on a different road). However, by then my fickle mind had already set its sights on Tagong, a different city, so I decided to go there instead. I love traveling flexibly.
I was planning to write about Tagong today as well, but this post is already becoming long, and I am leaving for hot springs in about an hour, so Tagong will have to wait for another day. However, if you're absolutely itching to see the beauty of the Tibetan plateau (at least the part in Western Sichuan), you can check out the Tagong photo album right now.
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