Getting from Litang to Garzi (also known as Ganze) took a long while. We woke up to a fresh layer of snow on the hills, it’s April but Litang sits at 4000m elevation so winter lasts longer up here. We made our way to the shared van area which can be a little intimidating on first impressions with 10-15 men surrounding us and asking where we were going but everyone is honest and just wants to help, so we were directed to the driver of the van heading for Garzi and we grabbed a couple of seats. We arrived at 8:30 but the van didn’t fill up until 11am! We then drove to the bus station where we had to buy the tickets and show our passports and just as we thought we were on our way the driver received a call and pulled a u-turn to pick up someone else. There were more delays when just an hour into journey we got held up by roadworks. I was desperate for a wee and the men all just got out and peed by the road, we were up at around 4500m with wild winds but I managed to find a little dip to get some cover. It was all Tibetans in the van with us, the one in the front had a lovely cowboy style hat on and spent the entire 7 hour journey spinning a hand-held prayer wheel while the chap to our right was quietly mumbling a mantra and clicking a prayer counter on his finger, an alternative to using prayer beads.

Just as we arrived in Garzi we had to pull over for a police check, they seemed very interested in us and wanted to see our passports. One policeman was rather grumpy and saying something to the driver and it didn’t feel like a positive conversation. A couple more cops came over who seemed more pleasant and they were all discussing our passports and talking amongst themselves. I really got the impression that they were considering not allowing us into the area, these Tibetan regions can be totally closed off to tourists but as far as we knew it was all currently open. They tried asking us a few things but it was in Chinese so all we could respond was “ting-boo-dong” which means I don’t understand. We managed to explain we had a hotel in Garzi and that seemed to satisfy them and we were allowed to enter. Phew.

Garzi was quite similar to Litang but instead of rolling hills surrounding the town it had dramatic snow-capped mountains over 5000m tall. We had a 2km walk to our hotel which led us along a street filled with clothing for monks and nuns. Everything was maroon except for the accessories like bags, hats and socks which were mustard yellow. Much to our surprise the hotel we booked ended up being the best one so far. It was like an actual proper hotel with a fancy revolving door and a marble floored reception area with three staff members standing to attention. For £14 we had a huge room with two single beds which were basically the size of small double beds, underfloor heating and a floor to ceiling window with views of the snowy peaks. I didn’t want to leave!

We popped out to get some dinner and ended up in a noodle soup joint. A mum and child sat at the table next to us and the boy who was about 6 was all shy about saying hello to us. The mum actually spoke some English and said “you’re the first western people my son has ever seen” which amazed us. I mean, to be fair we hardly see any tourists in China full stop, let alone in this region. As the sun went down music began playing in the town square and a dancing circle formed. I really love China’s dance circles and the catchy music they play. It’s so fun watching the different aged people all dancing to the same music. There were beautifully dressed Tibetan ladies with their long skirts and healed shoes, old men with such long sleeves that the empty fabric could be swayed around like one of those blow up men outside a car dealership and then there were the young guys, in leather jackets and all dancing in prefect sync. We’ve always been baffled at how everyone knows the dance to each song but it made a bit more sense in this town because they actually had two squares next to each other and it was pretty clear that there was a professional dance circle and an amateur one.

The following day we decided to go for a hike up towards the mountains. It’s not a popular area to hike so we couldn’t find any information on routes and had to rely on looking for tracks on google earth. We even went to a tourist information centre recently and they didn’t speak a word of English. So we hopped in a taxi and headed out of town towards a nunnery, from there relentless zig zags led us up a hill, climbing about 1000m. I found the walk absolutely exhausting. It was a strangely hazy day so maybe I’d of been more chirpy if the views were clearer. We eventually reached a gompa towards the top of a hill where we stood in front of the snowy mountains. We were actually wondering if this area might be a Sky Burial sight which is a traditional Tibetan funeral where they bring the body up to a hill for vultures to devour. It’s actually a monks job to dismember the body and grind up the bones, mixing it with barley flour to make it more digestible for the vultures. I think it’s a fabulous idea, giving back to nature and the land. It also doesn’t impact the planet like burials or cremation which would both be a struggle on the Tibetan plateau due to too many rocks in the ground to bury and not enough trees for burning. Every time we see vultures flying above us in this Tibetan region we wonder if a sky burial is taking place. We didn’t end up spotting any signs of previous funerals on this hill though so I guess it’s not an area used for that. In some blogs I read people had come across some partially eaten limbs!

The walk down took forever and we spotted a cop car at the nunnery so we opted to take a different route to avoid any additional checks. We ended up walking past dozens of yaks who we unintentionally herded down the hill. We were hoping to get a taxi back to town but it didn’t work out so we walked the whole way which was a slog and along the main road a police car saw us and made an abrupt stop. They called us over and asked to see our passports. We have no idea what they were checking for but we went with the smile and be jolly approach. I think the language barrier worked in our favour as they asked some questions and we just kept replying that we only spoke English and didn’t understand so they went back to the car, made a phone call and then said we could leave. We’d recently spoken to a Spanish guy travelling this region who told us police followed him and took photos until he confronted them and said they were making him feel unsafe but then the next day they were parked outside his hotel. It’s all very strange indeed.

That evening we picked a Tibetan restaurant to eat at. I got potato filled dumplings and Craig opted for meat ones. It was all very tasty and the owner was so sweet, translating cute notes like “the food is cooking now, please wait” which meant they were delicious and fresh. Then she translated “are you staying in town tonight? If so you should come back tomorrow morning, I will treat you to a traditional Tibetan breakfast”. It was such a sweet offer and we were interested to try Tibetan food so the following morning we turned up and she looked so happy to see us again.

Her name was Ram and she first brought out yak butter tea for us to try. We’ve actually had it before but this one was much more palatable. Previously it was a bit like a salty stock water but this tasted like milk mixed with some salty butter. Then she delivered a bowl of brown powder and some plastic gloves, explaining that I needed to mix it with my hands but to be careful because it’s very hot. I now know that this meal is called Tsampa (which is ground-up roasted barley flour) but at the time we had absolutely no idea what it was. So I stuck my gloved-hand into the bowl and began mixing. Beneath the powder was boiling hot water and some blobs of yak butter. I wasn’t sure how much to combine it but I soon got the hang of things and mixed up the whole batch which made a sort of crumble paste that could be squeezed into balls, a little like an apple crumble topping. She said to make little balls and dip it into the yak yogurt and it turned out to be so tasty and moorish. There was a touch of sugar added to the Tsampa and a sprinkle on the yogurt too so I really liked it. Then she brought Craig a bowl of yak meat soup, she knew I was a vegetarian so she gave me a plate of garlic greens. They were so simple yet so delicious with some chilli added and then she also made a traditional Tibetan sort of circular bread which translated to pancakes but was definitely more bread-like. She recommended we also dip that into the yogurt and it was so tasty. What a wonderful experience to be able to try traditional Tibetan food. We went up to pay at the end and she refused to accept any money!!!! Not only that but she even translated “you’ll be hungry later after exploring the town so come back for dinner on me, don’t be embarrassed”. My goodness her kindness was unbelievable.

We weren’t sure whether to come back for dinner because we feared she’d not accept any money again but we decided to go back because A) her food was delicious and such a nice change from our usual noodle soup and fried rice B) we weren’t going to let her say no to the money. So off went, ordering steamed buns, fried potato’s and garlic greens. We’d ordered plenty but she insisted on giving Craig some yak meat and a big plate of Tibetan bread stuffed with potato. We were so full and could barely move at the end. As planned we palmed her some money to cover for dinner AND breakfast but to our horror she wouldn’t accept it!! Shoving it in our pockets!! We tried so many times but she just wouldn’t accept it, I tried translating how we really wanted to pay but she wasn’t having it, so then we actually regretted coming back for dinner because that wasn’t the plan at all and now we felt very embarrassed that she wouldn’t take any money. She was the kindest lady. I did send her a postcard and a little embroidery I made a couple weeks later as a tiny thank you but it’s nothing compared to her generosity and kindness.

The next day we explored the Tibetan area of town, the houses were very different to the other towns we’d visited as they had wooden facades and colourful window frames. The houses climbed up a hill towards a monastery with lots of housing areas for the monks. We stepped inside one of the halls and a monk walked us around the room. He didn’t speak English but seemed to like us reading out the English translation written beneath each Buddha statue. He would then do a bow impression with his palms together to tell us to pray at each statue and then he attempted some very elaborate charades to explain the different Buddhas and we had no idea what he was trying to say but it was very entertaining. A little girl appeared at the end and he got an old bottle of water that had been refilled with a brown liquid with black specks in it. The cap had a hole pierced into it so he could squeeze some of the liquid into the girls hand which she slurped up and then slapped her wet palm on her forehead. Then he looked at us – that was clearly the demonstration and now it was our turn. I had no idea what was in the bottle and if it was tap water and I really didn’t want to get sick so I just did a really awkward little slurp and slapped the rest on my head with a big grin on my face.

There were lots of vultures flying around so we stopped to photograph them above the peaks. Two Tibetan ladies stopped us on the road and asked for a photo and the same happened when we walked through town, some monks called us over for a photo. It’s funny how the tables have turned, normally it’s us asking locals for photos. We wondered through town afterwards where the locals were all shopping in the market. Some kids looked absolutely shocked to see us, staring non-stop like they’d seen a ghost while the elders greeted us with big smiles “Tashi Delek!” and the palm of their hands sort of raised to the sky.

The following day we had a plan to go to Manigango where there’s a glacial fed lake. We were in a shared car and the driver headed to a parking area where we waited for more passengers. But we waited and waited to no avail. We thought we had one other passenger but he turned out to just be another taxi driver so then it was just us and the driver started translating on his phone if we wanted to take the car privately. It was a painful process translating because we couldn’t translate into Tibetan so it was an extra step involved every time each of us translated, we’d translate to Chinese and he’d translate that on his phone to Tibetan. He said that he didn’t think other people would be travelling to Manigango today because they’re all picking caterpillar fungus in the hill. It’s used in Chinese medicine and picking them has become a lucrative business on the Tibetan plateau as it’s worth three times the weight of gold. We decided to persist and see if anyone else showed up. The toilet in the car park was used by all the drivers and when Craig went in to the doorless troughs there was just a row of men shitting while scrolling on their phones. It’s hard to get used to the toilet style here, it’s bad enough hearing someone fart in a closed door environment let alone squatting in front of a stranger while you have explosive diarrhoea.

After an hour and a half of waiting we began to lose all hope. He offered us a price of about £55 to drive us to the lake and back in one day but it was just too expensive and about 5-6 hours driving. Also if we were going to pay that much we’d of started the day at 7am so we could maximise our time there, it was almost 10am now so it was pointless. So we gave up and headed back to the main van area to ask when the next one was going to Tagong which was our next destination. We were told it was in an hour so we had some lunch and then a man walked us across the town to the parking area where we’d already been waiting all morning. Much to our surprise the van was already half full!!! And then it left just 10 minutes later, hooray. So clearly some routes are more popular than others. We picked up two nuns on the way who sat behind us and played loud videos on their phones, I always find that interesting because they live this life of meditation etc but times are clearly changing and we’ve seen some sitting in the monastery courtyard flying a drone around.