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Xinduqiau (Ta Gong)Sep 27, 2005
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The driver hits the deck to try and get the old heap...
Up on the pass of about 4800m
Had all sorts of hassle trying to get on the right bus for our next dtop kept asking different drivers and they just wave and shake their head, the Han can be right helpful people when they want to be, not.
Eventually got on the bus that we asked the driver three times whether it was our bus or not, it was empty bar a few crazy looking monks chantting mantras for half the way. We must of been going for about 30 mins and boom the bus came to an unglorious halt, lucky for us our driver must of been a mechanic in a former life because he was pulling out the stops to get the beast rolling again, he had the engine open doing all sorts to it. We got going but something told me that was not going to be the last breakdown of the day, but this was probably the best journey of the lot as we climbed up to several passes of well over 4500 metres and then travelled along the top of the mountains for about 2 hours it was awesome some great views of the eastern Himalalya, but so damn cold up there.
As we started to climb to the last pass the old girl gave way again, this time the driver/mechanic had all sorts of tools out and atrated attaching all these random tubes to stuff, I was sure it was game over and one passenger bailed on us and grabbed a bus as it went pass. Credit to the boy after 40 mins the old girl was alive and kicking again and got us over the mountain, just to breakdown again on the otherside. On the way down I think the driver was bricking it about the brakes as we were going real dlow and he kept pumping the breaks, not something that fills you with confidence when your cruising round blind bends with no barriers. But we survived and got to Xinduqiau about 3 hours late, and he had the cheek to not even drop us in town.
We met this Chinese bloke form Beijing called Robin of all names who spoke good English he was trying to see the Tagong grasslands the same as us but he thought it was too late to go today so we stopped at the same chinese hotel as him and arranged a minibus to the grasslands tomorrow. That night walked into town grabbed some grub and then retreated to the relative warmth of the hotel and the leccy blankets.
