On 22nd July an early start was called for – 5:45 am to catch the bus south to Xiahe. Diana and I managed to grab some bread for breakfast just in time to climb aboard a very uncomfortable bus. It was made worse by the fact that our seat was right above the wheel arch, which meant we had no foot space. The trip was made more bearable because there were 2 Australians in the seat in front to chat to – Tom and Rachael, who it turned out had just met and weren’t travelling together.

The scenery also improved the mood – after a fuel stop the bus started climbing up into the hills of Gansu Province. A lunch stop at the town of Linxia enabled some much needed leg-stretching. Rachael speaks some Chinese and was able to help us make sure lunch didn’t consist of any rodents or pets.

Finally after several more hours on rough roads through the green hills, we reached Xiahe. Diana, Rachael and I went up to the Darxia hotel that Alison had suggested – she hadn’t exactly “recommended” it, but had said it was where most backpackers went. The staff were not at all polite, and attempted to overcharge us, but we managed to get some beds in a small dormitory with a couple of other backpackers.

After a rest, we went off to the recommended (and essential) “English Menu” café, which actually served reasonable chips, along with the normal Chinese dishes.

On 23rd July, I had a lie in and then went with Diana and Rachael to have brunch, and then check out the town. A Taiwanese lady joined us for the stroll down towards the other end of town where the Labrang Monastery was visible on the northern side of the valley.

The people on the streets were a fascinating mix – most didn’t look Chinese, and there seemed to be no standard way of dressing. Rachael tried taking a candid photo of one group but had a problem with her camera and her subjects went to see what was wrong. I took advantage of the situation…

A tour of the Labrang monastery was offered to us for 3 times the normal price for locals, and the Taiwanese lady decided to pay, but the rest of us turned it down on principal.

We had a look at the interesting “prayer wheels” that were alongside the monastery. Several elderly people were wandering down the line rotation these drums that contained written prayers. These are apparently an automated labour-saving device – rotating the drum is as good as praying and can be done in a fraction of the time and with much less effort…

Monks were everywhere, all in the typical burgundy robes of Tibetan Buddhism.

We wandered around the streets, me taking candid photos of interesting looking people, often while Rachael or Diana distracted their attention.

I couldn’t help thinking that some of the people looked and dressed rather similarly to the Bolivians living in the high Altiplano…

There was evidence of extreme poverty in many parts of the town, despite the supposed communist system “providing to all according to their needs”.

But regardless of economic issues, little boys will always find something to laugh about!

We had heard that we could take a “2 hour” minibus trip to visit a nomadic camp well outside the town. Rachael’s ability with Chinese had helped to figure this out. Curiously the 2 hours became 20 minutes after a price had been discussed, and so we decided to go. In the end it didn’t even take 15 minutes to reach the camp.

It wasn’t clear how long the camp had been there – the nomads had their livestock with them, so presumably would move once the livestock had consumed the grass!

There wasn’t much to really see so I decided to split from the “tour” (such as it was) and walk back over the hills between the camp location and Xiahe. It was 10 km and was a beautiful hike over ideal trekking country. Back at the English Menu restaurant I got talking to some East Germans who said that they to had been up in the hills today, and were over 1000 m above valley level.