China 2018: Chengdu 成都 - Sertar 色达县 - Xi'an 西安市

Arrived at the airport, a huge line of nepalis was already waiting that the check in counter opens. I planned already before to upgrade to business class since the Himalaya Airline webpage stated that it's only 200 $ more to be paid during check in. It was obviously that the staff at the counter didn't exactly know how to handle my request. Later when I was sent to a dark corner of the airport where the cashier was located, it turned out that I was the first one ever who did ask for an upgrade on this flight. I saw the receipt block where my receipt was indeed the first one ever used from this block.

Now boarding has started and I'm a bit exited to experience Himalaya Airlines Business Class.

Unfortunately the Air China flight to Chengdu was delayed for almost 5 hours.

At 4:45 boarding started and after a short stop in Lhasa where the immigration was done and a wild and bumpy flight further to Chengdu we arrived at 11:20 pm.

"There is a lot of construction ongoing and we need to protect our foreign guests. But next year it will be back open again."

We turned the car and searched for a hotel where we could stay for the night. Without exposing to much details of how we managed to get to Larung Gar although I would only like to emphasis how incredible friendly and supportive the locals where! With some help of them and a farmer couple we where able to pass the checkpoint at night and reached early morning Larung Gar.

Since it was early morning when we arrived in the city/village we checked-in in the first available hotel where the interior wasn't in the best condition. It was just enough to finish the night. We both where still tired from the trip and the elevation of 4,000 m did also show some effect.

After we woke up, my wife checked the city and asked some locals how I as a foreigner could reach the monastery best. My face covered with cap and face mask (I shaved my face already), we continued our trip again with a local who brought us to a place where daily sky burials taking place.

It wasn't something which I had to see at the first place, but my wife was insisting. I agreed since our further walking route to Larung Gar started from this location.

The area where they put the dead bodies was a bit further away and surrounded by a fence that tourists couldn't see them directly. However, from a distance you could look still into the area. Surprisingly, there have been a lot Chinese tourists gathering at the hill close by, waiting for the start of the burial.

After one hour waiting, the body arrived at the scenery and put it within the fenced area. In the meantime the numbers of vultures exceeded already the numbers of tourists waiting for the show. At one point two men opened the gates of the fence for the vultures to enter, what they immediately did with creating a big dust cloud.

The vultures dug into the body and together with the butcher smell in the air, I had the feeling being in a horror movie.

After the burial, we walked several km as advised by the locals along the mountains to our final destination. In this height and under consideration that we are both no real hikers, it was challenging. But we did it...

The valley was mind-blowing. Everywhere small red houses. We walked through the streets and enjoyed the atmosphere and again we experienced amazing friendly people. While heaving dinner in a small kitchen where they served some very tasty noodles, we where surrounded by local women. Exited to see a guy from Germany in Larung Gar they gave me the advise to be careful and to always cover my face in order not to be spotted by the police.

After a further walk through the area of the Larung Gar monastery, we booked a room in a local hotel. First they disagreed to accept a foreigner but after some discussion they finally agreed if I (still waiting outside) sneak in and stay in the room.

Since it was raining we decided to go back to our hotel in Wengdazhen behind the police checkpoint and rang our local driver to pick us up. When we arrived at the hotel, I got out of the car and got shocked when I saw that the accommodation of the local police was just opposite our hotel which we didn't see when we checked in the first time at night. While I was waiting outside of the car for my wife to pay the driver, I already had the feeling that the guy who stopped us recognized me. However, we went to our room and felt after 15 minutes asleep.

2 hours later a knocking on our door woke us up - police. After a big discussion in Chinese language with my wife they left the room without further consequence for us.

After they left, we booked a private car for the next morning to bring us back to Chengdu. I need again to emphasize how friendly and nice the people in this area are. Always very helpful, never cheating and the wife of the hotel owner served us even home made butter tea since we mentioned that we both like this tea so much.

The next morning we got kicked out of the bed at 5:10 since the car with further passengers was already waiting outside (6:00 was the agreed time). We packed everything together and were only 10 minutes later at the car. We squeezed us in the car with already 5 passengers (+driver) in it, which was usually only allowed to transport max 6 people.

The Passengers:

• A young couple
• A doctor
• A Buddhist monk
• A guy
• A chinese with her German husband

And than the ride began. The driver kept a speed between 80 and 100 km/h and just ignored that it was still dark, cows and other animals were everywhere crossing or staying on the road and rocks blocking the way due to the rain at night. He overtook cars at the least suitable locations, preferable before curves. While the usual overtaking process consists out of a approaching and acceleration phase, he remained at the approaching speed until the overtaken car was left behind. The whole trip was like a rallye with the spectators sitting directly in the rallye car. To be fair, it seemed to be only me - the crazy German taking note of the wild ride. Ok, at least the monk did somehow also recognize it, since he opened the window after an hour and started emptying his stomach while still at full speed.

9:00 o clock was breakfast time.

We continued our ride with trucks appearing on our lane due to the narrow road, sudden reversing cars from construction sites, further stones on the road....

...until our driver became the information regarding a police control a few kilometers ahead. The monk was forced to leave the car and pass the checkpoint by food. After the checkpoint our driver stopped and started washing the car while waiting for the missing passenger.

With a clean car we hit the road again

60 km before reaching Chengdu I recognized that we got slower and slower although we had been back on a proper Highway again. I looked at the Driver's face in the back mirror, and saw that his eyes looked tired and his mouth was open. I told my wife my observation and she started immediately talking to the Driver and asking him if he feels tired. He confirmed that and the the doctor who was sitting close to him started giving him a head massage.

Lessons learned: Never again traveling with a private car in China where you don't know the driver!

The last days of my Holidays we spent again in Chengdu enjoying Sichuan food and green tea and doing some streetphotography. On the 24th I headed to the airport to catch my flight to Frankfurt.

Cameras used: Leica Q and Voigtländer Bessaflex with Zeiss Jena Flektogon and Sonnar.