KanDing and TaGong

Here I am, sitting in the little courtyard of the Loft Hostel in Chengdu, enjoying the wi-fi internet connection.
It's early morning and the air is still fresh and i can hear birds singing...Chinese life rumouring along the streets.
So, we are back in Chengdu after a few days trip to Sichuanese Tibet, ''the kingdom of Kham'' and I realize how much addicted I became to Internet.
So, we've been to LeShan to see the Great Buddha, KanDing (8 hours by bus from Chengdu) and then to the small town of TaGong (another 4 hours bus ride from KanDing).
That's quite a lot of bus and quite a few thrills if you consider the mountain roads and add to that the impressive way of driving that chinese and tibetans affectionate.
But we did alright and we are both alive today.
That little trip was very nice, the great Buddha is very impressive and landscapes were amazing, a mix of jungle, mountain and steppes. Yes, all that was really great.
But then something strange seems to have happened both to Lena and I. We grew bizarrely insensitive to all this.
We visit places, meet people, smile, eat and take pictures but no big emotion was actually overwhelming us.
I can't really say why this feels like it does.
Lena thinks maybe it's because we've done trips to similar areas before.
I wondered if it was because it was all really crowded with tourists and my adventurous ego wasn't happy with it.
Or if knowing that we are leaving China soon for good was somehow disconnecting me from it, so it wouldn't hurt as much. I don't know.
Did any of you ever feel something like that? Do you see what i mean?
....
KanDing is a pretty town surrounded by mountains and it was great to stroll its streets and breathe the fresh air, eat tibetan food and drink their delicious heated local barley wine.
A real pleasure. There, we stayed in the Black Tents Guesthouse, a pretty hostel in the centre.
The population is pretty mixed but you already feel that you are in Tibet and it all feels really good. They also have a wonderful monastery there.
On a morning walk alone, I met a 26 y.o. Lama who invited me to sit with him and then he took me to his room to offer me some Yak milk tea. He was one of the three teachers of a small monastery. He told me he studied 3 years in Tibet. That was a really special moment and i am very happy of having met him although our conversation was very limited.
Many tourists have had similar experiences, Lamas are apparently very open and hospitable.

TaGong is an even smaller town, at 3700m above sea level-the same as Lhassa-it really is a very pretty town. Khampa houses are made of stone and have many storeys, they are really beautiful.
The whole place feels incredibly much like the Far-West you see in Westerns.
All men wear hats, they have their large knives hanging at their belt, the wind blows and they ride horses or motorcycles.
People are friendly and will easily smile to you to show you their collection of golden teeth.
Women wear an incredible array of jewels and all have their hair tied in some beautiful way.
Striking similarities can be found between these tibetans (Khampas) and Mongols and, oddly enough, with Peruvians (at least from those I saw in some movies).
A wonderful thing to notice as well, is that many of them, including younger girls still wear traditionnal clothes and hairstyles, even though they have mobile phones in their pockets.
Of course, we were told they wear them less and less but still it was much more obvious than in other places we've been.
I mean, in Mongolia, many still wear traditionnal clothes, but most would wear their heavy hair jewellery only in festivals and celebrations, or you would see them in Museums.
But here, they wore them everyday. A real exhibition of colours and jewellery.
Speaking of festival, we've been pretty lucky in TaGong because we arrived just the day before a buddhist festival happening in their beautiful temple.
That's a 3 day festival but we just stayed for the 2 first days, we were really hit by the cold and under equipped since we had already sent all our winter clothes back to France-so we had to get back.
That festival is organized by Lamas and is happening every year. It's meant to teach or remind people of the various deities of buddhism, scare the kids and entertain the crowds, who bring their own benches to the festival, eat and drink their fill during these 6 hours shows.

Ok, i have written a lot already, my stomach is begging me to bring him some breakfast so i guess I'd better go now. I'll try to put some photographs in these days so you see what I'm talking about.
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