康定情歌之乡

Am now in the hometown of this famous love song - 康定 (Kangding). It's very chilly here ... below 20 degrees. Besides, it rained this morning.

Sigh ... I'm having not much luck. Thought I'd take a roadtrip out to Mogetso (hire a one-day jeep plus driver) but about 7 km before entering the area, there's a landslide so there's no way our vehicle could get through. However, the drive itself was well worth it as we passed by a gorgeous terrain of misty mountains, gushing rivers and plunging falls.

After turning back to Kangding, I visited a Tibetan temple called 金刚寺(Jingang Si). The temple is such a marvel ... the carvings and drawings are so intricate and the colours so vibrant. Simply gorgeous, I shall let the photos do the talking :) Go to Facebook, k?

Then, my driver who is a Tibetan brought me to his home which is also a guesthouse and had butter tea there. It's newly renovated for RMB400,000! Wow. It's quite a nice place with a hospitable family - my driver, his wife, daughter and his father. Would be quite an experience staying with a Tibetan family. Besides, he can help to arrange the itinerary to the scenic areas in these parts including Mt. Gongga and 九龙 (Jiulong) ... I have his contact if anyone's interested.

After that, I took the cable car up 跑马山 (Paoma Mountain) for an overview of Kangding. Thought I'd also spend some time on the mountain (though my friend said there's nothing much up there now that the annual horse festival is over) since I've got nothing very much to do anyway ... but it was getting really chilly up here I jumped on the next cable car back (well, almost) hehe! Should have heeded my friend's advice and brought the cardigan :(

I ended up watching the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in the afternoon. I don't mind since I missed it. But still, I missed the first 20 minutes or so and the performance of the controversial lip-synching girl again.

Maybe in a while, I'll go out for some tea at a Tibetan teahouse ... though the butter tea is not really my cuppa. Okie ... maybe not then ... well, maybe I'll just spend a lazy afternoon online posting my pix and head out for a bowl of hot and spicy 麻辣拉面.

Thank goodness this hostel has wi-fi. Not sure why I couldn't get connected last night, perhaps the router wasn't turned on. It's not very fast though so I'm not sure how long it'll take to get all the pix up ... stay tuned!