day 198: 武胜驿 (wushengyi) - 天祝藏族自治县 (Tibetan self-governed township of Tianzhu) - = 14,6km

I felt like I was really up in the mountains today:

…the green valley meandering through the barren rocks…

Once I climbed up on one of those rocks, mainly because I had noticed a small pavilion up there:

Some kids were playing a board-game using pebbles and shards of glass, and I sat down for a little break:

I started filming - this timeless masterpiece is entitled I Can’t Hear You:

Synopsis: the little dude with the hat is looking for him mommy who is still down at the foot of the hill.

“我听不见!” - “I Can’t Hear You!” he yells when he thinks he’s heard her voice from below. The end.

Cute kids:

I didn’t know what to think about this fashion statement though:

It just feels so… random?

…

Once I got close to 天祝藏族自治县 (Tibetan self-governed township of Tianzhu), I got a bit excited because I figured that the area would have a certain Tibetan feel to it, completely different from the places I’ve walked through so far:

But when I got there, the only thing that looked really different were the characters on the street signs:

I didn’t even see any traditional Tibetan people either - instead I ran into these three:

Matt and Ed from the UK are teaching English at a Tibetan school here (they claim they are the only two foreigners in the area), Caroline is an English teacher in a town not far from here - and all three of them seemed really surprised to see me: “What in the world drives you here??” was the first thing they asked me.

Later on that night, they took me to a Tibetan bar/karaoke place that was actually quite nice:

尕藏, the Tibetan owner of the place promised to take me out to photograph the famous 白牦牛 (white yak) tomorrow, so I guess I’m going to stay another day.

Hope it’s going to work out.

I like yaks.

Soundtrack: Terrorgruppe - “Linda”

—total: 2452,2km