Why The Long Face?
Trip Start
Feb 26, 2004
1
11
84
Trip End
Nov 16, 2006
Chengdu,
China
Wednesday, April 7, 2004
Just a quick note to let you know we've finished the trek. Us and the horses are still in one piece. For the most part it was absolutely class, although there were a couple of dodgy moments. We were just exhausted by the end and sick of the food (they basically just reheated Day 1's food every day...cabbage and noodles).
There were 6 of us in the end: Me, Mikey, Tim a.k.a. Doc, Paul, an English guy Andrew (who's been teaching in China the last 6 months), and an Israeli guy David.
Then we had 5 guides, which seemed a bit excessive.
Decided to assign each of ourselves jobs as follows:
Tim - Doctor
Paul - Documentarian
Mike - Meterologist
Andrew - Interpreter
Me - Hobo
David - Boring bastard
Our horses seemed to be assigned according to our personalitys...hence I got the alpha-male, who I named 'Crazy Joe', and Mike got an extremely flatulent equine.
Trekked to, and up, the ominously named Ice Mountain, about 4300 metres above sea level. Left stranded their by our guides due to a misunderstanding (the misunderstanding being that we understood they weren't pricks).
Got mashed on Chinese Spirits (50%) one night which was funny. Doc got sick in our tent then covered it up with my hat.
No real injuries except Andrew who got conjungtivitus before we left, and an injury to one of my step-children (the right one) I got on the first day. Was so painful that I nearly got Doc to take a look at it...which would have been the end of our friendship.
Weather was pretty dodgy at times, snowing really heavily on the last day. Nights were the worst...I woke up one morning covered in frost. Was a relief to arrive back in Songpan (literally translated as 'Shithole'), and felt pretty great riding through the town with all the locals watching.
Only one public shower in town, heated by coal.
We're back in Chengdu now. All feeling a bit worse for wear, but we're forcing ourself to go out on the rip tonight before we go our seperate ways. Andrew's catching a boat down the Yangtse. Paul and Tim carry on south before Paul flies home to England and Tim carries on his round-the-world trip. So long, Father Christmas.
Happy Easter to all. Am missing my eggs.
