Of Horses and Men...

When I grew up I wanted to be a lot of things (firefighter, spaceman, professional soccer star (i know, how prissy)) and do a lot of things... but riding a horse came about at the end of the spectrum, right around competing in creating the longest apple peel. This I have to say has not changed much in recent years, except maybe that time when Bo Derek was riding around in Bolero, but that s a different story :).
Anyhow, when travelling there are few better ways to explore the surroundings than by foot, as you can really intake the stunning landscape beauties and get to places that cars/busses may not.... however in the pre-tibetan highlands getting very far (high altitude, distance, terrain) is hard, and horseback riding is the best way to explore.
Not being one to shy away from new experiences I changed my mind, and signed up for one.... but how did I get there....
We all got to Chengdu, which we knew was split up town for us... Manfred wanted to go check out Shanghai/Bejing, Manuela had to go home, and Monica wanted to go visit friends, so Vi and I decided to go check out the mountains.... not before we would explore the town though. Chengdu is gigantic...., a 10+ Million City, it sprawls with life and shopping here feels like NY city, especially after the countryside where there was no western influence at all. We spent two days there, visiting the pandas and walking about town. The panda breeding center is the largest in the world and we got to enjoy seeing some young ones play around and even saw some newborns..

Baby Panda's playing around

Roadside hot pepper drying, we are in Sichuan after all!

So after that Vi and I booked a bus trip to SongPan, a small town in the pre-tibetan highlands that offers horseback rides through the mountains, ranging from 2-15 days... two days had to be enough I figured, so that is what we booked.

The ride (bus that is) up there was nice, a new road ensured a fast 5h trip (as opposed to the 16h it was the year before they built the new road), and we found ourselfs in a pretty touristy town, bustling with a few foreginers, more chinese tourists, and good cheap shopping for arts and crafts. The mainly tibetan population is very good with making arts and crafts and the off-season gave way for some nice deals to stock up presents for family and friends when returning home, Manfred being a shopping addict would have loved it up there! Before getting a good night's rest we went and tried some Yak and Beans (Yak is good and a local delicacy!) and then haggled the horseback ride to a ridiculous 10 dollars a day (everyone else paid 15$, not sure if we were that good or the guy just too tired to care), which apart from the horse, each person's guide and his horse, camping and all you can eat, what a deal!

So we left that morning and rode two days through the mountain ranges.... Vi and I were joined by two teenage swedish guys and a dutch couple that had been travelling for over a year alreay!

Six travellers and six guides, twelve horses, .... the first hill of the day was a 3000 foot ascent in very gnarly terrain, and by the time we got up to the hill one of the swedish guy's horse was already dying, it just fell over when we got to the top... not sure if it played dead to lighten the load but the guide decided to let the guy use his horse, walk and have the "dead" horse walk without any load..... at the "hot springs" where we camped, we found out that the "hot springs" were mineral water springs, hardly warmer than your average mountain spring... so bringing the swimsuit was a bit over the top, but oh well. We spent all evening watching the guides put up an extremely sieve-y makeshift tent, cook while smoking 20 cigarettes nonstop, and then ate, drank, and sat by the fire singing songs from our countries... I sang "Vogellisi" and everyone understood about as much as when the tibetans sang their folk songs, sounded a bit like Bejing Opera to me, but the stashed beer (that the tourists brought) and 200-ish proof rubber alcohol (that the tibetans brought) eased the vocal pain a bit....

We be ridin' dirty...

Brrrrr, why am I doing this again?

The night was wet, cold, and filled with intermitten sounds of freight trains moving through (which was actually the men snoring until someone got up and kicked them quiet), and I got up with a heavy head, not looking forward to another day of pain in the @$$, e.g. riding a horse.

Vi and Roger with their borrowed tibetan overcoats...

We made it back allright, and it was certianly an experience I am happy I did, doubtful I will ever become an avid rider though.