It was up before the sun this morning as we had a bus to catch at 7:15 am for Xiahe, 6 hours from Xining. We knew from our fellow passengers that we were heading to an unusual place right from the start as many were Tibetan nomads dressed in sheep skin clothing and prayer beads.
Our 6 hour journey was full of interesting scenery, starting out as red rock cliffs then to grassy meadows with a backdrop of snow covered mountains in the distance. After plenty of passes climbed and descended, we finally entered the valley of our destination and from the bus stop checked into our accommodations, Tibetan Overseas Hotel. A larger hotel with not the warmest staff but since it had clean beds and Lianna’s favorite, a private toilet, it seemed good enough for a few nights.
Reading in the Lonely Planet, Xiahe is described as “tranquil”. I’m not sure if the author even visited this town but “tranquil” would not be my choice of words to describe it. Xiahe is a bustling little town were oodles of Tibetan Nomads pour into in order to visit the Lobrang Monastery to gain karma by walking the 3 km kora around the area and prostrating themselves in front of the monastery. The people watching is fantastic as little old ladies with weathered skin are wearing their best traditional garb and men wearing their best furs come in from the countryside. The whole town feels like it is constantly shuffling around the monastery, and the town is a traffic jam of people. Although this may sound like “Shangri-la” to some there is a strange bit of segregation amongst the towns inhabitants.
Xiahe is divided up into three sections with the main business area (with paved roads) and modern run down buildings belonging mostly to Han Chinese. Hui Muslims occupy a small south east section, and the Tibetan section which resembles a crumbling apocalyptic scene with no paved roads and at this time no proper bridge connecting the two but a lot of construction going on (which also helps to destroy any tranquility which might otherwise exist). Xiahe was the site of a riot in 2008 relating to protests going on in Lhasa, which left 19 dead and the town sealed off until just this past summer so we have seen a small Chinese army presence.
Due to a power outage all day, our dining options were few so we settled on a dinner of momo’s, a traditional Tibetan meat filled dumpling. We ate at Nomad Cafe, highly recommended in the guidebook and again I have apposing feelings. I won’t elaborate much past fatty lamb meat. The rest of our evening was spent joining the pilgrims in their kora around the monastery but as the sun began to set, the temperature began to drop drastically. It was then time for a cup of tea and make a plan for our day tomorrow in the Ganjia Grasslands.
