Ni hao (hello)

It's time I update this, I guess... I'm in Dali, an easy-going, relaxed town beneath a range of snow-capped mountains, near to one of China's biggest lake. It's kind of a backpacker's town, so there's good western food and other conveniences--all of which is nice to have after roughing it the past few days.

We arrived here yesterday from Zhongdian (also known as Shangri-la; a feeble Chinese marketing ploy, that, sadly, seems to have worked). Zhongdian is up on the Tibetan plateau and feels different from China proper. The people are mostly tibetan and other ethnic groups. You see Tibetan-buddhist stupas draped with prayer flags.

It was very cold up there. Our hotel had no heat, in true Chinese style. The first day was fun. It was kind of warm and some of us took a bus out to a big Tibetan monastery.

The next day... Well, it was kind of miserable. After the car crash, getting hit by a truck just felt like an appropriate way to end the day. We went on a "tour" to a natural spring with lots of calcium formations, where a festival was taking place. It sounded like fun over dinner, but then the ride took 3 hours, all along narrow mountain roads that wound around and around up and down the mountains. The festival was okay.

Going back, dad and I were in the second of two vans (our group of 10 needed to be separated into two groups). Just like the getting there, it was taking forever. I took a nap, then David, one of the guys in the tour, pointed out the kilometer markers to me. So I was boringly counting down the markers one by one: 43, 42, missed one somehow, 40, 39, when all of a sudden I hear a shout and see the large blue grill of a truck right in front of the driver.

The truck smashed into us, cracking the glass and pushing in the driver's side of the front. We were pushed back a ways until we stopped. I looked back and saw dad okay but frightened, then saw Damien (a guy from Switerland), with blood running down his face. "Where are my glasses?" he said. But then I stopped paying attention to him, because I was worried that just like in a bad movie, we were hanging over the edge of a cliff.

There was frantic confusion with no one knowing what to do or how to get out. Then the driver got out--he could open the door on his side--and, paying us no attention, went out to argue with the truck driver. Our Tibetan guide, who was a very nice young man who sang us Tibetan songs earlier in the drive, saw to Damien, and then we got out somehow. We weren't over a cliff, although a rear tire was hanging over the edge of the road. Fortunately, they drive slowly along those roads, so we were probably going no more than 20 miles an hour on average--and both we and the truck were surely going slower than that when we hit.

Just to wrap all this up and leave out the boring details, everyone was okay, although all of us in the tour were shaken up. Damien got some stitches at the hospital, but was not hurt too badly. I had my left arm on the back of the driver's seat, and so my arm got shoved back and I've been a little sore from that. We spent the evening at the Raven, a nice, warm bar next to our awful hotel. We ordered in pizzas, partied with Tibetan students, and danced to cheesy 80s songs. It was a good way to wind down from the day. We need a little party, for sure!

Okay, I've had enough writing... Maybe I'll write about Tiger Leaping Gorge another time (it was awesome for me; less so for my never-hiked-before dad who didn't know that trails have rocks in them). The scenery was stunning and I had my first taste of yak butter tea.