After BaoZhu went on his way, we saw a couple middle-aged ladies came to pass. Larry complimented the one closer to him, and said, “What a pretty hat!” She turned around, pleased, and Larry started another conversation with them:
"Hello! Where are you folks from?"
"We are from Maoxian (茂縣)."
"Oh! We are travelers from Chengdu and will pass by Maoxian on the way back. Can we come visit?"
"Maybe, but today we need to walk 30+ km to Baxi. Our kids are studying there. Perhaps another day."
"Ah, so far! Have a safe journey! As for Maoxian, we will not get there today anyways. Maybe tomorrow or the day after."
Larry continued on with the conversation, and soon got their names. The one with the hat was Heishui Jinghua (黑水金花, the "Golden Flower" from "Blackwater" - apparently she doesn't have a last name, but she is from a place called Blackwater), and the other, her sister-in-law, was Yang Xiu Mei (杨秀妹). Heishui Jinghua was Tibetan, while Yang Xiu Mei was Qiang.
We invited them to eat with us, and they declined politely.
"But really, come on.. we have more food than we can finish! And it's hot and fresh - we just ordered lunch!"
"It's quite alright."
"It's only fair that we invite you to lunch if we're going to come visit."
"No, you don't have to..."
"Have you eaten yet?"
"Well no, but we just can't burden others like this."
"Don't you have a long journey ahead of you?"
"It's okay. We can manage."
"Well at least just come and sit inside with us to talk, even if you don't want to eat."
"Alright, sure."
And so they came in and sat down. Our food, which we ordered 40 minutes ago, finally started coming out. While we talked and ate, we encouraged them to eat as well, and while they finally ate a little bit of the Big Plate of Chicken just as a friendly gesture, they refused any more additional food.
Yang Xiu Mei and Heishui Jinghua were both affected by the Sichuan earthquake back on May 12th, as they lived in the countryside. They were up here to see family, but will need to go back in a couple days. We were quite interested because we hadn’t had a chance to see the impact of the earthquake yet, and so we said we would definitely try to come and visit. They welcomed us and invited us to eat with them once we arrived. So we exchanged contact information, and they urged us to call when we are in the neighborhood.
After our photo together, they left and went on their way. So next, we decided we should go visit the famous Tibetan temple (actually a complex containing a number of temples) nearby. Though the temple was not too far, Baba and I boarded a three-wheel rickshaw for the experience. Larry didn't want to pay money so he walked.
Halfway through, I thought of an idea, "Sir, do you think you can let me try to pedal the rickshaw?"
"I'm sorry, I don't think I can."
"Come on! I'll pay you the same, and you can just sit in the back and relax!"
"It's against the rules. If someone saw us, I could get in big trouble."
Baba was amused by the idea too. "It's okay! If you get fined, we'll pay it for you!"
"No, I really just can't afford to... Sorry!"
After a few minutes, the driver pedaled us to the temple entrance:
Monks were dressed in purple, which was interesting. We went into the complex visit, but it was just about closing time (around 4:30pm), so the buildings were inaccessible.
However, we managed to get up to the top of the highest temple there and snap a few pictures of the view:
Ruoergai really is a small outpost, and it's impressive how these hardy people managed to survive in the barren landscape.
Afterwards, we came back down to the base of the complex, where we noticed people were walking around a statue repeatedly:
They were exercising. We estimated that the statue was probably 4 meters by 4 meters, meaning one time around is 16 meters. 100 circles would get you one mile! I guess it's similar to a treadmill.
Baba decided to join them for a few rounds as well, for fun. As he passed by, he noticed there were strings of coins on the side.
They were counters. Every time around they would move one of the coins over to count their laps.
While Baba went around a few more laps, Larry, who had wandered off somewhere in the temple by himself, had come back.
"Are you guys enjoying the exercise?"
"We sure are."
"I'm going to head over to buy some fish over there."
He walked over, outside the temple, to a row of women selling fish swimming in buckets of water:
Baba had come back. "What's Larry up to?"
"He's going to go buy some fish for some reason."
"Oh yeah, he told me earlier. Apparently he's buying the fish to release them back into the wild."
"Oh yeah?"
"Unfortunately, the only place to release them is that stream under the bridge over there."
"I see."
"And of course, all the people selling the fish have to do is to recapture the fish downstream and sell them again to foolish people who want to save the fish!"
"Hahaha!"
"I knew Larry wasn't all that bright, but I didn't think he was this silly!" We roared with laughter, and walked over to watch Larry do his thing by the bridge:
After he released the fish, dropping it a good 20 feet to get back into the water, Larry explained himself, "I know the fish will probably be caught again, but it doesn't matter. It's the spirit of the gesture that counts."
Perhaps. But we're also supporting people who make a lame living by continuously capturing and re-capturing fish, then selling and re-selling it to people who want to free them.
We then crossed the bridge, over to the other side, which was a much less developed area. Up ahead, there was a small community of primitive houses behind a set of walls.
"Let's go visit some Tibetan houses," Larry suggested. We followed, not sure yet how to explain to the locals there that we were just here randomly to visit and take a look at their houses. But we let Larry handle that.
After we got in and wandered around for a few minutes, Larry spotted a villager and called to him. "Hey! We are visitors to Ruoergai! If you have time, will you introduce this place to us?" The man, one of the villagers, agreed. He took us to his home:
Where we were greated by a very fierce zang'ao (藏獒 - Tibetan Mastiff) chained to a post:
Tibetan Mastiffs are known as the one of the fiercest and most loyal dogs in the world, only obeying his master, and ruthlessly attacking all outsiders. The Tibetan man scolded his dog, hitting it with a stick as it tried to break its chain by sprinting towards us, barking ferociously.
We walked past the dog safely, and to the house, which had animal bones hanging from the roof. We entered:
It was not very big, but quite colorful, as many Tibetan designs are. The man continued to show us around for a bit more before we took our leave and headed out of the village.
As we walked out of the village, we noticed there were a ton of schoolkids coming out.
Some kids were walking, others were hanging out by the store:
School had let out, and there were kids with their colorful coats and bookbags, coming out in whichever direction, all heading home, which was generally in the same direction as us. Larry went to say hi to them, and the kids gathered around him curiously:
More and more kids come, trying to see what the commotion is all about:
"Hello! How are you?" Larry asked them in Mandarin. They were too shy to answer. "You guys speak Mandarin, right?" They nodded. "What are you guys studying?" One of the kids took out a book out of his schoolbag and handed it to Larry. "I see! Let me read to you!"
After Larry finished reading, in dramatic fashion, one of the poems out of their textbooks, the kids clapped their hands in approval. Then they took a group picture:
"Can you guys show me where your school is? I want to go take a look." The kids led Larry to the school courtyard:
While Larry continued hanging out with the kids, Baba and I decided to take a rickshaw back first. However, a few minutes later, Larry also came back, riding his own three-wheeler!
"How'd you get permission to ride?" we asked in amazement.
"I met this nice lady who let me borrow her rickshaw!" He was carrying the lady, the owner of the cart, in the back.
I gave it a try as well; however, it was difficult to control, as the steering wheel had a tendency to turn to the left side all the time. A steady hand is needed to hold it straight. After a few minutes, I managed to get around successfully:
We headed back to the hotel afterwards. While we were quite full so we didn’t really want to get dinner, our feet were rather tired from all the walking around.
"Why don't we get a foot washing?" suggested Baba.
"Where do you find them around here?" I asked.
"I saw one earlier in the day when we dropped by the ATM; it's not too far from the hotel. However, when I went to take a look, the front desk people weren't too nice and didn't look like they were interested in getting any business."
"Where else then?"
"There's probably tons of places around here, though it's important to separate out the legitimate places from the shady ones. We just have to go out and take a look," Larry responded.
So we head back out of the hotel to look. As we got to the main street, we found another three-wheeled rickshaw driver.
"Do you know where we can find a place to get a foot washing?"
"Yes I do."
"Where is it?"
"Get on. I'll take you there."
"Why don't you just tell me?"
"You'll have to ride to find out."
"How much are you charging?"
"Just 3 RMB. One for each person."
"You want all three of us to get on? How will we fit??"
"It won't be a problem."
We get on, the three of us clumped together, standing in the vehicle, as it wouldn't fit us sitting down. The driver managed to pedal us around the corner... and seconds later, we arrived at the foot washing place by the ATM!
"No, this place won't do!" Baba cried. "They have bad service. We'll have to go somewhere else."
"Alright," the driver said. He pedaled back to the main road, and then took it towards the end, to the other side of town.
We saw nothing on the way, and as we neared the end of the street, facing the pitch black emptiness ahead of us, it became apparent that our driver didn't know of any other places. "It looks like there aren't any more places. I'll just bring you back to where I picked you up," he said, resigned. At that point we spontaneously burst into laughter.
"Poor guy!" howled Baba, as the man struggled to pedal us back. We were probably over 500 pounds in total, and he had already pedaled 10 minutes. All for 3 RMB.
We hummed songs as he pedaled, perhaps in a subconscious effort to comfort him. Instead, it probably only added to his misery, highlighting the difference between our conditions.
We finally got back. The driver had pedaled 15 minutes without getting us anywhere, after his scheme to rip us off by charging us 3 RMB to pedal us around the corner backfired. He slouched his shoulders forward, exhausted. Baba paid him 50% tip - 4.5 RMB total ($0.70 USD) - for the experience.
We headed back to the hotel and discussed our plans. Referring to the map, a picture I had taken at the bus station,
we plotted out the rest of the trip. "The main thing I'd like to do is to take a look at the areas hit by the Sichuan earthquake," I stated.
"The epicenter is near Wenchuan and Dujiangyan. Let's take this route - it'll get us to the heart of the earthquake," Larry suggested. He pointed out the road that goes back to Songpan (松潘), then down to Maoxian (茂線), Wenchuan (汶川), Dujiangyan (都江堰), and finallY Chengdu(成都).
According to the map, the distances were:
143km Ruoergai (若爾蓋) - Chuanzhushi (川主寺)
17km Chuanzhushi (川主寺) - Songpan (松潘)
140km Songpan (松潘) - Maoxian (茂縣)
44km Maoxian (茂縣) - Wenchuan (汶川)
94km Wenchuan (汶川) - Dujiangyan (都江堰)
52km Dujiangyan (都江堰) - Chengdu (成都)
"How will we get there?" Baba asked.
"Why don't we hitchhike?" I suggested. "We haven't gotten to do that yet."
"Let's do it then! Tomorrow I will show you how it's done."
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