From a Secret to a Dream Come True: Lanzhou to Xiahe

We awoke this morning to leave our extra expensive, exclusive hotel to catch a taxi to the bus station and make our way to Xiahe (like a j/z sound in front of "shy" and like asking "what?" j/zhy-hu), where the Labrang Monastery waited. After bargaining our taxi down in price, we rode over to Lanzhou South bus station for our 9:30 bus. Upon arrival, we walked up to the station where we were greeted by a man asking if we were heading to Xiahe, which of course we were, and he pointed us in the direction of the “ticket counter,” where he ordered the worker to hand us over 2 tickets to Xiahe for under 100 Yuan. For once, simplicity was on our side.

We had a bit of time to kill before our bus left, so we grabbed some seats in the station to wait. Along with the simplicity, luck allowed us to run into some fellow travelers from San Francisco while waiting for the bus (fellow "Canadians"). Turned out they were also heading to Xiahe. After some small talk, we boarded the bus to start the 4 hour journey southwest to Xiahe.

The bus ride was anything from mundane. First off, the route had us going up from 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) through the mountains so that we could reach the 3000 meter (10,000feet) city. Second, we passed along some of the most impressive scenery we had yet to encounter in China. Mountains rose up from all sides of the bus, towering over us as we speedily made out way. I say speedily because our bus driver thought it necessary to use his lead foot and pass anything he could to get us there. This was to be our first encounter with insane bus driving, but that is for later. Finally we made it into Xiahe at about 2:30pm where we were dropped off on the side of the road. The next mission was to find a place to stay.

A mosque in the distance

Shortly after we had been standing there looking confused and lost, our San Francisco friends (Phil and Judy would be their names) and the two of us decided to team up and search out some hotels. After checking out the Overseas Tibetan Hotel (160 Yuan/night), the RedRock Hostel (120 Yuan/night), Tara’s Guesthouse (160 Yuan/night) and the Labrang Hotel (200 Yuan/night), we decided to stay at the Labrang simply for the fact that the rooms had bathrooms and the mattresses were not rock hard.

After throwing our bags in the room, we set out to explore this Tibetan city. And Tibetan it was! I am not just talking about the architecture, or the food, or the people, but EVERYTHING. This was the Tibet we had wanted to go to, but could not because of the permit restrictions and price. Monks were walking down the street in their maroon robes and shaved heads. Kids with dark red cheeks were running on the sidewalks. Women wearing traditional chubas sat outside their stores waiting for customers. Men raced past on their dual-sport motorcycles. All of this was right outside our hotel; not to mention the Labrong Monastery sitting a block away from the hotel as well. This is what we had hoped for, and the Tibet we were looking for was what we found.

After a while of “window” shopping (there are not windows for these stores, merely their merchandise is out on the sidewalks) we searched out some food. Gesar Restaurant (located across from the prayer wheels, next to the Nomad Café) was where we landed. This was a small, two person run restaurant that contained a small room where all guests can enjoy their food. Traditional would barely be able to begin to describe this quaint restaurant. We quickly ordered our 5 dishes, and waited. One by one they came out, and by “one by one” I mean that exactly. Everything was made fresh and in order of when it was written down. So fresh was it, that the beautiful lady running the place went out to grab a cucumber to make our cucumber and garlic plate. After stuffing our faces, talking with the guy also working who spoke perfect English, we made our way back to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow would bring Buddhism and the Labrang Monastery.