So the bus to Kangding was exciting! The road looked a bit precarious from my window seat with some other people passing on curvy bumpy topography with dramatic drops. But our driver was really good and the scenery was wonderful.
When we arrived it was dark but we found a hostel. Kangding is a beautiful little city that I think hipsters would love. It has ethnic elements of Tibetans and is much cleaner and organized as far as other Chinese cities go.
We woke up early to take the bus to Litany but we were too late to get tickets. There are tons of people with vans calling out destinations and always asking us to hire them. We weren't going to but there was a nice man who looked decent and when I saw the van it was clean and looked safe. Aside from the lack of liscence plate on the back...
His name was JiLing from what I heard. The 5 of us were a bit worried but actually after he offered all of us gum I felt like he was a good choice. I even had short conversations with him in Mandarin. He was also an excellent driver even though he was passing people around corners too.
We made it to a hostel in Litang and its 35¥ a night and has heated blankets. Oh ya, there are mountains with snow on them, here. We are really high up in this area and I started getting a headache now.
Anyway, Litanng is beautiful with cows, yaks, pigs, and stray dogs. It's very much like a large town with very friendly people, mostly farmers I think. I will be seeing the monastery tomorrow. More about that some other time.
