Some people may argue that its probably a good thing, however if you have ever watched the movie `Terminal` with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta J. you will understand. After arriving on a night sleeper bus for which I was way too long and only mananged a few hours sleep, I was offloaded at a good unearthly hour of 6.am in darkness and artic tempertures. Later in the day after wandering around the old town of Shangri-La village whom the majority of villagers are of Tibetan descent, I had a tasty snack of grilled yak & baba which is a local bread.
A short bus journey took me to the biggest and most important Monastry in south China, where I wandered around for a few hours and was impressed. Off to the local market which even after SE Asia was an eye opener and where `Can I have the chicken to go?`, means it being killed, plucked and butchered while you wait. All this happening while I was tucking into a massive bowl of melt in the mouth Tibetan dumplings in a little stall a few foot away.
Next morning I had planned to visit another Tibetan village further away. It began well, purcahsing a ticket with ease, although the departure time had changed. So I settled into the waiting hall and my day began, took out my Krama for Cambodia made myself comfy, stuck on a sixth layer and the wait began. My 11 oclock 3n1 nescafe passed, my pot noodle lunch passed , another 3 o clock nescafe passed. WHERE IS THE BUS?
Although it was quite entertaining watching the coming and goings of locals, most of whom in national dress, the odd difficult conversation struck up, my book read, and the toilet attendant making a fortune from me I was becoming fed up 6 hours later.
Eventually we were called to board, and all squashed in, the scenery was amazing, if you think Switzerland has mountains you`ve seen nothing yet. 2 hours in to the journey, we came upon the source of the delay a 2 truck collision on a bend on the narrowest piece of road ever. And so another wait began, boredom struck again, however I was keeping everyone entertained with my presence. I gave my camera to a guy on the bus to take my photo(it wasnt` as if he was going anywhere) but it took a while to get it right and then it dawned on me that it was probably the first time he even had held one. Eventually the log jam cleared and 2 hours later but over 6 hours late I rolle dinto Benzilan. After a quick tour of the town, the only hotel in my LP was closed I found a bed and went for a bite to eat, which after a lot of pointing and hand signals turned into a great meal.
Next morning it was an early start to catch the only bus and I was back in Shangri-La.
