I have been through the photos, from the first 4 stops of our Tibet journey, to de-saturate some of my favourites. Here are some for your perusal. Love to know what you think!
After a 14+ hour bus trip from Lahrong Monastery to Chengdu, we were ready for some quiet exploration and photography!
We left Lahrong at 5 am to get the bus for Chengdu. Rather than go to bus terminus it was decided that we meet the bus at a small town on a cross road where it was expected at 6am. At 7am we were still watching the little town wake up for the day! Waiting in the town was fascinating, we watched people emerge to start their day, music blared at 6:30am (wake up call we guessed), a yak herd wandered down the main street, small buses headed out in different directions. Our bus was the 3rd big one to come through. A small town, but a busy hub!
No ‘first class’ trip this time, we were packed in like sardines, (Asian sized seats) – we were to learn that it was not a bad thing given the roads!! (See the post ‘Road to Lahrong Monastery’ for more info!)
It took 3 rotations of drivers to get us there.The third driver was slow and heavy handed on the horn. Any opportunity to blast his horn was taken – oncoming traffic, blind corners, cars, bikes people on the side of the road …
A long trip!!
The part of Chengdu that we found most fascinating was the Tibetan Quarter. The beauty, colour, culture … all provide a strong contrast to the rest of the city. Just LOVED it!!
June 2013 saw me taking up an amazing opportunity to be part of a scouting trip through eastern Tibet. Part of a team scoping a documentary, I had an AMAZING 2 weeks with my camera!! In the next blog posts I will share some of the highlights!
These images are taken in and around Chengdu. We Westerners are very much the minority here. There is a high degree of local curiosity, and as always I am impressed by the power of a friendly smile to win one in return! We are certainly being watched with great amusement.
Chengdu has signs up everywhere ‘Tourist City – Number One Tourist destination’ (in English interestingly). We have found very few locals with English and there aren’t many English speaking tourists about the place! Perhaps they are appealing to Chinese tourists??
There is certainly a sense of pride in the city and with the plastering of panda images, manicured high rise apartments of 15-20 storeys, pampered (often shaved) pooches and fascinating sights – there is plenty to see.
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