October 29, 2014
A night in Langmusi: 'Spot the monk' gets serious
SPOT THE MONK! Another slight change in the format of 'Spot the monk' today, just to keep things interesting. This time you have to spot all the monks on this page, and let me know how many monks there are! The first correct answer on my guestbook will win a monk!
Although the recent days had been filled with blue skies and sunshine, the nights were getting colder. I longed for my long-lost winter sleeping bag, thrown away in a fit of space-saving passion back in Turkmenistan, but all I had was my cheap Tesco summer sleeping bag. Although I must credit Tesco for the fact that the sleeping bag had not broken despite having being in the hands of a man who breaks everything for more than a year, it was not designed for nights like this. Fortunately I had just enough clothes, crucially including a down jacket, to survive another October night above 3000 metres. But this time the morning brought little respite, as I unzipped my tent to find myself in a colourless world. Heavy fog enveloped everything, and a thick frost stuck to the grassy plains.
The road had grown less busy and I was relieved to discover most of the remaining Chinese drivers did have the sense to drive more slowly in the poor visibility. This at least partly compensated for the fact that none of them had the sense to put their lights on. I wore my bright orange hi-viz and considered myself the most visible thing on the road, and worried not. And for once I was glad that the road was still climbing, for it meant I could remain relatively warm as I battled on up.
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But the fog did not last and by midday the sun had happily taken control of the skies once more. I was growing to like this part of China more and more now, with the little Buddhist villages and the big open grasslands, snowy peaks dotted here and there beyond them.
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My target for the day was Langmusi, a mountain village that I had heard was worth visiting for its monasteries, and I made good progress to arrive there by mid-afternoon. I was a little disappointed that it was four kilometres off the main road, my schedule once again not really allowing much time for detours, but I thought 'what the hell' and took the road out to it anyway. And my disappointment grew more when I arrived and found myself cycling through a street of entirely new, as yet unfinished buildings, completely lacking in any soul or character. Apparently China, in true China style, decided that as this quaint little village was attracting tourists, the thing to do was to build, build, build, and make it five times as big.
But I got through that bit and into old Langmusi, which was inevitably nicer. There were quite a few monks around, which as you can imagine got me very excited. But there were also Muslims with skullcaps, and Han Chinese. This village was an absolute cultural melting pot.
I cycled up to the first of the monasteries. The reason for the two monasteries being that Langmusi is split down the middle by a river, and the north side of the river is in Gansu province and the south in Sichuan, and each side therefore needing its own monastery. The one on the Gansu side, which was up a very steep hill, was the one that I went to first. My arrival at the top of this hill panting and gasping for breath drew the attention of several Chinese tourists, leading to a predictable photo-shoot. Once this formality had been completed I was able to turn my attention towards the monastery, an ensemble of temples and buildings with those magnificent and majestic gold tiled roofs and so on. It made quite a stunning image, with the sun shining brightly on these colourfully decorated temples and the natural rockface behind, which itself was also magnificent and majestic. My only disappointment being the lack of monks. I'd honestly hoped that there would be hundreds of them, doing all sorts of saintly and good things, but there was just this one, who I believe is committing a crime:
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I went back down the hill and crossed the small river to the Sichuan side, hoping to find more, better-behaved, monks at the other monastery. As I made my way towards it I passed a hostel and, much to my bank balances consternation, found myself popping inside, just to see how much it would cost. The young man inside, who was very nice, told me it would by 30 yuan (£3), which I assumed would be for a dorm bed, and I thought reasonable. I asked to have a look, and he took me around and I saw that for 30 yuan I could, in fact, have myself a private room. And there was wifi! I was sold. As we walked back outside I asked him if there were showers. He shook his head and indicated that it was too cold. I assumed this meant there was a cold shower if I wanted one. I didn't. But for three quid you can't have everything can you?
The room was perfect. Well, almost perfect. It wasn't heated for example, and, whilst there was an electric blanket on the bed, there was no electricity, so it was really just a blanket. But there were three other blankets as well that would ultimately give me a warm and toasty night, with my sleeping bag looking on as if trying to learn how it should be done. And I loved the hostel itself; a great old wood-building with authentic Tibetan decor. With one notable exception:
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After I'd moved my belongings into the room I went out to look around the second monastery. This turned out to not go very well, because it appeared to be almost deserted. There was a big white temple, but it had no gold tiles or colourful decoration. And I walked through the narrow dusty streets around it, passed other old white stone buildings, and saw no people at all. Certainly not the crowds of monks that I craved. I walked back, and through the Muslim part of town, and back up to the first monastery that I visited. From here I also had great views down over the town and of the surrounding areas. And Langmusi's real beauty did lie in the natural surroundings. To the east was a big butte of vertical red rocky cliffs, glowing like fire as the last of the day's sun burned against it and to the south and west more jagged and raw mountains, twinkling with the white of fresh-fallen snow. The village sat in the middle surrounded by this nature and hidden from the world.
With my bike hidden away and Langmusi's pull as a tourist spot making white-faces not uncommon, I was able to walk the streets ignored. This was perhaps the highlight of being here and taking the evening off. Having walked back down into the village I found a spot where I could simply sit and watch the everyday goings-on. People walked along the street below me, skullcaps mingling with the red robes of the monks and the dark wrap dresses of the Buddhist women. Behind me was a row of prayer wheels. These were everywhere, all over town, especially around the monasteries. All of the people that walked down the hill went via these particular prayer wheels and set them all to spinning. I considered Buddhism to be a very sensible religion. I mean, who wants to go to the trouble of actually praying, with all that being quiet and concentrating it involves. Just spin some wheels with the prayers written on them, and voila!
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At one point a herd of cows came trotting along the street below me and they started running randomly down side-streets and diverting this way and that as if out of control. A few of them even went into a garden and disappeared into a wooden doorway. A man hobbled along behind them all, no doubt the cowherd, who I took to be losing his cows by the dozen. But then I realised that the cows were all going home, to just exactly where they were supposed to be going, and everyone knew what was what.
I suppose this was my favourite memory of Langmusi. In the newer part of town there were lots of hotels, and shops selling tourist knick-knacks that made me glad I was here in the off-season. All that tourist stuff made it seem like this once secret and wonderful little village had sold its soul. But silently watching the people as I did, as the sun set behind the mountains and the air turned cool once more, I saw that Langmusi still had plenty of soul.
Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 31,817 km (19,758 miles)
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