The different Chinese names for each town drove me crazy. I began to keep the itinerary with me at all times in the Land Cruiser. Today’s destination was Danba, also spelled “Temba” and then Dondup would pronounce the name of a town in Tibetan. Whatever it was called, Danba or Temba, we were staying for two nights. Both the distance and length of the day from Ganzi to Danba was going to be one of the longer ones on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau (300 kms/186 miles) along 100 kms/66 miles of good road, the rest, bad.

Breakfast…and into the trusty Land Cruiser and out of Ganzi, passing the first apple orchards we’d seen on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau…View image…and a few very nice houses. A short distance outside Ganzi there was a gathering next to the road where a Lama was making a speech and praying over a microphone from a building overlooking the field filled with devout Buddhists…View image. This ritual is repeated just once a year and is supposed to bring good luck to the village. The field was crowded with Buddhists from the entire area praying and prostrating themselves.

very nice Tibetan house, Kham region of China
FYI: I always thought there was just one Lama in a monastery but Dondup told me there are at least 50-60 Lamas in every monastery with one Abbot at the top, followed by Lamas and monks…View image…at the bottom of the pecking order. A Lama is always determined by reincarnation.

head Lama offering prayers to Buddha in the Kham area of Sichuan 

the local people praying in the fields of Sichuan, China 

devout Buddhists in China
One of our lunch dishes today contained mushrooms. Not just any mushrooms but what Dondup referred to as “foot mushrooms”…View image…the most unsual mushrooms I’ve ever seen. You must admit, they did look like feet along with another part of men’s anatomy.

“foot mushrooms” for sale in the Kham Region of Sichuan, China
The Chinese subscribe to my method of eating. Enter restaurant, order, eat and leave. No messing around. Back on the very bad roads surrounded by rugged mountain scenery, we had one extremely “too close for comfort” near head-on collision when a bus came right at us. It was only avoided when Mr. Wang swerved into a low ditch that, fortunately, was not one of those drop-off ditches. A tremendous amount of trucks and semis since this is the unbelievable main road to Chengdu.

stunning mountains on the way to Danba, Sichuan Province, China
A 15-minute walk on the road to get some blood circulating through legs and butts in this very Colorado-looking area. The Donggu Natural Forest with a wide variety of vegetation was only 21km/12 miles away from Danba. There were ragged mountains, the Yak River…View image, dramatic canyons…View image, heavily forested with fir and deciduous trees. There were even wild red pepper trees…View image… growing along the road and the Tibetan houses now resembled little moorish castles and/or fortresses overlooking fields of sunflowers and corn…View image. This pristine and protected area has a problem containing bear poachers and Mr. Wang said that bear skins can commonly be bought in Danba.

a typical Gyarong (“Jah-row”) Tibetan house near Danba, Kham Region, China 

children playing under wild peppercorn trees in China
The drive took six-hours and Danba was in sight…