29/9 Bus to Danba

Thursday 29 September

Bus leaves at 6.30 so up at 5.30. Taxi man dropped us at the bus station and showed us where to go. Office locked up until 6.20. Freeling apprehensive about getting tickets – fallback plan go to Kanding. Doors opened and everyone rushed inside. Many ticket counters but for some reason 3 was the favourite. I had a good position in the queue. Suddenly Mr Knowitall appears, states that counter 1 will open first so the lemmings rush to counter 1. I stayed put and watched Mr K saunter over and take pole position at counter 3!!  Probably a tout. People trying to push in between me and the steel railings – I leaned on them. Classic public servant type behind the window . . . taking her time. When she is ready I point to watch and ask Danba?  Hmmm she wonders . . asks somebody . . shakes head. Ok what about Kanding? Chattering behind the counter. By now it is 6.30. She points off to the left . . go over there. I thought she meant another counter but her boss is also pointing that way and there is a man waiting for me and calling Danba. So who is he . . a tout, a taxi driver . .? Quick decision . . may as well see where he goes. He leads us through the hall and into the smoke filled garage where the buses are waiting. He points to a bus and says Danba. But we don’t have tickets? Various people are talking about us and pointing in all directions. They take our big bag and put it in the hold then they say get on board. But we don’t have tickets. We find seats in the back row of a pretty full bus and then a man comes and gives us tickets that say Y151 each. I give him 300 and Im looking for 2 when he shakes his head. Aaaah so they want to rip us off? He writes Y260 . . that’s all he wants. OK and off we go.

The bus itself wasn’t bad – a coach with non-reclining seats. But the roads were generally bad to very bad, although still better than the Indian Roads of Death. A lot of the same – sheer cliffs above and vertical drops below – but not as intimidating. Driving constantly up river valleys, over passes, through many tunnels, thick with dust and fumes, studying the river’s life cycle in reverse. A lot of striking scenery. Quite heavy traffic, including a loooong convoy of Red Army trucks that we overtook. All up nearly 11 hours. Note to self – do not sit in the back row!

Uncle Arthur (apologies to Glen Robins) At the Chengdu bus station I was trying to find anybody with a few words of English – is this the bus station etc. The one old couple tried to help but all they had was a Chinese babble. I think it dawned that we wanted to go to Danba. So when we got on the bus there they were . . beaming and waving and calling Danba! They were both well got up . . in fact he had a pin striped suit and highly shiny shoes. When we stopped for a wee stop, I spotted urinals and wandered in. On the way out, I vaguely registered that there were no cubicles and in fact someone was squatting on the floor in the open. I didn’t really see him but whoever it was was beaming and I thought I even glimpsed a wave, which was brave in the circumstances.

There was some uncertainty about when we should get off and we kind of expected one of the drivers or the old folks to tell us when we reached Danba. But nobody did so I patted Uncle Arthur and asked him, which sparked another outbreak of Danba Danba.

The hotel here is a bit cheap and cheerful, which is OK after our string of de luxe accommodation. The one good thing is that we have wifi in bed again, and if you listen carefully, you will hear J snoring in the background.

We went out for dinner in a local restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet but found the food rather bland, as Tibetan food tends to be.

I went downstairs to get the wifi started and met some Dutch people who were headed in the same direction. They are leaving tomorrow and evidently accommodation is a major issue in all these towns at the moment. It became apparent that one of them was very fluent in Chinese and she told me that she was staying an extra day and was looking for something to do. So we agreed to meet tomorrow at 9.30 to explore the old watchtowers just up the river.