Then, after 飞来寺 Feilai Si, we started driving. As we crossed a bridge near the border of T.A.R., the road started to become very rocky and bumpy with a strong sun blasting from the top. We were driving right by the cliff and then underneath there was a river. Then, we saw A Tibetan Monk walking this rocky road all by himself with an umbrella. He was hitch hiking. We picked him up and he was very happy that we did. He was sweating with thick red robe on his body. Then, I asked him where he was going.
This Tibetan Lama, his real name is Lama Lobsang and he told me in the combination of physical gesture and a very very few words of English, as well as myself knowing the pronunciation, we realized that we were going to the same place, 雨崩 Yubeng. This made me very glad since I knew that from the town of 西当村, Xidan, there is no road for the cab, and from there you have to climb for 4 hours. I had some Internet print out of lodges in 雨崩 Yubeng, I didn't know what this climbing entailed. It was a big unknown trip that I was about to do. So, I immediately realized that I can follow this lama to 雨崩 Yubeng. In the morning, I felt shy about getting food since all the Tibetan restaurants there seemed very local and foreign to me, so I enede up just getting three apples and bottled water, thinking that the town of 西当村, Xidan, there is more restaurants. As soon as we got to 西当村, Xidan, Lama Lobsang was ready to climb and I was still trying to arrange the cab driver, his name 六三 (sheeee-san), to pick me up after three days at noon. I tried everything by writing things down to show (Japanese use Chinese characters) to 六三. The deal was set and I was ready to eat. For some reason, Lama Lobsang was not interested in eating and he wanted to leave right away. I showed him a gesture of eating by moving my hands into my mouth. he said, in the mountain that we climb, there are places to eat. I knew how to read his gesture by then. So, the climbing started lightly hastily but with excitement and comfort with Lama Lobsang.
This is already the altitude, 3000m or higher. I am very adoptable and healthy in general so since Shangri La (Zhongdian), I had no altitude sickness. Then as soon as I started climbing, I started breathing heavily and my legs started shaking as I walked. It maybe the combination of thin air and the lack of exercise. I also had a medium sized but heavy back pack, a camera bag hanging from my shoulder and a camera tri-pad. These things hanging from my body made me sink into the ground it felt and every 10 steps made my breathing very very heavy and I couldn't walk anymore. So, I would say, "Oh! Lama, Oh! Lama!," and just sit down there. This actions of mine, if this was someone that I was climbing a mountain with, I would get annoyed but, this was my limitation, the best I could do, and I had no choice than walking little and resting every two minutes. So every time we stopped, I would take out candy bars and shared with lama. I filmed Lama speaking. I gave lama a book with Dalai Lama in it (since it is not allowed to have Dalai Lama picture anywhere in China, but I knew by then, having it in a places like we were, it is alright). We tried teaching each other English and Tibetan. Little by little, I started to know him by the chance of my not being able to keeping up climbing.
Then after a while, as we were hearing some domesticated mules coming our way, when the group of mules were trying to walk by us, Lama suddenly stopped mule by almost hugging the mules from its head. The mule startled first of all and shook his body in Lama's arm, but then the mule calmed down. This all happened within 20 seconds and it really gave me a strong impression. In someways, I remembered a scene in graphic nobel, "Buddha," by Osamu Tezuka in which Buddha meditates and jumps into the soul of an animal, softly telling the animal, don't be alarmed, I am your friend. Lama after calming own the mule, took my backpack and put it on mules back, and let it walk ahead of us.
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