Sunny & quite warm
Alt: 3550m
Still we couldn't find a away out of Deqin, but we were putting a lot more effort into the task now.
The few people who would take us were asking prices we just didn't have the money for. At one point some of the other forigners thought they had a little bus we could all go on and share he cost, but then they could not find the guy and it all fell through.
So we played snooker again and this time the crowds were even bigger. Inspired by the support and cheers everyone gave if you made a pot, I played some stunning shots and won. It was a great afternoon and the locals were certainly a carefree and happy bunch, very welcoming to this odd crowd of foreigners who had invaded. Perhaps they could foresee a future of easy tourist money, but I think they were genuinely glad to have us there as a distraction for their daily life.
Some Chinese botanists were staying in the room next to ours who spoke very good English, but more importantly to us, had two great big Landcrusers. Mike and I spent hours talking to them, faining interest in flowers, hoping to get a lift out of them, but eventually we discovered they were going back south.
Rumours and schemes were flying back and forth between the eleven of us relating what various locals had told us as we enquired about lifts. Some times we were feeding wrong information where we thought we might get a lift just for the three of us, but other times it seemed we would be better all to go together and so we were cooperating. They were all doing the same thing.
Miscommunication due to the language barrier was still the biggest problem, but by now Mike and I between us were getting quite good using the words we had learnt, our phrase books and sign language. The French people in the group were not even that proficient at English, so Mike and I would be ushered into cafes or up the street to talk to some guy who they thought was a potential driver.
Using hand signals to talk was very confusing as the locals really did not grasp some of the miming we did, which were really obvious to the other westerners. The phrase book was useful sometimes, but other people couldn't read the symbols we were showing, either because they spoke another language such as Tibetan, or perhaps because they were illiterate. More frustratingly was those who could read the phrase book were fascinated by it and were as interested in reading it rather than discussing lifts. It forced us to learn to speak as much as possible which was good and really helped for the rest of the trip.
Then there was the whole question of whether we were allowed to go into Tibet at all. Some people were saying it was off limits to foreigners and we had no chance of getting to Lhasa that way, but others were equally sure of the opposite. One guy who could speak English, told us as far as the United Nations was concerned Tibet was now open to all and if stopped we should fight it out to be allowed to continue our journey.
The other worrying thing was the state of the road itself and whether it was safe or even passable. Some guys seemed to be telling us the road was impassable at one stage, which would certainly explain the lack of traffic heading that way.
We decided to sleep on it...
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