Thursday, April 06, 2006

Days 211 - 214: lurking in Yushu

You'll have to add 3 km to the total at some point, because I've moved from one end of town to the other in the last few days, at a snail-defying rate of about 13 millimetres westward per minute.

Yushu is somewhat like London, Paris, Rome, New York, Royston, etc.

It has stuff.

I mean, just look at this.



It even has my favourite, White Cat Liquid Detergent.


And fried dace!
Asmund! Look, fried dace.

Here's the deal.

If I don't make it, you get the contents of my left-rear pannier. I chucked out my tent and sleeping bag, reckoned it wasn't really necessary, and stocked up on dace instead. But if I perish on the plateau, the dace is yours, OK?

Macho Man.
Posted by a blogger at 11:04

10 comments:

  1. See!

    I "knew" Ed was still in Yushu!

    Asmund.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Ed!

    Or maybe I should call you macho Ed? i thought by now someone had demanded that you would take a much, much(and so on) safer route. Like road 214. have you told someone there is a road up there? Who built it?"Every" worker in china capabel of doing hard manual work at an altitude of 5.000 meters are working on the Lhasa-Golmud railway megaproject. "the toughest railway project untill end of time". For the last few high altitude working seasons (3 months?) everybody have been working on the megaproject to get it finished to 2007. so with no high altitude workers" left. who built your road Ed? I "know" you have told family and close friends about it. But why can`t you tell the rest of us?

    Asmund.
    ReplyDelete
  3. liberary time is up
    ReplyDelete
  4. Yup, you've lost me is this blog is starting to get hidden messages in it. www.reversespeech.com (I bet you'll be bored in 10 minutes)

    In a new twist to the story I got so bored I down loaded google earth. All the maps a rubbish and to my amazement it has absolutley no idea where Yushu is. So Ed can you make a really big sign in the hillside? I've estimated you need to use about 90 ground sheets each around 30 x 15 foot you could spell your name! or make a really big arrow and the the word ME!
    ReplyDelete
  5. Ed!

    I have borrowed some money and moved to the wangba.
    I am in need of money. Do you think I can sell the slogan:
    "The toughest railway project untill the end of time."
    To the Chinese?
    How much should I demand?

    Anyway I just got your e-mail.
    I hope I don`t reveal too much by telling the content? It was:

    e

    Yesterday I went to a bookshop and inbetween 3265 books about fish I found the Tibetan Handbook,Footprint.
    I guess you have parts of the same edition with you. It is the 3 and latest edition from 2004.
    It has the same warning as the 1999 edition:

    "A trail leads into the remote interior of the Yangtze source region to link up with the Lhasa-Kermu(Golmud) road near Toma."
    (Toma is probably Wequan 50-100 km north of the border to Tibet.)
    "NB This route is not passable in summer when the river levels are high and at other times only in a four-wheel drive jeep with a high-axled support truck."

    In this edition the important map is not missing. It shows a very winding track from Zadoj(Gyelje Podrang), maybe 500-600 km long,going mainly west to Toma. The bridgeless rivercrossings were a bit hard to count maybe 10 or so?

    Are you going to go this way or is there another track out there?
    And if it is new.
    Who built it?
    Since "everybody" is working on the Lhasa-Golmud megaproject and "all" roadbuilding,requiering "high altitude workers",has been delayed until the railway has been completed next year.

    So where is your road Ed?
    You know map producers sometimes put planned roads on their maps so they will stay more up yo date longer. I have several times been looking for roads shown on my maps that does not exist. And when I ask the locals they just scratch their heads and laugh.

    Let me guess.
    You have seen the line on multimap.com. It is very winding so it is probably a track.
    If it exist at all.
    From what unreliabel source do they get this line from? Multimap covers the whole world. Do you really think they are reliable? The line ends at Budongquan.
    Budong? That should mean "I don`t understand" in Chinese,and that sums it all up. I don`t understand why it is so important to risk your life? For what Ed? To be cycling in the Yangtze source area? The river that ends in your Chinese "hometown" of Shanghai?

    Please explain!

    Asmund.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Ed! (Or someone else...)

    People on the blog constantly nag me for writing things here of a more private matter. So I tell them it is because you probably don`t read my e-mails. And also partly it is meant for other readers of this blog. People who are interested in cycling.

    But since Sathurday March 25 I have mainly been writing to someone else. Someone who could and should demand you to take road 214.
    Unless you come up with a very good reason for you to survive the "bridgeless track".

    If I was one of them I would not care if you never would want to see me again. Just as long as I knew you were living somewhere.
    The opposit could well be to get the message: "Missing presumed dead."

    Now Ed.
    Do you still not believe in censorship?

    Asmund.
    ReplyDelete
  7. Ed,
    Hows the circulation? feet etc. was just wondering as that's all gone very quiet on that front.

    Try a capillary refill test, pinch your finger tip or toes near the nail bed. Then let it go should return to pink after about 2 seconds-ish depends how cold you are.

    Oh yeah! liked the snow pictures and all that. Last bit of advice don't eat yellow snow it ain't lemon flavour
    ReplyDelete
  8. You might need to take off your socks and wash your feet first, to see the true effect in all it's glory.

    As shoes, socks, dirt and cold will affect the results!
    ReplyDelete
  9. Asmund - I don't know about you, but this looks a lot like the road Ed speaks of:
    ReplyDelete
  10. thank goodness there is stuff in Yushu. when my son spends the fall there as a volunteer sept 2006 i will know he can go to the store and not just have yak hooves - what are they for...
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)