YOU HAVE DESTROYED THE TOWEL.. / Wushan / 6.8. 2007

The manager of the hotel – a woman who had toured Europe some years ago and fell in love with Rome. She is a former journalist, turned hotel manager and hotel designer. She was very proud of her creation. This was also our luck because she was thrilled by everything European..

Hezuo is the regional capital of the Tibetan Gannan prefecture - a town full of construction activities – to the point that it is a difficult to move around on – its location is quite nice but there is not much beauty in the town itself. The Tibetan culture is evident here not at least because of the monastery Zo Gompa and the adjoining Milarepa Palace – a unique Buddhist design consisting of nine stories. Each floor is dedicated to different Buddhist traditions. Milarepa was a yogi who overcame huge difficulties to reach enlightenment. Well we have had a lot of difficulties too and still we are very far from anything that even remotely reminds me of enlightenment…the long and winding road, that leads to your door. Yes I do miss western music too. Anyway – this impressive building is fairly new. Thanks to Mao and his young and over enthusiastic support group called the Red Guards. China would have been a better place if they had followed the tantric teachings of this monastery. After putting up our camp inside the fence of college construction site – we paid the guard a small sum and he opened the gates for us. This site had nice big trees and some grass for the horses. Kristian and I checked in at a newly opened hotel close to the monastery. One of the monks owned the hotel. It opened just two days earlier - one would never, ever believe that. It looked like it had been in use for some years. Maybe that was the idea too. Could be that it felt more like home for the guests. I have never seen a building so badly built. It was difficult not to touch something without it falling down or coming to pieces. The towels were something else – completely wet. Not just damp or slightly wet. Completely wet. All of them This was absurd and quite funny. After a little scouting I managed to find one towel in another room that maybe could be used. just maybe. What was not funny that the next morning when we checked out the young man at the reception said that I had broken the doorknob and destroyed a towel. And that now I had to pay for it. Now, this is fairly normal practice in Chinese hotels – when you check out from a hotel – the maid controls that everything is intact, that nothing is stolen (that is why one always pays a deposit many times the fee for the room) Then when you have waited between fifteen and thirty minutes the results of the Chinese jury is proclaimed – you have destroyed (yes destroyed) one towel and now you have to pay for it. Destroyed means that it is not spotlessly clean. In fact it never was, but since it is not clean now it is destroyed. Cough up some money brother! What is interesting is that the Chinese are very economical –to put it mildly. They would not even consider a truly dirty towel unusable. So what happens to all these towels that are paid by more or less innocent customers. The money does probably end up in the hotels aluminum cashbox - but the towel finds a new home. This is true. During this trip it has happened numerous times –foremost with the towels WE continued our journey over some stunningly beautiful mountains, crossed passes over 3700 meters. Stayed the night in beautiful little valley, with a river running through…surrounded by hundreds of empty bottles, chopsticks, plastic bags and other waste. This is popular picnic site for the locals from the town near by. The next day a one of the best lunches in China so far. Delicious lamb, eaten out in the open – again on a similar camping/picnic spot. The contrast between the beautiful nature and the human touch is quite something The weather was nice and we continued east heading towards the city of Lintao. After passing through one if the dustiest town on this trip we finally reached the glorious new hotel just outside Lintao. Xianrui Hotel is a surprising sight – newly built and guarded by two roman legionaries and two medieval European Knights. Statues of course, but anyway. The interior is a mixture of Versace kitsch and Chinese kitsch. The manager of the hotel – a woman who had toured Europe some years ago and fell in love with Rome. She is a former journalist, turned hotel manager and hotel designer. She was very proud of her creation. This was also our luck because she was thrilled by everything European that she gave us a very good rate – 88 RMB (approx €8, -) per (k) night.. Including a lavish breakfast. Lintao City is not a small town – but foreigners are a strange sight. We were really the talk of the town as we strolled around looking for a military shop. They sell all kind of old and new stuff from the army’s warehouse. The armed forces must have a huge over production because these shops can be found in every town. We were looking for horseshoes and rain ponchos. And field beds too. We did find a very helpful guy who had two of these shops. He promised to Get all the stuff we needed – he even gave us his visit cards so that we could call him if we wanted something more. Some hours later he called our guide Tim. Sounded totally different. He said he could not deliver anything and asked Tim to collect the cards back and destroy them. Next morning our hotel manager had disappeared. Tim said that somebody is keeping an eye on us. Maybe that also explained why our mobile/cell phones did not work and why our Internet connections at the hotel all the time got cut off…. Or maybe all this is just a coincidence. Anyway, it was time for the cowboys to leave town and ride towards the sunrise.

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