Days are now flying by, and it is now a bit more effortful to recall where I travelled from, and where I am travelling to. We are now towards the end of our exploration of Tibetan parts of China outside of Tibet (too expensive to ride Tibet as it requires a support car and tour guide the whole time).

Today’s trip takes us through the rolling grass-mountains (proprietary term) to Tagong, which is known as the “land of the Bodhisvatta” in Tibetan. The majority of today’s route passes through the famous highway 318, which stretches almost 6000 KMs from Shanghai to the Tibetan border with Nepal.

Today’s route in blue

Altitude map of today’s ride

Setting off at 9AM, we made a first stop at Luckin Coffee to pick up a takeaway americano. I had already had my 30g pour over in the morning, but suspected that I would need a bit more as the day went on.

Coffee stop

Then it was off to the highway. It is hard to describe the landscape, other than saying that this is probably where the famous windows XP background was taken. Think grassy hills but 10x bigger, and morphed into mountains instead of hills. The road, a thin insignificant line across the landscape, was well paved and 2 lanes (one per side). In the grasslands were black specks, each of which were yaks, grazing and minding their own business.

Grass-mountains outside Litang

Each dot is a yak

Being such a famous road, the 318 has its drawbacks. It was almost completely full of travellers, with a healthy dose of commercial traffic too. SUVs and 4WDs (mostly Chinese brands, although a fair few land cruisers too), motorbikes, and cyclists alike, it was as though an entire city of people decided to go on a multi day roadtrip today. I have not seen so many overland travellers at one time. I guess this is a testament to China’s scale, where something that seems relatively niche can be so large in absolute terms.

Our steeds on G318

This made riding less pleasant than usual. It was a constant effort to overtake cars and trucks, dodge would-be collisions from oncoming traffic (who are also trying to overtake), stay away from irritated and impatient drivers, dodging the odd yak (or herd of yaks) which decides to cross the road. The pleasure from today was less from getting the corners perfect, and more from smooth overtaking, observing tourists, saying hello to the hundreds of motorcyclists we passed, and staying out of harms way.

Stops were frequent, as we were well hydrated and needed many (toilet) breaks. The views were spectacular at each of these points, each giving a different take on the grass-mountain landscape.

Rest stop #2

Rest stop #3

A few of the more notable scenes from today’s ride included:

• getting hit by a bird in the helmet while riding (at low(!) speed)
• Sky-road’s 18 bends (天路)
• This section of road where we were ascending up BOTH sides of the valley, with a loop-the-loop crossing the valley each time (i have never seen a road like this ever).

Bird strike!

Sky road’s 18 bends

Loop-the-loop highway

When it was time to turn off the 318 towards Tagong, we experienced our first major lapse in communication. I was a few cars ahead of Kiat, and I suspect he was trying to catch up, when I realised that i had missed the turn. I pulled over on the opposite side of the road, hoping he’d see me and stop, however he went straight past (I saw him gunning to overtake a large truck).

My first move was to call him on WhatsApp / text him, but I guess he didn’t have his earphones in…then tried to catch up to him…but it was too late already. All i could do was pull over in a comfortable spot and wait for him to eventually realise that he’d lost me.

That took almost half an hour, which meant that we were about an hour off course! So turning back, we made a beeline for Tagong. No more stops.

Tagong is quite a small town, comprised of a main road and a residential area. It is centred around the monastery, and set among the grassy meadows. In the distance is a singular snowcapped mountain resembling a pulpit - the sacred Yala mountain.

Tagong (Yala Mountain in the background)

We checked in to a quiet, family owned hotel, and were quite excited to see the suites were well priced (450 yuan) and quite spacious.

Suite!

Then I set off to explore the town. I spent most of my time riding around the grasslands, trying to get a nice shot of the bike, the grass and Yala mountain. As I rode on the highway outside of town, searching for photogenic locations, I noticed and elderly Caucasian traveller walking along the highway. What an effort to travel!

Coming back from the grasslands, I chanced upon a group of Sichuan bikers who offered me fruit (I was assured that it was properly washed), and we chatted about our travels and the roads.

Sichuan bikers

Tagong Monastery

Then it was time for dinner, after I chanced upon Kiat at the monastery. As we sat down and ordered our food, I was quite surprised to see the elderly traveler from earlier walk in!

The elderly traveller

He made quite the entrance, speaking French in a loud, somewhat desperate stutter, pointing to pictures to figure out what their prices were. I was up on my feet immediately to try help - although I was only translating between his gestures and sign language, to Chinese. Eventually he chose dumplings.

Once he sat down, it became quite apparent to me how peculiar he was. He was travelling with just a small, worn backpack. He had no phone, only a torn notebook, a print out of an email from 2022 in French (and folded so many times it was torn on both axes), and a few scrap pages from a dated Lonely Planet book. He carried only a very small amount of cash. He was trying to figure out: (1) where he was, and (2) how to get to a place named Garze by bus.

The traveller’s Lonely Planet excerpt

This was quite confusing to me because Garze was the name of the entire autonomous region we are in. There are also multiple towns called Garze in this part, and this was the French name for whatever the actual town was called in Chinese/Tibetan!

It was only after a while of sign language and talking when he showed me the Lonely Planet scraps, which included a small map. I cross referenced this with my phone and found the town. Then I got the restaurant staff to write down on a slip paper “I want to travel to Garze by bus, can you please help me?”, and asked about how buses worked in Tagong.

Relaying all of this to the traveler, I paid for his meal, got up and left. I left with many unanswered questions:

• Where was he going to sleep tonight?
• How did this guy make it here so far?
• Were all of his mental faculties present? (The email he had printed out, about traveling to Chengdu was 3 years old…had he been here for 3 years??)
• Does he have enough money?

I’ve learned that sometimes it is better to leave questions unanswered, to do what you can and are willing to do, and to move on.

Returning to the hotel, I was greeted by a monk from the monastery seated outside, and offered tea.

Evening tea vibes

He was the second son of the family that owned the property, and lived on the 4th floor. This was the most peculiar monk I’ve seen: he drove a Mercedes SUV, he seemed to be dating one of the staff (I may be wrong about this), he was on his phone and browsing tiktok, he loved motorcycles, and he was full of curiosity about Dubai. We sat and chatted for a while with a few staff joining us too.

A day full of interactions! I had lots of fun today.

Tomorrow; Danba!

Some stats:

• 261 KMs traveled
• Fuel added: 23.9L
• Unique interactions: 5
• 48g coffee consumed

Route to date