Hitching to Minyong Village

The following morning we decide to hitchhike to Minyong Glacier so we grab the walking sticks and some water and head off. We’re lucky to get a lift part of the way just as we exit Tashi’s and figure we’ll be at the glacier within an hour.

The truck we hitch in is identical to this one, ever since I first saw these trucks I’ve wanted to ride in one. Unfortunately it’s very barebones and the lack of suspension makes for an incredibly bumpy ride.

Our luck runs out and we walk for the next hour with several cars passing without stopping. We think we’re back in luck when a semi trailer approaches, however it waves us away, only to stop one kilometre from where it passed us. We walk past it, have a quick chat with the driver as he’s washing the truck and continue on our way. Several minutes later, the same truck is approaching us and this time stops to give us a lift. We reach the Minyong/Tibet fork in the road where the driver stops and lets us out. We start walking down the road towards Minyong only to have the driver take the same fork, leaving us clueless as to why he dropped us off here.

The next several hours pass by without securing a lift, it’s now 2:30pm and we’re worried that we won’t make it back to Tashi’s for dinner. As we’re looking for a place to have lunch, we successfully stop a car of Chinese tourists and secure a lift to the base of the glacier. We leave them to hike the trail, while we look for a place to eat.