Bangda to Raog (Tibet)

I walk out of Bangda town, through another checkpoint (these are so commonplace that I've stopped worrying about them) and sit alongside the highway several km out of town waiting for a lift.

A minivan eventually comes past and offers me a lift to the next town (Baxoi) and I negotiate a reasonable price for the lift.

Along the way we pass several cyclists making the journey from Chengdu to Lhasa, something I see with increasing frequency the closer I get to Lhasa. At one point, we pass through a tunnel that is guarded on both sides by soldiers.

Further along the road we pass a few senior Chinese citizens hiking along the road. They look to be in their sixties and I have nothing but the utmost respect for them.

The minibus lets us out in Baxoi and given that there's still plenty of time in the day, I continue walking past the police (this time there isn't a checkpoint at the end of the town.

I hitch a lift in a van, which drops me off up the road, right in front of a military base. I wave to the soldiers standing guard outside. One of them cracks a smile, realises he has and quickly disposes himself of it. I continue walking along the road and after half an hour, hitch a lift in the same van, this time loaded with rice.

I'm dropped off well outside the town and as I walk along the road towards the next town, I see a tractor with two yak in the trailer. I shout out to the driver who stops while I catch up and hop in the back.

So there I was, sitting on the edge of a tractor trailer loaded with two yak. The smaller one closer to me, the large angry one next to the Tibetan midget.

All's fine and dandy and we're cruising along at a blistering pace of 15 km/h when the large angry yak does what angry yaks do. He starts headbutting the front of the trailer. The midget doesn't hesitate, launching a sharp jab at the yak's neck.

The yak calms down, temporarily. I try to prevent more violence against yaks by petting the angry yak which keeps him calm, until he decides to do what angry yaks do.

This time the angry yak starts moving sideways, first almost knocking the midget off the trailer, then pushing the smaller yak against the side of the trailer and my leg, bruising it. Jab jab from the midget and the yak calms down again.

Next time the yak is pissed off he manages to reach a hoof up and start stomping the head of the smaller panicked yak. No more mister nice guy, two quick jabs to the ribs and I stop him and am able to move his hoof away from the smaller yak.

The midget is impressed with my kung-fu and together we team up against the yak. Any time the yak charges, we launch a physical assault on him calming him down. Still, given the sheer size and the strength of the yak, if he wanted to, he could have knocked us both of the trailer without breaking a sweat.

Several hours driving like this, we pass several pilgrims doing the prayer walk to Lhasa along the way, I'm dropped off, two hours before sunset and six hours walk to the next town.

The tractor with yak in the trailer. After the angry yak started doing what angry yak do, I clipped my bag to the side of the trailer, this way I was holding onto bag and trailer with one arm and issuing discipline with the other.

One hour's walk after my most interesting hitch hiking experience, I still have no lift and it starts raining. I start scoping out options for shelter and find a spot under a bridge next to a river. It shouldn't rain so hard that the river rises and wets me so I sit on the bridge waiting for a lift.

I'm picked up by a trio of Chinese tourists just as I'm about to give up on the idea of getting a lift to town and they drive me all of the way to town at blistering speed. We're going so fast that the car almost gets airborne driving over the speed hump before the unmanned police checkpoint at the end of town and the driver slams on the brakes as he realises that he's driven through the entire (tiny) town of Raog. We do a U-turn, drive back into town, past the checkpoint (I really don't like these) and they drop me off outside of a tourist hotel.

Here I pay for the most expensive room I've had in several weeks as I'm too tired to walk to the truck hotel which should be within 1km. On the plus side, this place has a shower and I have my first shower since leaving Dege.