Baby yak on road

Sha wanted a trip that we'd never forget!! It has been incredible and so dramatic that I've just got out of hospital. We started off from Chengdu, met our driver, the photographer and make-up artist, all of us squeezed into their 4-wheel drive and then drove for about 8 hours into the mountains (past the tea plantations and the bamboo forests). Our first stop was in Kangding. This was the most exotic looking place that I've been to. Lamas were walking through the street, there were prayer wheels to turn ... The signs were in a Tibetan script. At this point Sha had her make-up put on in a small traditional restaurant. I had fun walking around and wondering whether Sha was completely mad or not. In fact, I'm sure that she is because we then drove even further into the mountains (typically mountain heights in this area are 6700m - although we didn't go that high) and then Sha was photographed in a blizzard whilst wearing a wedding dress.

The road kept going up. We passed hundreds (no exaggeration) of army trucks all heading for Tibet. We kept stopping to have photographs. Apparently, I'm very "cool" - actually I was frozen. I only had to learn three poses. In one, I had to gaze into the distance, with my hands in my pocket. For the second, I had to shut my eyes and kiss Sha's cheek. Finally, I had to lean on a fence post and look cool while my feet were in some yak dung. I have to report that I have nice skin and natural hair.

There were lots of yaks. They just ambled across the road. I had an interesting experience whilst waiting for Sha to put her make-up on. We were in someone's house when they had their gory yak's head delivered. They were very excited and took turns to hand it around. They gave our photographer the horns.

We stayed in an amazing "hotel". It was really a family house. I think that the people were from the Qiang ethnic group. It was freezing and both Sha and I had huge headaches from the cold and the altitude. The house was approx 3-3.5km above sea level. There were horses everywhere.

The photos that I've put onto this blog makes it look as if we had nice sunny weather. Actually, we had a lot of snow and hail.

We fly back to Beijing this afternoon. I was meant to be going to Chongqing, but after spending all morning in hospital, I thought that I'd better rest a bit more. I'll fly back again in a few days. Sha and her parents have been wonderful looking after me!