Ye Bun

This is us bright and early making our way up the path.  The trek begins at the end of a road which we could have got a lift to (had the only taxi service not tried to rip us off), so we kindly followed Tibetan locals up to the pass. The grandfather of where we had been staying escorted us to the first bit, and not wanting to appear slack, we started off at a cracking pace. He introduced us to this lovely woman who took Claire's bag and carried it (with her own bag) to the end of the road despite the protests. (About 500 metres of vert). On arriving at the top of the hill she kindly gave the bag back and commenced her daily task of digging a trench very speedily.  Its not very often that someone surprises you but the kindness of these people was very endearing.

The pass was covered in enchanted virgin forest.

Very spooky looking with in the misty clouds.

The trail is covered in these prayer flags, brightening our walk.

About two hours into our walk it started raining and then snowing.  We found crunchy snow from about 3,200m.

As you hit the top of the pass, you get to see an abundance of prayer flags.  It really is spectacular to walk through such a mass of colour made even more beautiful against the back-drop of snow and forest.

At the top of the pass is "Tea boy" he is actually a grown man but he has this great and very welcoming hut where he lets boys like the one in the middle set of loud bangers that scare your shaky legs.

It was very cold and the fire was warm if alittle smoky...but we got hot dumplings from the locals and a chance to sit with them and nod alot as they asked us questions in Tibetan.  Jason joined them drinking Tibetan Yak butter tea and eating some very fatty pork.

Some nodding was followed by raucous laughter so we are concerned they may of been asking "Do you have frogs bollox?" or " Are you stupid?"

We were really excited to find magic dust / space dust in China, it had been banned in the UK along time ago.  For those of you not familiar with the crackling taste of sweet sugar popping in your mouth, its quite refreshing after greasy pork rind that's been sat in a hut for months. (...and no it wasn't this that gave Jason a bad stomach...it was butter tea...apparently....)