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March - October 2005

Intrepid Season 2005 - China, Tibet, & Nepal (part I)

Brett Voegele
2005-11-19 14:15:37

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An to Dazai. It's a great walk, as one leaves the environs of the Zhuang tribe and passes into the country of the Yao. If you remember my update from the last time I was in the region you'll remember my encounter with the Yao woman and how she took her hair down to show me the additional two bundles that made up her sculptured coiffeur. You'll also remember that she tried to drink me under the table with the local rot-gut...mijiu. Not much difference this trip, although we confined our drinking to our own little group, and back in the safe haven of our lodge in Ping An.

OK, so maybe safe is a misnomer. That night at the lodge a local woman would in turn approach each of us with a cup full of mijiu. After singing us a song we were obliged to 'ganbei' (bottoms up) the concoction. We didn't drink nearly as much that night as we had the previous evening. However, I think it was a combination of the alcohol, a pretty full-on chest cold (which I'm still fighting), and sunburn and dehydration from lack of water on our hike that caught up with me the next morning. I got up and went to the toilet at 6. I remember thinking that I really needed some water, and that I needed to go back into the other room to turn on the pot to boil some. The next thing I knew I awoke and my roomie, and fellow new leader, was inches from my face and I was on the floor. Guess I needed that water more urgently than I thought! I was coherent upon awaking from my swan dive, which makes me think it was more dehydration than anything. Maybe subconciously I was simply testing Eric's skills, as it was his turn to be 'leader for the day'. He did well. A few hours later when I awoke I was still feeling pretty unsteady, and I had an extremely sore head for the next 5 days. Who knew bouncing your head off walls and floors wasn't good for you. Go figure!

We made our way down to the bus stop for the short ride into ...