We spent 4 days trekking around the Tibetan village of Yubeng. We started at a hot spring hostel in Xidang village. This village was unique in that they had many fruit trees. It was an oasis on the Mekong river. The hotel was very minimal and not super clean, but the hot springs were nice. Unfortunately, only Coulson, Zea, Derek, and I went in the water. I guess the conditions weren’t right for the others. At night, three of the boys saw a big spider in their room and got scared. They jumped into the other boys’ room at 11:30 at night and huddled all five of them in two double beds.
The next morning we had cup of noodle soup, the only sanitary choice, grabbed two mules (one for Faith and one for Lizy who didn’t think they could manage the hike that day) and we headed out. The hike was 9km and 3200 feet elevation gain up to 12,230 ft. It just so happens that we were there at the same time as a 65km\ 100km race so the trail was a bit crowded and muddy (it was also drizzling all day). We took our time, pushed our fitness levels and personal limits at high elevation, and stopped for fried rice at a tea house. The Weather cleared up at the pass and what views! We could see this small village of 42 families nestled in a deep river valley between two 22,000 ft peaks. We finally made it to the mountain village of Yubeng in about 6.5 hours exhausted.
