{"id":251,"date":"2012-09-16T15:24:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-16T15:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/?p=251"},"modified":"2024-08-05T09:29:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T09:29:05","slug":"to-the-source-of-the-mekong-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/?p=251","title":{"rendered":"To the source of the Mekong – One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The car fills with the whispered Tibetan prayers of the man from Zaduo. I have asked him to join, none of us knows the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first high mountain pass draws oohs and aahs for its beauty. But we don\u2019t pause, focused as we are on our aim: the Mekong\u2019s source at Zaxiqiwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise we are silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The local guide announces ten mountain passes. I soon lose count. Marco doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road winds up and down, right and left. A labyrinth in an empty world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I make notes, see what my GPS has got to say about our progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We approach a river. I jot down it is the biggest stream we have seen so far. When I look up we are in the middle already \u2013 and stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten centimeters of water soon fill the car. We crawl out through the back, in hopes the water is less deep than left and right perhaps. Or because instinctively people always choose the shortest way to safety. I am sure it looks comical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Phuntsok has set out without anything one may need: chain or rope for towing, tools, jerrycan, spade, plastic to keep luggage dry. I still bought the latter two \u2013 but should have checked better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a while a truck. The driver has a rope, we have a cord that ties our luggage together. They wind them together. \u2013 that\u2019s clever, I think. It pulls our car out of the river. But it kind of drowned, can\u2019t be brought back to life. The truck moves on, we have to turn back to Zaduo \u2013 somehow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had gotten halfway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tractor shows up. A stroke of good luck. It is in the area because of a grass-sowing program that should prevent soil erosion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time there is only our luggage cord to pull our car. It snaps right away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tractor goes, comes back much later with a steel cable, tows us up a pass where its driver makes it known he doesn\u2019t have enough gas to tow us any further and takes off. Soon after our guide from Zaduo also leaves in a rare passing car, it has one empty seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darkness falls, we warm some food, pitch tents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The car fills with the whispered Tibetan prayers of the man from Zaduo. I have asked him to join, none of us knows the way. The first high mountain pass draws oohs and aahs for its beauty. But we don\u2019t pause, focused as we are on our aim: the Mekong\u2019s source at Zaxiqiwa. Otherwise we … Continue reading “To the source of the Mekong – One”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,156],"tags":[16,12,15,14],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chin-eng","category-mekong-english","tag-china","tag-mekong","tag-qinghai","tag-source"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}