Chapter 211

Distance covered: 20 km (total 9667 km)

Next to my concrete slab was an empty lot littered with garbage, sheep shit and discarded construction materials. There was a two-foot tall hill that was the battlefield for turf wars between stray dogs, constantly barking through the night. So yeah, I didn’t sleep wonderfully.

We ate mutton dumplings for breakfast and then drove a short distance to the mountain range and stopped at some kind of low-key tourist site, with yurts to rent, a large enclosure with horses and a small visitors’ center. The gate wasn’t manned, so we just waltzed in, walked on the wooden platform in the grasslands, and enjoyed the superb view. 360 degrees around us were green mountains, it looked like Switzerland, minus the fucktardedly high price tag associated with everything in that Nazi-money-laundering country. The girlfriend, the dog and I climbed one, it looked easy from afar but was some serious work, it was much higher than it initially seemed. Those grass-covered mountains don’t look like much, with their uniform green color nd no point of reference like buildings or people or even trees. It was a super nice hike, and when we reached the summit, we could see the other side, which was a huge contrast, a flat grey desert with the small cluster of low buildings where we had spent the night.

I had a victory beer back at the car, and soon after we had instant mashed potatoes for lunch. The in-laws proposed we just hang out and camp here, and why not, not every day needs to involve a ton of driving.

So it was a lazy afternoon, after setting up the tent. I sat on the lawn chair under the tent’s tarp, wrote and read and watched the dog running after birds and butterflies. The in-laws drove back to Dulan to get the car washed and to buy stuff for dinner. We had mutton, cabbage and noodles, watched the sunset, and went to bed early. There were a bunch of locals hanging out at the reception center, having a campfire in a round brick pit, and listening to loud shitty Tibetan music. Their Bluetooth speaker started crackling and died, which was very very nice. I slept peacefully.