Moto trip in Sichuan
After Larung Gar we took a shared car to Manigango (we were supposed to go to Ganze but we heard that there is a beautiful lake in Manigango and it was on our way so we finally decided to visit the lake. The road from Ganze to Manigango was so incredible...mountains, temples, traditional villages. But we couldn't stop the car to take photos because we were not alone. Thus, next day we rented a motorbike in Manigango and we did almost the whole way from Manigango to Ganze (about 60km one way) and we stopped in each place that we wanted.
The altitude was very high, about 4000 m above the sea level but still it wasn't that cold for a motorbike. Also, it was very easy for us to rent a motorbike. We asked some guys on the road if they could rent us one and some of them said yes so we accepted the one with the best price. We paid 100 yuan for the whole day plus 30 yuan for the fuel.
What we love in motorbikes is that you can stop everytime when you want, you are so free while traveling! The goal of our moto trip was to reach the most beautiful monastery that we saw on the previous day. This monastery looked like a miniature of Larung Gar (the place that we visited a few days before). After maybe 2 hours we got there and the atmosphere there was really nice. All the buildings where painted in the same way. We saw a lot of pilgrims and old Tibetan ladies who live in this place, but the best part was inside the main building of the monastery. The monks where still praying and we could watch them doing this. We even made a small video of this that we will publish very soon. I was very interested in taking photos to young monks, they were about 10 years old or even younger and already they were studying the mantras, praying but as well playing like normal kids in their ages.
At the end of the day we decided to go to our final place that we wanted to see (and that was the reason to go to Manigango!). So finally we were on our way to Manigango Lake situated at about 4000m above the sea level. We thought that it would be a normal lake, nothing special. But, as we were closer and closer to the lake, we saw a landscape that was totally different from what we were thinking about. We couldn't believe ourselves...it was just too beautiful to be true:) Have a look, I guess you would never feel like China looking at these photos, but yes, it is CHINA!
If you are interested in doing this trip on your own and you have some questions don't hesitate to ask us!