Home sweet home

We stopped in the town of Thangkor to visit the local school, which Intrepid supports, and play basketball with the kids. Once again we were accosted by hundreds of children who were in awe of Tim’s hairy arms and Michelle’s eyebrow ring!





Thangkor is the closest town to the grasslands where we would be staying in a homestay. We visited the family's ‘Summer place’ – a tent in the middle of nowhere - where we tasted Tsampa (barley flour with yak butter) and had a chance to ride the horse. Several families live close by and they each have a very vicious guard dog! Yak bones lie rotting on the grass – the nomads are totally dependent on their yaks. They eat the meat, drink the milk, use the stinky butter for almost everything (including moisturiser) and burn the dung on the stove. They use the wool to make blankets, and sleep on yak skins. An average family kills two yaks a year and subsists on only this and about 100Yuan (that’s about ₤6 a year!!!).








The family also have a brick house for the winter. Our host had set up mattresses on the floor and we cooked our own noodles on the yak-dung fire before settling down for our cosy slumber party. Boys in the cold, drafty entrance room and girls in the toasty warm living room with the stove!

We were really looked after and I like to think it was a fairly authentic experience – Intrepid is the only tour company that visits these parts and this was the only homestay that operates, so we really saw the nomadic life in a way others can’t. Not sure I could hack it though – yak meat takes some getting used to, and many Tibetans only have a wash every 6 months!