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On the edge of Tibet

A good breakfast was had in Noahs cafe, across the road from the hotel at 10ish and we (along with Laura and Kenny_2) set about getting the "frog bus" - number 3 - about 10 minutes north of town to one of the 2 sights in the town, the big Monastery. We quickly stepped through the entrance gate whilst avoiding all eye-contact with the ticket seller and proceeded up some stairs - not exactly the most steps we've ever seen, but due to the altitude (over 3000m) it was pretty tough work climbing it.

The monastery was pretty devoid of obvious "monk-ie" stuff, no-one praying in the temple, not even a group of them hanging around talking crap. The odd one or two would pass by, usually with mobile phone stuck to their ear, (obviously arranging tonights' date ). There was one guy singing away to himself and ringing a little bell and playing a little drum, but other than that we were disappointed to find little other activity, save of course the obligatory Chinese tour groups milling around. 

Anne-Marie and myself managed to sneak by another ticket seller and get upstairs, where people would proceed around a square, giving hundreds of 'prayer-wheels' a spin. Up on top of the monastery we got a nice view down over the city. Then we high-tailed it out in case they tried to sting us for tickets on the way down again, back onto the frog bus and back into town.

We wombled around the old town a bit and found a nice place for a bit of lunch and then proceeded to the second of the towns 2 sights, a massive golden prayer-wheel on a hill in the middle of the old town. We all had a go at trying to turn it - it's incredibly heavy, and could do with a bit of a grease, or maybe they should sell some of the gold to lighten the load a bit!

Coming back down the steps from the prayer wheel we were greeted by hundreds of Chinese tourists all with fancy-ass cameras (undoubtably set on 'automatic' mode) and tripods, all clicking away taking pictures of the big gold thing, and of course the 'Laowai' - foreigners. So of course I started waving a 'royal wave' at them, and smiling and trying to get a bit of a round of applause out of them but to no avail. They were dead happy to take pictures of me though, but when I started telling them it'd be "wu kwai" - 50 cents - they thought that it was the funniest thing they'd heard. I don't know why they thought I was joking - I was quite serious - I mean they look for money from me.... fair's fair. Next time they ask for money, I know how to answer them now!

We continued wandering around the town for a bit, and meanwhile formulated our next move - we're not going to go to Litang, instead we're going to go back to Lijiang, and then fly to Guilin via Kunming. We would love to go to Litang, and Chengdu, but it's about a 4 day journey if we don't stop in Litang, and a 6 day trip otherwise, and as this is rocking up to be the last 10 or so days in China, it's a bit silly to spend 4 or 5 of them on 8+hour bus journeys, and not enjoying the sights. However we're glad we made it as far as Zhongdian - it is almost like being Tibet, since it used to be part of the empire not so long ago. The people look different, usually with rosy red cheeks from the altitude! The food is heavily influenced by Tibet - a lot of Yak on the menu, and the restaurants display their carcasses outside (like *thats* going to entice you in!). In the taxi from the bus station yesterday, I even noticed pigs and yaks on the main road- its much wilder here than any other part of China we've seen.

So Guilin and Yangshou it is for us, after a quick trip to Lijiang again. So until then, the last leg of the China experience,be well.

K.

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