Silk Road 2003

Woke up at 6.30am after a very pleasant 9½ hour sleep. There seemed to be a huge rainstorm outside and so got a little depressed, thinking that all this effort and long journey to this remote part of China would be wasted. However when I finally plucked up enough courage to open the curtain, I was so delighted to see dry concete slab outside but with the flowing Xiahe river right in front of my room. The mist on the mountain top added to the tranquility and mystery of this place I was about to discover.

A quick wash, and then I discovered that the toilet did not flush properly in this 2-star (or minus 3-star) hotel. I spent about 15 minutes trying to sort it out with no success. So at 7.30am I decided to go out and explore a bit of the area before breakfast - armed with my camera, I was hoping to take pictures of local women drawing water from the river. Alas there's none of that. However, I was rewarded with farmers ploughing the fields, shepherds with their herds of sheep / goats, children heading to school. I had a stroll along the river - the sound of the flowing water was so relaxing, that somehow I got a little stressed about being so relaxed! Maybe from now on I really ought to get away from the hustle and bustle of the cities and stay in a remote area for a few days to be closer to nature - no noise of cars, people etc.

We had a much simpler breakfast this morning - bread with yak butter and jam, some cakes that tasted like macaroons, fried eggs, coffee (Tibetan style, rather nice and strong) and hot yak milk.

Labrang Monastery, Xiahe After breakfast, we set off for the Labrang Monastery. This was a Tibetan monastary and considered to be one of the most important ones outside Tibet. There were 6 institutes in this monastery - each specialising in a different subject. The first institute we visited was the medicine one - there was a diagram of a tree on one of the walls; apparently each brach was like one volume of the book, and then each branch within would be a chapter, and then further divided into different parts of a chapter.

Next we went into the hall where we were not allowed to take photos - inside there were impressive statues of various buddhas, as well as areas for praying etc. We visited a few other halls too afterwards. Then finally a great hall where we saw a ceremony of prayers. The chief monk walked up and down the central aisle chanting, while people threw some bits of paper (with name and/or wishes on them) to the other monks who picked them up and threw them further down the aisle.

We then visited the residence of one of the lamas - there was a room for prayer, a room for books, bedroom, kitchen, toilet. It was basic but well-equipped - even had their own friedge. Usually one residence would house a tutor plus 2-3 students.

After that it was lunch at one of the restaurants in the town of Xiahe. Again a lot of leftovers afterwards but perhaps it's because the other members of the group were having headaches (altitude sickness?) - fortunately I was OK.

A quick hop back to the hotel and then I took the minibus back into town again for some shopping. I walked along the whole street but saw nothing interesting. Andy took me to an internet cafe and so I checked some e-mails - it was such a surreal experience because one of the lamas was sitting next to me playing internet video games! And earlier in the day I saw a lama with mobile phone - so even technology has already hit this place big time. And just as I thought lama monks were not supposed to be dating, I saw one holding hand with a girl (not a nun) - I started to get very confused about this place.

Finally I found a shop selling some colourful materials - so bought 3 6-feet materials for scarfs - only 6 yuans each for the smaller ones and 9 yuans for the larger one. Bargain.

While walking back to our meeting point, I witnessed an old man being hit by a van. Not nice at all but I didn't think he was seriously hurt.

Took some pictures of the prayer wheels while waiting for our bus, Quite interesting to see various people walking this pilgrim route, turning the wheels as they went past.

As soon as I got back to the hotel and dropped off my jacket (it was getting warm), I headed back into town via a dirt track - quite interesting to see the living conditions of the local people. Then I walked back via the main road to take some pictures of the valley and mountains. Tibetan man

I spent about half an hour sitting under the sun by the river at the hotel reading the Gansu section of the Lonely Planet guide. Most pleasant.

Before we headed for dinner, we went to see the home of a typical Tibetan family. The mother of the family made some friend bread dough for us and we all ate a few. Took some photos of their home as well as a few pictures of the family members.

When we walked back to the bus, a herd of kids were following us shouting "Hello, Youpi". I asked Steed what "You-pi" meant as I had heard it a couple of times and had no idea what it meant. Apparently it meant ball-point pen which made this even more mind-boggling! Steed thought that the early tourists left a bad habit here by giving kids presents and so now every time the kids saw foreigners, they shouted "Hello Youpi". Andy gave them some sweets to try to get rid of them. Mountains at Xiahe

Finished dinner at 7pm - certainly egtting a lot colder and more windy, and the mist has settled back down on the mountain tops. Steed said that there might be snow on the mountain top tomorrow morning.

Toilet still not working and the hotel couldn't fix it. So had to use the one in the corridor instead - first experience of the squat toilet and I survived without soiling my pants nor falling into the great big hole on the ground.

Go back to Day 7 / Go to Day 9