In Tibet Again! ...Kinda...

We woke up to a misty morning.  I stepped out and got a better look at our hotel - a cluster of rooms set around a courtyard of wildflowers and flag poles, all below mountains raising more than 3000 meters above sea level.  Lovely!

 

After a Chinese breakfast, we picked up our stuff & headed back into town.  Located at 2900 meters above sea level, this traditional Tibetan town lies in the middle of a mountain valley.  Part of the old Tibetan empire, Xiahe's claim to fame is Labrang Monestary, one of the 6 most important Tibetan monestaries in the Gelugpa order.  The town has one important main tarmac street that runs through it, which runs past Labrang Monestary and also encompass much of Xiahe's "downtown".  Around the main street runs a labaranth of smaller, mostly residential streets with houses made of adobe.

 

Our first task in town was to find another guesthouse.  Our first option was Tara's Guesthouse, located in a good location of town, not too far from the monastery.  Luckily, a big group of tourists left in the morning, which meant that they had an open four person room for us!  The room was simple, but cozy, and the service was very friendly. 

 

Accommodation settled, we proceeded to head to Labrang Monestary.  Unlike other monasteries in or out of Tibet, Labrang monastery remains to be a very active monastary.  When monks are decreasing in numbers around Tibet and beyond, it was very refreshing to see the large number of actively practicing monks around the monastery.  According to the Lonely Planet, our best option was to take the English tour, given twice a day, which would allow us to see more rooms in the monastery than if we did it ourselves.  Our tour guide was a monk with a rather demure, quiet feel about him.  He led a group of 25 foreign tourists (including the four of us) around the monastery.  The monastery itself was quite impressive, with many different buildings and priceless thangkas, scriptures, and statues around.  I thought the most impressive part was when we wondered into the main assembly hall and in the darkness, seeing hundreds of maroon and fucsia cloaked monks gathering around.  In two of the other buildings, there were also groups of monks huddled in the corner, reciting their scriptures while tourists shuffle by and old Tibetan women change the butter in the dozens of yak butter candles.

 

After Labrang, we went for lunch at a restaurant at Nomad's Restaurant, across the street from our guesthouse.  A fare of Tibetan and Chinese food later (I still don't like yak meat), the three Brits decided to spend their afternoon in the surrounding grassland while I decided to stay around town. 

 

Activity one for me was to walk around sections of the prayer wheels that covers the perimeter of town.  Most Tibetan prayer wheels are made out of some form of metal, but Xiahe is unique because all the prayer wheels in Xiahe is made of wood with lacquered decorations (even the huge prayer wheels that's housed in-door).  I also explored a few chortans that's around town and did the kora a few times amongst devout worshippers. 

 

Activity two was to reward myself with a nice cold beer (ahh, drinking in high altitude!).  I chose a 2nd floor downtown restaurant & sat on the balcony while reading my book & watching life pass by below me.  A short torrential rain storm left a fresh taste in the air, washed the town of dust, and also brought back some lovely sunlight.

 

Activity three was originally intended to be trekking to the nunnery, located quite a distance from town.  However, halfway there, curiosity sidetracked me & I ended up climbing up a hill near the monastery, where they hang their huge thangkas during festivals (yogurt festival-esc).  I made my way up the hill slowly, feeling the altitude affect me every now & again.  When I reached the top of the hill, I saw the beautiful view that lay below - all of Xiahe (which turned out to be a bigger town than I thought), the river that runs through it, and all the surrounding mountains.

 

I was about to descend the hill when I was invited by a group of Tibetan kids to hang out with them.  Why not?  It turned out that they were from local families & were tending family cattle's (which were grazing on the hill) during their week off).  The group had about 10 kids - about 7 girls and 3 boys, all aged between 7 - 15.  They seemed to be fans of me, offering me good-will gifts of wild fruits.  I tried to talk with them about stuff kids like to talk about (having some difficulty as it's been quite a while since I've had any long period of interaction with any kids).  I also played some games with them, including "catch the chick", which put me to shame (it's the altitude, I swear!).  I was amazed at how polite and mature the kids were, truly delightful companies to have around!

 

I met the three Brits back at the hotel - they apparently had a great time at the grasslands as well.  We decided to take another walk before dinner, which eventually led to the boys jumping down a 5 meter wall during the last light of day, all for the opportunity to play football with a group of 15 year old kids.  "Bloody idiots", as Michelle said.  Indeed!  This left Michelle and I to wonder the town by ourselves, visiting all forms of curiosity shops before finally meeting back with the boys for dinner (they were very proud of the fact that they beat a bunch of 15 year-olds.  Bloody idiots. ;-)).

 

Dinner was at Everest Cafe, which offered the only Nepalese curry in town.  I was a bit disappointed with the curry (should've went with the byrianni!).  After dinner, we headed back to our guesthouse.  Our lounge area, which also was the warmest place in the guesthouse due to the heating stoves, turned out to be buzzing with people.  We found a corner for ourselves, opened up a few beer, & started our group diary.  I also bumped into three girls who sat by me at the restaurant where I got my beer today (they were staying in the same hotel, duh) & started chatting with them.  Because of a very early bus ride the next day, we all retired early - too bad it was quite difficult falling asleep due to the "concert" outside!