3 May 2014 –
Good morning! Here's a view out or hotel room window…very little happening at the moment.
Here comes the bread lady! Check out that heavy load she's carrying on her back:
These two look like mother and child (in traditional dress?):
Breakfast…yak yogurt, toast, yak butter and scrambled eggs. Yum!!!
We checked out this indoor souvenir market that is directly across from the hotel. I'll have to get out more cash later on and come back here! Lots of colorful goodies to bring home (except…hang on! We're only doing carry on luggage so we're kind of tight on space):
Our hotel:
This morning we're trekking to a place known as The Black Hat Monastery.
Black hats, eh???
It's going to be quite a drive going out to the monastery. We've heard that if the weather is bad (as in rain) the road is impassable. Now we know why! This could be one of the worst main dirt roads I've seen! Huge pot holes to dodge – it's not at all taken care of or maintained. Check out the grasslands (and the sheep!!!)…
The interesting and fascinating thing was watching people on motorbikes totally bypassing the nasty road and go screaming down the grassland hills….doesn't seem safe but we didn't see anybody go flying off their bikes!
At one point our driver asked us to step out of the bus so that he could navigate this turn without the weight of us influencing his steering. Yikes!
Whew! And he made it.
Back on the bus…
Made it to the Black Hat Monastery:
Carved stone lions covered in scarves (these lions always come in pairs- and you'll usually find them at the entrance):
more…
more prayer wheels:
Monks playing basketball:
Okay…we bought some tickets and we're heading on "guided tour" of the monastery:
Here's the deal…this monastery was actually destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. It was rebuilt in 1984. So…what you see here is relatively NEW. It LOOKS old but it's NOT. Regardless of it being new or not I'm still in love with all the colors.
This monastery is different from Labrang Monastery – we're allowed to take photos inside the buildings. The monk giving us the tour doesn't seem to speak. At all. We can't figure out if he just doesn't speak – period – or if he doesn't understand English or Mandarin Chinese. He just escorts us from building to building, unlocking the doors and pointing to things as we pass them.
Yak butter offering???
A gong???
We're posing with our tour guide monk:
A book of sutras (no, not the Kama Sutra, LOL!)…absolutely no idea what we're looking at or what language this is written in. It's not English…nor Chinese:
I'm in love with all the colors…even if these buildings are relatively new.
Francine and Annika in another building:
All kinds of Buddhas and statues:
A view of the surrounding area (it's cool up here):
Heading into another building…you never know what we'll see here!
Yikes! Skulls are everywhere in this particular building!
This building is FULL of stuffed animals. Weird. Very weird.
And it's full of scarves… so colorful!
And more skulls:
Close up of some of the paintings:
After most of the gang left this building the monk brought out these two stuffed animals…looks like a lamb and a goat. Can you say creepy????
This sign was located in all the buildings. It's also in English. Sadly, just because it was written in English didn't mean it made any more sense than reading it in Chinese….something about a tooth???? NO CLUE!
Another building with lots of small statues:
The gang getting a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside:
Anais, Francine, Annika and Ava:
This might have been the medical "college" (????). I think this picture demonstrates the chakras in the human body:
Colors, colors…color everywhere!
This woman was circling around this building…round and around she went. I *think* she's carrying a baby but I honestly can't be sure:
And just outside the monastery was this structure with yet another woman pacing around it:
We're driving now…I think we're supposed to see an ancient city or ancient city wall. Not sure. BUT I am loving those dramatic mountains in the distance:
And that, folks, is the ancient city wall:
Which wasn't at all what I'd expected. I thought it'd be a tourist/souvenir shopping sort of place. This, clearly, is not!
Oh, but those mountains…those mountains are AWESOME!
The driver stopped the bus. What are we doing here?
That's our bus:
Lutz got out of the bus. He's got gummy bear candies that he's sharing with the local kids. Oh my. Check out the "toy" that one kid is holding! At least, I hope and assume it's a toy!!!!
So…do you see the dark circles on the wall??? Wanna know what they are??? Animal dung! Yep. They dry the dung and burn it:
A local woman:
More prayer wheels (I can't tell if this is a different, smaller monastery or something else):
Cheerful and friendly local woman. Julia was able to tell them hello in Tibetan. They don't speak Chinese…apparently they speak Tibetan.
A pair of monks doing whatever it is they're doing. LOL! (obviously I have no idea):
Sweet Enya hanging on to her Daddy:
JP taking photos of the goat that seems to be enjoying our company:
Silvia had some apple peels that she fed the goat:
That's one craaaaaaaazy looking goat:
Hmmm….it seems that this goat wants to join us on our tour!
Watching more people walking around:
We're watching them and they're watching us!
The prayer wheels with that gorgeous mountain in the background:
Back on the bus and ready to go on the bumpy ride back home. You ready for it???
Our driver stopped at the ancient city wall…the girls aren't interested in climbing up it (for a small fee)…but I am. JP, Silvia, Lutz, Enya and Silas also joined me for the easy climb up.
Here's a view of the top of the ancient wall. I can't believe it's still standing!
A view of the ancient village…there's an animal down there that has it's head stuck in the wire fence.
Looking out across the country:
And a token photo of me:
Time to drive back to Xiahe on the extremely bumpy, pot-hole-riddled, dirt road:
Whew! It's been an amazing day. We're going to head out to dinner just after we freshen up a bit at the hotel.
so….can anyone tell me – why was it called Black Hat Monastery?????
Did you see any black hats???? I sure didn't see any!!!!!