3 May 2014 -
Well, it appears that I missed posting a small collection of photos from the day we visited the "black hat" monastery. I use the quotation marks to emphasize the fact that I saw no black hats at that particular monastery. Actually, I didn't see any hats there whatsoever. Hmmm…maybe they should rename it the Non Black Hat Monastery instead. I think that better describes it. Well, not really.
Anyway…here are a few photos from after we visited the monastery:
Yeah…that looks safe, doesn't it???
I love mountains. Dramatic mountains are the best! I just can't get enough of 'em!
I think those are yaks (they're the black animals in the photo below):
Yak, yak, yak…
Not sure what that neat pile of rocks are:
another look at the ancient city wall
Just outside the ancient city wall this man was watering and washing his horses. What you probably can't tell is how EXTREMELY DIRTY that water was. It was filled with trash and it was definitely NOT CLEAN. And just beyond this photo (far left) there's a huge trash heap. Yech.
This is a super bumpy, pot-hole filled road and at times I'm wondering if busses really should be driving on it. That's until I saw a bevy of huge trucks cruising down the serpentine. If they can do it – so can we! (and we're MUCH smaller than they are!)
A sunny view at the gorgeous grasslands valley:
just a photo…I just love the grasslands!
We asked our driver to take us to a place where we could run up the hill and get a good view of the Labrang monastery in Xiahe. We can't stay long…it's dinner time and some of us *really* need to use the potty!!!
That's JP down below taking photos of a small group of monks seated together. They were, apparently, quite friendly and allowed him to take photos of them.
The kids really needed these few minutes of racing around and getting out all their pent up energy:
Anais and Ava:
(did I mention that Annika, Ava and me bought lovely warm and VERY COLORFUL scarves this morning before heading out??? No? Well, we did and we were so thankful for them!)
In case you're wondering… jogging/running uphill when you're at 1) at 3000m above sea level and 2) you're live BELOW sea level is CHALLENGING and will take your breath away. Whew! Just running a few meters is tough!
The kids want to FLY!
Francine is about to fly!
The girls wrapped up in their new scarves. I'm enjoying the green…and the bright blue skies!
Let's run up to the top of the next hill….and to the next…and to the next…Okay kids! Come back! (I've got to pee!!!!)
More jumping! Lutz photographed all the kids jumping at once. I caught Annika mid-jump.It's too bad these kids don't know how to have any fun. (I'm, of course, JOKING!!!)
Potty break…
and then heading out to a restaurant- just a few steps away from the hotel. It's called Snowy Mountain Cafe and it's upstairs (it's why I missed it earlier). It's small and when we entered the cafe there were a few German tourists eating their dinner. They said they liked the yak burger. Hmmm…I'm going to order that! Of course I have to try yak meat!
Neat looking cafe:
The girls with their yak pizza.
One of the issues with being a SMALL cafe…the food took FOREVER to come out.
But hey, on the bright side look at that tiny cutie pie!
Enya enjoying a BIG bite of her yak burger she shared with her Mommy:
Julia taking close up photos of the cutie pie.
JP entertaining the little one by tapping his chopsticks on the Sprite can. She watched and listened quite intently to him. We asked when she goes to sleep and her mom said around 9:30 or 10pm. YIKES! We told her that was too late! JP joked and said she should give her a little baijiu in her evening bottle to help her sleep faster. The mom laughed at that …good know humor bridges cultural gaps!
And …finally…after well over an hour of waiting (I think I actually waited closer to TWO hours)….here's my yak meat burger. Except I really should say "meat" as there was very little actual edible meat in it. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to eat it (having chowed down on french fries and other yummy treats the others got and shared) but the truth is there was so little actual edible meat on this burger I was able to eat at least all the meat. The yak meat was good. Why is it they don't use salt in their bread baking? It'd be so easy to add and it'd make such a difference in how it tastes.
Okay….it's been another long and awesome day and it's definitely time for bed now. Thankfully, the girls have already passed out on their bed. Nighty-night!
Tomorrow we head back to Tianjin!