to sit on. In the back were various Buddha statues lit by Yak butter lamps. On the roof I had a marvelous view of the whole monastery and its surroundings, embellished by beautiful clouds in the blue sky. There were some monks walking around but the place was by far not as active as Labrang monastery and there were hardly any pilgrims.
spend the rest of the afternoon visiting a Tibetan village, so we headed to a flat area with vast, swampy grasslands: Napa Hai, which is actually a lake in the Summer. Mommy was able to get some nice pictures in the village we stopped
at, making use of the good, late afternoon light. Papa and Richard even got to visit a house, which had a large living room and many bedrooms on the second floor, the first floor being reserved for cattle.
That evening we had made arrangements for dinner with some "old" friends: Eugene and Yuka, the Dutch/Japanese couple of our horse trek in Songpan. They were also in town, waiting to catch a flight to Lhasa. It was nice also for Oma to meet some Dutchmen so far away from home. After a dinner of Yakburgers all 8 of us squeezed into the Jeep to go to a typical Tibetan house where we were to see a Tibetan song & dance show. We were welcomed by cheerful Tibetans, who put a white scarf (Kata) around our neck and offered us rice wine. We ended up being the only spectators that evening and we
leave...
The next morning at 8:30 all the backpacker's cafes were still closed so we settled for Chinese breakfast in another hotel. A bit later we were on our way again back to Lijiang, passing herds of zhous and sheep. As soon as we left the plateau and entered a series of deep valleys with lush forests, the Tibetan villages disappeared again and were replaced by Yi villages with wooden houses high on the mountain slopes. For about 3 hours the road was
really bad due to construction, so we were happy to finally arrive in Lijiang at the end of the day and to see the friendly family again at our guesthouse.
