Tripping, packing, and touring....

Breakfast has been turning out to be a good start to the day and Two-Left Feet here almost didn't make it to see the buffet today as she tripped walking into the breakfast room and Gram got to see the whole thing. I did make a nice recovery and not land flat on my face ...

Each morning, we have had a new set of people we have shared tables with and this morning was kind of interesting as you could tell the women next to us were not native English-speakers but were eavesdropping on our conversation, which included past and present love interests, Cait being unemployed and having to find a job soon or she will be deported and Gram was looking at Tibetan wedding rings. So I'm sure they had an earful to talk about.

First things first today: Cait and I need to ship some things (me to the U.S., her to Beijing to get her luggage weight down.) And the China Post is an experience all unto itself that typically sums up the whole Chinese government experience.

We get in there and we expect it to be busy with customers but it is relatively quiet. With Dundup's help, I start at this one counter, where they ask me what I am shipping. Then I have to purchase a box and tape. Then I have to write my shipping address on three sides of the box, then I have to fill out the form for customs and shipping, and then the guy boxes up the box (which I have to pay for) and then I finally can decide what price I want to pay to ship the box (I chose the more expensive air option as I worry about the box spending more than a month on a ship and not making it.) All in all I see 6 people -- where in the States it would have been one person.

So in summary:
1 box and tape -- 3.5 yuan
1 packaging job -- 3 yuan
Shipping the box -- 832 yuan
Knowing that the box MIGHT actually make it and watching the Chinese bureaucracy in action: PRICELESS!

(and just to let you guys know it cost Cait to mail and insure her package -- 200 yuan. Us foreigners sure do get ripped off. )

We head to a monastery that is 2 hours away and at 4180 meter altitude. This one was is very quiet and we have to drive on these switchback roads up a long hill. Mr. Lee, our driver, is taking these ones pretty slow as those of us try to brace ourselves from falling legs over head as we tumble from side to side.

Us girls make a quick break for the restroom (poor Dundup is getting to know are habits) and we meet up with him as he is having a morning snack of these glutinous noodles that we get to watch this woman make. he tells us this dish is very spicy and we would not like it. Frankly, I am not a fan of the glutinous noodles. Instead we but a piece of this sweet bread that is beautifully designed with a pattern and quite good as a mid-morning snack.

We tour the monastery, where the monks run a snack/sundries shop and get to see a more relaxed, quieter atmosphere with few groups overcrowding the place. The structure of the building was all but destroyed in the Cultural Revolution and they are still rebuilding/fixing many of the buildings. Local people did manage to save and hide some things such as the Pakpa Gyey Tongpa -- the books they use to read from where the 8000 verses are written all in gold ink and are over 600 years old. They also saved the Shakyamuni Buddha which is always ornate and gorgeous. The 1000 faces of buddhas are new and created as small models -- we ask why 1,000 after seeing so many in all the temples and Dundup tells us they represent the one Buddha and his many manifestations. So I kid around saying, "Angry buddha, sad buddha, hungry buddha, sleepy buddha...."

We do stumble upon a man working on a new statue of the Thunderbolt god. The body is being built from wood than they paint it -- which he is doing now -- all of this takes place in a prayer area that has been turned into a working workshop. We do also stumble upon some monks chanting in a small alcove area and they smile and laugh at us and clap their hands as if too mock us and tells us we are doing all of this -- life-- wrong.

We head to the markets after lunch and Cait works her Mandarin magic, bargaining her little heart out for me to score as many beads that i like and can buy. They also buy some small gifts for back home and after a couple hours in the intense sun we head back to the hotel, where Mr. Lee talks Cait's ear off in Mandarin. (He seems more comfortable talking to her when our tour guide is not around.)

We are surprised on our way to dinner as Dundup comes to deliver a take-home barrel of barley beer for us. And he also gifts us with some "yak bone" earrings in the pattern we had been seeing of prosperity around Tibet.

Need to get going... will continue at a later time today.