I have been scalded.

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07-DEC-2007

I am not feeling so well again due to a nice trip to Hangover City, but I tried to play it off by jumping out of bed enthusiastically and grabbing breakfast down at the restaurant while it was still being served.

The group hopped on a bus to the central temple in town for a tour of the same types of statues, paintings, and yak butter. Along the perimeter of the temple, people kept sliding face down on the ground all around us with these slidey aprons on their stomachs and wooden planks straped to their hands. The area was lined with shops but none of the shopkeepers were yelling at us, and there was no rubbish all over the ground like in Thamel!

We enjoyed lunch at a sunny rooftop restaurant where I ordered egg fried rice. This did not sit too well. In the meantime, a few others in the group headed over to this fast food place called 'Dicco's'. Hilarious. Kind of like our McDonalds, but with a much cooler name. Since I don't have a scarf in this land of coldness, I picked up a thin cashmere one that I bargained down from 85 --> 50 Yuan ($8). And it goes perfectly with my furry lined 'Santa hat'.

I really wanted ice cream before hopping on the bus to Sera Monastery, so I grabbed some from a street vendor and it ends up all over my pants in the bus. And Oliver eats the half I didn't manage to get on myself. Booo. We had made sure to book it to the bus to get our prime selection of seating because we are sick of sitting on the temporary fold down chairs in the aisle. No good.

Sera monastery from our perspective appeared to be highly similiar to the others we'd visited, with a few key differences. There were monks printing scribes page by page using stamps, rollers, ink and paper. Additionally, we were treated to a monk debate session in the courtyard were ~100 monks were loudly debating and clapping in groups of 2-3 either standing or seated amongst the trees and gravel.

Desperately needing a shower, I got off the bus at the hotel to take care of business under a slow drip faucet with a hose that was entirely too short. So I had to hunch over to about 4ft in order to wash my hair. This is where I discovered the scald burns on my bum from the third day of the trip. Looks pretty nasty and will probably scar. I hide from the cold under my blanket and sleeping bag until Tahmeena returns from arranging their flights to China China.

We meet up with the others and head out to dinner to this more Western place where we find (insert Angel choir here) Bloody Marys! A day late, but better late than never! Oliver and I cannot resist. When they arrive, they look a bit like smoothies with the top 1/2 volume occupied by pureed tomatoes. We are skeptical, but they are AMAZING and definitely what the doctor ordered. Halfway through my second one, my lips and mouth feel like they've been exposed to a nuclear explosion and I am about to go into shock. Oliver feeds me somebody's plain rice leftovers in an attempt to absorb the spiciness. We elect to move onto screwdrivers because we cannot deal with any kind of carbonation or spicy after that experience. What an amazing choice!

My dinner is to die for- a delicious yak cheese, tomato and mushroom pizza! I love eating what I want when I want it, such luxury.

I chat it up with Jonathan and Andy for a bit, and Jonathan is enjoying quite the drinking and smoking escapade. He had chosen to quit smoking three days prior and since he couldn't smoke, he was clearly drunk before the end of dinner. But then he gave into the smoking because he was drunk. So he was having a good enough time for all of us. Only 5 minutes after dinner, our group is engaging in wild dancing throughout the dining room and on the chairs. I cannot figure out how everyone got so drunk so quickly! I think Oliver and I have conditioned ourselves at the higher altitude so we have a bit of an advantage over everyone else.

Steve and I wait for Oliver and Kayleidh, but end up losing the others and end up wandering around Lhasa aimlessly in an attempt to find them at every mingmar in the city. Such is the problem with going out in large groups. So I get my spicy potatoes on a stick and stay in the same place while the others hunted. Fortunately, Oliver lucks out and runs into them, but by the time we arrive over an hour after leaving the last place, everyone was well drunk and ready for bed. We learn that Johnathan did not make it and had thrown up on his way to the bathroom.

However, due to our convincing tactics, we managed to motivate a good number of them and head to the most posh, Chinese night club of all time. There are pole dancers, a live DJ, and crazy Chinese pop and dance music. The beer wasn't going down all that well (blame it on the carbonation), so Oliver and I switch to these mega cocktails that were the best I've ever had. And each was a genuine surprise because we certainly do not speak a word of Tibetan or Chinese (okay, except for 'salt', but that doesn't come in handy at a night club unless you're ordering a margarita). They were expensive, but well worth it. Between drinks, we danced our bums off as the guys guarded me and the rest of the girls from the locals. It was like the Sahara desert in there with my long johns on beneath my jeans, but there was no way I was going to risk having them touch the dirty dirty bathroom floor.

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