Simple moments

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I was a bad little girl last night and fell asleep without writing. In fact I spent most of last night debating with Hui over whether or not to go to Hunan. She told me not to go when I asked her but then I told her ot to tell the boys - since I wanted her opinion and not theirs - and then I called Cam and he yelled at me so I assumed she'd said something to him. Today it turned out he just wanted to be let alone when playing pool and Hui thought I was going there for a long period of time to live at Cam's house and not to visit. So it's 3 for a go on going to his hometown. Hui said I should, Cam said I should and I even talked to Kast today and he also said I should. The issue is more going to be how to get there from Nepal. But I'll figure that out. Putting Cam aside yesterday we went to Yamdrok-tso Lake. It was kind of funny we drove in zig zags all the way to the top of the mountain to see the lake and then instead of going down the other side like we all thought we would we went back down the same side. It was a bit crazy. I met the first two Dalian people at the top there - they were in a differnt tour. Once we got down the mountain we went to Rikaze to see the Panchem Lama temple. He was actually there and we got to see his father! It was really amazing. I was one of the only ones in our tour to see him because I chanced to go down the back smaller hill with the other two foreigners after seeing the temple. This hill was also cool because we got to see a mini Mt. Everest and the Tibetan guide finally told me why they have sticks of prayer flags on the edges of the buildings - to keep the house safe and prayers kept like the Jewish do with putting a prayer in a box outside the door.

After seeing the temple we went to yet another CHinese medicine place I decided to walk around instead of going in and I got to see a truck full of yaks and a little park where they have a Tibetan school. There were a bunch of Tibetan mothers singing back in the park. It was really neat.

Today we traveled most of the day back to Lhasa. Once we got close to here we went to see a really neat place where they were making incense and there were a bunch of locals painting pictures. I took some pictures of them. We also got to go to a big touristy tea shop to try some teas - most of them weren't really that good. FInally the thing I liked the best was we got to go to a smaller temple and hear a Tibetan prayer session where the monks all chant and blow their horns. If you've ever heard that I think it's really an opportunity you shouldn't miss. It's quite an experience. We also got to pray zith another monk. Pictures are a funny thing - especially on this trip. So,e of the most precious moments are the ones you can not photograph in temples or the simple moments - like with Tibetan children. We were noticing the strange balance of quality on this tour today as the two British people had gotten food poisoning. We are staying in a 3 star hotel with no hot water going to tourist traps but eating at places which would not be open without tourists and know their customers will not come back so do not really care how it tastes: I tend to go stay in crappy rooms with hot water, not go to the tourist traps and eat good food.

Tonight I ate dinner with the Shandong people from the train and then walked to Jokhang Temple with them shopping all the way only to walk back out and meet Mathieu for dinner at a backpacker's place. I sent Micheal a message saying I'd just entered foreigner land as I was completely surrounded by foreigners - most of whom English was not their first language. When Mathieu finally arrived we ordered - Yak Burger for him and Yak Curry and rice with Yak Butter Tea for me: The tea wasn't quite something I could get used to - they make everything of Yak Butter - even candles at the temples. We ate and talked about what we had been doing in Tibet and our lives in general.

It's really interesting the research Mathieu's doing. He's trying to find out what Tibetans think about the Chinese taking over. He said it's really hard to do because it's really a political question and the Tibetans won't say anything to answer the question politically. Religiously they don't like the Chinese but economically it's helping them a lot. I think what was most interesting to me is what he said about the language getting weaker. I assumed he was talking about in Lhasa but he said it's mainly outside of Lhasa as people have to learn Chinese to get a good job and don't really learn Tibetan in schools. He said many Tibetans don't like you talking to them in Chinese and would rather you speak English because then you're assuming they speak Chinese if you speak that first: "But aren't you assuming they speak English if you speak that first?" "Yes, but English is the international language so it's okay" an interesting answer. We talked about China and how it's so globalized I feel like I'm in China Town some of the time. Mathieu said he thinks it's too bad all Chinese cities have the same feel. You almost shouldn't travel in China because you know what you're going to find. He said French people don't tend to like Chinese because there are a lot of Chinese people in France who don't speak French and work the factory type jobs so it gives the French a bad idea of them. When he goes home he almost has to defend the Chinese. He said unlike China India is viewed as a very cultured place where people want to go. I definitely agree that India felt a lot ,ore cultured to me. We talked about India some since he wants to go there. It's funny he's the first Parisian who I've been able to talk to and actually felt bad about not being able to speak French. Not because he did anything to make me feel that way but because people feel more at ease in their own language most of the time and I wanted to make him comfortable. Apparently there's a French area of Beijing and they're building a copycat (as Mathieu called it) Spanish version across the street. I kind of envy his position of really being forced to speak 3 languages all the time - I wish I had to do the same. He's learned Chinese in high school and lived here for 3 years and he has to skim the paper in Chinese almost every day so his Chinese is much better than mine although maybe some day. I decided to book a room at his current hotel - although he's planning on going elsewhere - for the last 2 nights I'm in Lhasa. The day after I get back from LinZhi (where we're going tomorrow) we're going to go to a monastery together. I'm looking forward to it as he seems to be a really cool guy to hang out with. He made fun of how many pictures I've taken so far - about 400 - but the British people are right life with a camera really has changed since the digital camera. Now you can click a zillion times and not worry about whether it's perfect or not. I asked him at one point which was easier to understand - American or British English and he said American. I was surprised since France is so close to Britain but he said it's due to American films and the fact that he'd dated an American for 2 years. He's reading Underworld in French and instead of saying Translated from the English by ... it says Translated from the American by ... literally. I thought that was really interesting.

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