All alone in China (Cont.)

---

Ahalan again,
I woke up very early in the morning for my next bus. The bus ride was only 3 hours this time, but still the smart Chinese decided to have only one bus a day, and it leaves at 6:30.
It was dark and it was snowing, and the last thing I wanted was to get out of bed. But staying another day in this place was something I wanted even less (especially knowing that the following day the bus leaves at exactly the same time).
So I went to the bus...
Once again the scenery was amazing. It was snowing all night and also during the ride, and everything was white. It looked like a B&W movie. The road itself was covered with snow, which made it scary. And it was freezing on the bus.
I arrived safely to Litang, just to discover that I can't breath. Litang is 4700m high, and there is not much air there. My pulse at complete rest was 100, and after walking for 30 minutes in a regular pace - I had to rest for a few minutes.
The town itself was full of weird faces - like the ones from Daocheng, and more... Everybody wore cowboy hats, Tibetan guys had their hair fixed with ribbons like girls, and much more. Unfortunately all of these pictures are not digital, so I can't put them here. The feeling, though, was of the wild west.
I headed to the monastery (what a surprise...). This is quite a big one, but there are almost no tourists there. They don't even charge money at the entrance. For that reason, I guess, the monks were so friendly. They loved the camera, tried to talk to me, and even invited me to sit with them while they were praying. It was so cool. They were humming and mumbling, and then rang their bells, and they did it over and over for a long time. Then they wore these yellow hats and repeated the whole thing.
Some of them were wearing sunglasses while praying in this dark temple, and one of them had round glasses - and I named him "Dali John Lennon".
I have spent there hours, really enjoying the attention from the monks, and really walking around slowly in order not to loose my breath.
In the evening I met Itai, a guy that I met before and was with us on the trek, and it put to an end the period of being all alone in China.
At least for a while...
R.

---

Photos

The way to Litang
This picture is NOT in B&W!

Monks kneeling
Look at the bright stripes on the floor where his hands are. You can understand how many times they are doing it...

Comments

[anonymous]

foot massage
Hi R, when you finish your crazy adventures, don't forget to have a good foot massage, it is really cheap and fun... Citizen L - Sharon L

[anonymous]

nice photos. do you know what kind of Tibetan Buddhist lineage they were? Like gelupa or jonang ?