A not her day, a not her doll are?

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There is a quote that I said to Randy one day that I think sums up what my goals were for this trip; it goes as such: "It looks like your trying to cram 2000 words into a picture that can only hold 1000." My point being, I wanted to see all of Asia in a three month trip; that is just too much beauty for such a small surface area. I knew I couldn't see everything, but I really wanted to see it all.
We are here in Tibet merely trying to get out. I know! How ridiculous does that sound? But it's the truth none-the-less. We need a permit, we need a driver, we need a guide.... The list goes on and on. I don't like spending so much of my day trying to get out of a place that I have spent six weeks getting to! I want to see what the big deal is about this place. I don't want to spend the day writing notes in tourist office that say how much and how soon we want to get out. It is terribly sad.
Today we saw the outside of the Potala Palace, the home of the Dali-Lamas since the sixth century. It is situated on a hill in the center of town and completely dominates the landscape. With white and red stone that stands in brilliant contrast to the dismal back round of dry mountains. In order to get into the palace though, one must wait in a line for a number and a time spot for the following day. They only hand out 1000 places a day if that. So we arrived earlier in the morning to wait in the gated line. It is quite the queue to find though, as the palace is quite large and the flocking pilgrims make it difficult to traverse the overcrowded walkways. But after running into a 26 year old South African woman, we manage to combine our confused brains to come-up with the location. The sad thing is that it was really not that hard to find, but far from the front entrance, and bad directions from white people no-less, made for a difficult pilgrimage.
Tomorrow we will get inside, and be able to see first hand what the holiest living person in the Budhhist religion once had all to himself. And then we will make our way to a temple that is condsidered by some as the holiest temple in the world. Got to find a friend sorry!

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