I slept poorly once again. Eventually I used oxymetazoline for my stuffy nose but it dried out my throat so I traded a stuffed nose for a less stuffed nose and a store throat and cough. When I did sleep, I had vivid dreams of seeing migrating monarch butterflies in China.
We had our usual mediocre Lhasa hotel breakfast supplemented with drinkable yogurt and crackers from the supermarket.
We got into the van at 9:30 and set out for Ganden monastery. We drove through the newer parts of Lhasa and when we passed a fancy five star hotel Zachary said "We should have stayed there."
"On your dime," Andrea retorted.
"I don't think it would be any more expensive than our hotel," I chimed in. Our tour guide laughed.
We soon hit road construction. The road was completely torn up, just massively rutted dirt and mud. The kids had a blast. Andrea said that she had to wait to work on the cell phone puzzle /game that she was supposed to do with Zachary or she would get car sick. I suggested that we talk a bit more about McCarthyism and the Cultural Revolution. The kids had enjoyed the conversation yesterday and maybe even learned something but we missed the forest for the trees. I thought I'd get a chance to do better.
"Oh, God no," Andrea exclaimed, turning what could have been another positive learning experience into a lost opportunity. I tried to salvage it but couldn't. I was sad and hurt.
I forgot to put a detail in yesterday's post that I found interesting. When we finished lunch at the fly infested pit there was a fly in the car. One of the kids asked me to kill it. The guide looked horrified and said, "No! Please don't. I will open the window and get it out without harming it." I have now met somebody who literally would not harm a fly.
Another interesting tidbit is that small groups of men at our lunch spot were playing sho, a game that involved dice in a bowl that is slammed down onto a leather thing that looks like a concave drum top. It also involved tokens, seashells, beads, beer, and betting.
We took a very long set of hairpin turns up a mountain. We did an hour long hike around the mountain. The views were terrific. The mountain itself was draped with prayer flags and the path had multiple places to burn incense and hang prayers from tree branches. People chanted and prostrated themselves on the path.
Andrea didn't wait for me as I took photos. I found myself not able to pause to tie my shoelaces and running between quickly set up shots to catch up. Running on a narrow dirt and rock path with a sheer 100 for drop to my left distracted by thinking about photography and with untied laces; what could go wrong? She got far ahead of the guide too. In fact, at one point the guide couldn't yell loudly enough for Andrea to hear her and so she had me shout so that Andrea would take the correct fork in the path. It took even me several tries.
After our hike we went to the monastery itself. The main chanting hall was the most impressive room. There was also a male only bull headed protector room with statues of a Buda with a bull's head.
We ate lunch at the monastery restaurant. The food was unremarkable but the view was fantastic. It overlooked the monastery on the side of the mountain in one direction and the valley in the other.
The driver dropped us in town. The family sent me to buy water while they shopped for spring jackets in a huge three level market with hundreds of stalls that the Tibetan called a supermarket. I returned with the water, followed the family around as they tried on jackets, photographed a couple of t-shirts that I found amusing and a couple of people.
After the market we walked around town. I bought a small souvenir, a four armed bodhisattva, and Andrea bought a Tibetan painting made with sand and glue that looks like it was painted.
Just like at the monastery Andrea and the boys charged ahead. I had a struggle keeping up, let alone trying to take pictures. I like to amble, to look around and take time to notice things. I like to be able to smile at people, to say a few words. At one point the family paused for a minute to put on sunscreen and even though I should have sunscreened myself I took the opportunity to talk to a group of men playing should. They invited me to take pictures and I got a decent shot. I figured I'd try to stay in the shade as much as I could. The family let me know they were ready to move. Later, after dragging me through a bunch of streets, on the sunny side, at breakneck speed, in a futile search for a cafe because she wanted coffee Andrea commented that I looked red and should have used sunscreen. I was at a loss for words.
We went into a mall. Ari ran ahead and got lost. I refused to chase him. We found him after Andrea got her coffee, using text messages. Then, after all of that rushing we had lots of time to kill and ambled through the upscale mall looking at stuff none of us had any interest in.
I always rush myself when photographing models (I'm working on it). I feel like they'll get impatient. This trip has made me realize how much of that comes from my family.
After the mall we walked to Lhasa kitchen, where we meet the guide for dinner. It was delicious, as usual. Joshua ordered two entrees, including chow mein and a Kashmiri naan, the rest of us ordered standard Indian fare. Joshua decided that he didn't like the naan after all when it was not what he expected, but more like a plain naan covered with yogurt and fruit.
After dinner we walked to the park under Potala palace, where the Chinese have built a huge monument to their "peaceful liberation of Tibet", watched the magnificent fountain, and took pictures. The fountain started at dusk, sending hundreds of jets shooting up to what looked like forty feet into the air, making patterns out of water, synchronized to music. We needed to go through a metal detector and have our bags x-rayed to get in, which was not unusual for tourist attractions and even some streets in Lhasa, but this time Joshua left his brand new coat on the x-ray belt. We had a mad dash back to get it just when the driver picked us up.
We got back to the hotel. Our key card didn't work, the kids were giddy, the WiFi is inoperable again, and still no toilet paper. They are getting my first one star review on Trip Advisor.
So, here I am, nose stuffed, face hurting from the sunburn, trying to think about the amazing things I saw today instead of how tired I am and how hard it is to sleep with muscle aches, sunburn, and difficulty breathing and how awful it was to feel like I was chasing my family all day instead of enjoying Tibet with them.
Another couple of notes:
In China they use flashing blue and red lights to signal drivers to slow down. I've seen them everywhere, at ends of driveways, on the walls of tunnels, even affixed to the back of a truck. I suspect that this makes drivers less cautious when approaching a real police car.
The clouds yesterday evening at dusk were amazingly beautiful. Unfortunately, by that time my camera’s battery had run out, so I tried photographing with my tablet. We’ll see how that worked.
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