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Sonntag, 12. Mai 2013
Xiahe 夏河
highpeak, 17:19h
Took the next bus from Tongren to Xiahe in Gansu Province, a great 3 hours bumpy ride, but in a great landscape. We started from about 2500m and climbing up some passes to almost 4000m, passing yak and sheep herds, before descending down to Xiahe, which is still on 2900 altitude.
The towns we passed during this ride looked more like middle age style, just houses built from clay, sometimes bricks.
Xiahe itself is developing very fast, high rise buildings popping up like hell, but the old street leading to the Labrang Monastery old looking style.
After checking into a small hotel we tried our first Tibetan food, mome (yak dumplings), yak yoghurt and Tibetan milk tea, a bit special which I felt in the afternoon..
We made a big round circling the monastery,
climbing up a hill with a good view down to the whole area and keeping us fit (even if gasping for air in this level). We were passing monks on their pilgrim round, prayer flags (prayers are written on it and than attached to these lines)
Afterwards a small guided tour through the monastery with a young monk, who explained us the basics in English, so we got a rough idea about the space.
Famous tibetan buddhism schools for astrology, philosophy and art (like dancing and preparing butter sculptures for holy festivals):
Than enjoyed the afternoon with some green tea and Markus found the first beer in a running fridge since 1000 km (for sure he took his chance to celebrate this event). As soon the sun hides behind the surrounding mountains it gets pretty chilly here, so I again preferred the tea instead of beer for dinner (this time he as well, hehe).
Tomorrow we wanna head out to the graslands, depending on the weather and also the tiredness of our feet.
The towns we passed during this ride looked more like middle age style, just houses built from clay, sometimes bricks.
Xiahe itself is developing very fast, high rise buildings popping up like hell, but the old street leading to the Labrang Monastery old looking style.
After checking into a small hotel we tried our first Tibetan food, mome (yak dumplings), yak yoghurt and Tibetan milk tea, a bit special which I felt in the afternoon..
We made a big round circling the monastery,
climbing up a hill with a good view down to the whole area and keeping us fit (even if gasping for air in this level). We were passing monks on their pilgrim round, prayer flags (prayers are written on it and than attached to these lines)
Afterwards a small guided tour through the monastery with a young monk, who explained us the basics in English, so we got a rough idea about the space.
Famous tibetan buddhism schools for astrology, philosophy and art (like dancing and preparing butter sculptures for holy festivals):
Than enjoyed the afternoon with some green tea and Markus found the first beer in a running fridge since 1000 km (for sure he took his chance to celebrate this event). As soon the sun hides behind the surrounding mountains it gets pretty chilly here, so I again preferred the tea instead of beer for dinner (this time he as well, hehe).
Tomorrow we wanna head out to the graslands, depending on the weather and also the tiredness of our feet.
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