Two Monks, an American and a Korean...

We just got back from looking at a Buddhist monastery. It was interesting, but I think that the buildings are more interesting than the actual contents inside - usually a large, gold plaster statue. But I'm getting ahead of myself once again.

We finally made it to Xining! We rolled into to town really early in the morning (around midnight). We don't know why, maybe all of the people trying to take the train to Lhasa, but we could not find a hotel room. We had the bus drop us off at one place, which was closed and locked shut. So we set off looking for alternative lodging. Suddenly, the sky just opened up and started to down pour. We ran over to where some people were beckoning for us to come over. They had some little food tents set up, we told them that we really weren't interested in eating, but we needed to find a hotel for the night. So one of the older women, beckoned a cab over and told the driver to bring us around town until we found a place for the night. She was so nice and helpful - was even worried that I would get cold.

So, Matt and I piled into the cab with our huge backpacks and we set off to find a hotel. One hour later, no luck. Two hours later, no luck. They drove us around everywhere in town and asked the hotels if they had rooms without any luck. Finally, as the third hour approached, the lady asked us about going to a public lodging place. As it was 3 AM anywhere would be fine with us. So, they talked to a man at a boarding place about how there wasn't anywhere for us to go. He eventually let us in. I don't think that this was a place where foreigners were supposed to go. It was nice enough for one night. Shared bathroom with a scary squatter, but the room was clean and we could rest for a couple of hours. When I went to the bathroom, the light was a motion sensor type of switch. I didn't know this. I get all set to do my business - pants down, squatting - aimed over the hole and ready to go. Then the light goes out. I am pants down squatting over a smelly hole in the dark. Since there was nothing I could really do to remedy the situation, I just had to go - I don't know how much actually made it into the toilet, but I know that I did manage to pee on my feet a little.

The next morning I was woken up by a set of vicious mosquitoes and many welts on my arms and one particularly good one on my cheek. We decided to try to find a hotel as we were in a Chinese only place. So, we wound up finding a room down near the train station. The noise is a little bad, but not bad enough to expend the energy to find a new room. We also got a chance to explore the town. Xining is great! Not quite the wild west of China as I was expecting, but neat all the same. The people here look a lot different than the people that we had seen in Guyuan and elsewhere in China. It is an interesting mix of ethnicities.

Anyhow, today we went to a monastery. It was a fun place to look around. Matt got attacked by a pack of little dogs, but he can tell you about that. One of the coolest things was the yak butter sculptures. They were really something else! It makes the butter portraits at the MN state fair look like a kindergarten art project (not that the MN ones aren't cool, it's just, well you know...)

What else...

I GOT PUSHED BY A MONK

I was looking at one of the little alters and there was space all around me and a monk wanted to get by (apparently), so he shoved me out of the way. Seriously. Not a little brush past push not a tap-tap I want to get by sort of thing. I almost fell down. Stop laughing. What is the appropriate response? I decided a little laugh was the best response because you really can't shove a monk back or elbow him in retaliation, right?

Anyhow, we decided to catch a cab back. As we were leaving, a group of monks asked us if a couple of them could hitch a ride with us to Xining (since there was only 2 of us in the cab) and how do you say “no” to a monk who has given up all of his earthly possessions. So we all squeezed in and set off back to Xining. Now, I think we'll go back to the market place, grab a bite to eat and think more about the next leg of our trip.