The final stop on our week vacation was the small Tibetan style village of Xiahe. It is not in Tibet, but Tibetan people live there and the lifestyle follows Tibetan culture. It was a pretty cool opportunity to see a way of life that is becoming increasingly difficult to access. After our final overnight train ride we took a van all the way to Xiahe. Within our short week of travel we covered almost the entirety of Gansu province! The van ride was the scariest and most frustrating ride I ever hope to take. Despite it being about a three hour trip, it took us nearly five. The drivers kept stopping, switching us into a new van, waiting in line for discount gas for 45 minutes, and taking us to tourist destinations we did not want to go to! After finally convincing our ever changing drivers that we did not want to stop - we simply wanted to go to Xiahe - they went straight there at breakneck speeds, passing every other vehicle through a windy mountain road. We spent the majority of our drive on the wrong side of the road, barely squeezing by oncoming traffic. It was terrifying. We were hungry. We were tired. We were angry. We very quickly decided that we would be taking the charter bus on our way back!
A tasty Tibetan breakfast
After arriving in Xiahe we took an hour or so to settle into our hotel, have some soup and bundle into all our layers. We experienced all kinds of weather during our one week, and this was definitely the coldest. For souvenirs we focused on warmth! Sara and I both bought warm Tibetan made wool scarves, and Val got a cozy lined toque! We spent the evening exploring the shops and seeing the village. It was only one main street, with the houses in the surrounding areas.
The monastery in the hills
The people dressed and looked completely different from any of the areas of China I have travelled so far. They all had beautiful structured features, and it looked as though they were wearing permanent make-up. The blushed cheeks and lined eyes that we struggle to create every day were simply part of their natural colouring. Everyone was wrapped in thick wool layers, tied around them like dresses. The women had long plaits and many of them had piles of jewellery. The amount of diversity within China is incredible!
Monks filing in for prayers
In the evening we gobbled down traditional Tibetan food for dinner. We ate yak cheese, many kinds of bread, and many other dishes that we were not even totally sure of. Most of it was pretty tasty, and so we decided to eat there again for breakfast - because we still wanted to try most of the menu! We had an early night so that we could be up early enough to explore the monastery for the morning.
Statues made of yak butter
We were able to take an English tour through the monastery, though our guide's English was rather hard to understand. If you were concentrating closely, you could catch about every fifth word... It was interesting to learn some of the background and history to both the monastery, and the lives of Tibetan monks. Many of them have been monks since the age of 10. We saw statues made of disgusting smelling yak butter, saw rooms of monks being taught lessons, we saw a group breaking a multi-day fast, and a room of three hundred monks chanting together. It was very interesting to learn about, as it is not something I knew much about before.
Our Guide (I think this is the only time he was not laughing!)
After checking out the monastery we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon eating soup and walking through the village. We then loaded onto the bus (much safer than our previous journey) and headed back to Lanzhou. The next morning we flew back to Dalian, and, with that, holiday was over!
The entrance to the main prayer room
It was an incredible trip, but we did cover a lot of ground within only 7 days. We were definitely tired over trains and planes by the end of it! I think it is one of the most unique areas I have ever seen, and certainly don't regret making the long trek to see it! What is the point of living abroad if you are not going to take the trips, right?
Bundled against the cold
Monks on the rooftop to ring the bell
Young monks travelling to the monastery
A little munchkin
One of the statues within the monastery
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