Day 8... Six hours on a bus to Langmusi, JiuJa is coming with us as he will be our local guide as we get more and more remote.

Adrian and Mickey were a bit rough, but Sam, bless her, she was looking terrible...

We made really good time as a road had been built where the track had been before.. Lunch was in a very local roadside cafe, local is now starting to mean 'cheap and dirty' without sounding negative :-)...

So we had some 'ok' food here, not much choice and a distinct lack of customers made me concerned over the freshness of stuff... but we all ate anyway - thats 'travelling' just without the drum!...

After about another hour on the road, we arrived into Langmusi, a small town, with a small high street.. you could walk the length of it in 5minutes..

Our hotel - the Langmusi Binguian(hotel) was more what I had expected to stay in from the start.. more 'as described' on websites and stuff.. You don't get your key, you have a floor attendent which lets you in... basic, but it was an unexpected suprise to see a western toilet again, after the squatters in Xiahe.

We had made good time, so after a brief orientation talk on the roof, we headed out of town on a little walk up a hill.
Lots of good pictures, nice blue skys, picturesque little houses... We climbed this hill where MM did a group 'jump' shot... on the next hill monks were blowing Alpine horns... so we wondered nearer, only to be drawn into their trap... "buy ticket!" to climb up the hill - yep.. The monk was a really cool guy, spoke some english, and was quite apologetic for charging us, as it was monastery land, but he was fully equipped with tickets, change, postcards - the lot... It turned out that we would need tickets the next day anyway - and they were valid for a few days - so after the inital shock it was ok...

We then walked down through the monastery... this place is so relaxing - I could spend a long time here.. the people are so friendly and inquisative. Not like the Han Chinese who either stare, or try and sell you something.. here they smile - wave - shout out 'hello' it is really great. All the kids love our digital camera's they are fascinated by seeing images of themselves. One monk asked us to take a picture of him, and then post him a copy.. I think it would be to send to his family, as he would have joined the monastery at 7, and may not have been home very often since.

The area struck me as very Swiss, very similar landscape.. very beautiful.

There is a 'famous' cafe -Leishas, she has been to England and has good english and makes alot of great dishes aimed pretty much at the backpackers.
The McYak attack was Dinner for us.. A huge loaf of bread - in the shape of a bun, filled with a yak burger and tons of salad and stuff... simply huge !!!
She also does Chocolate cake - which is like a cross between chocolate pop tart and a brownie... but these went down very well.
The atmosphere is chilled - you help yourself to water and coffee, and pay on honesty at the end... cool !

The power went just at the end of the meal - not unusual apparrently... so we headed back the hotel... to see if the hot water was on - it was only supposed to be on between 7 and 10pm... Luckily at about 9.30 the power came on.. and I got a shower.

Then it was onto a night of Beijiu and Cards....