An Olympic frustration

Day #29-32
Xiahe is a beautiful town set in a mountain valley. It is the most important pilgrimage site for the Yellow-hat sect Buddhists outside of Tibet; so it is a popular tourist site. We stayed for four nights in a friendly family-run guesthouse talking to other travelers, getting lost in the backroads, and eating baudzas at the friendly restaurant where all the taxi drivers eat...the other restaurants would charge foreigners twice as much.The Labrang Monastery is enclosed by a 3km wall with over 1200 prayer-wheels. The morning after we arrive, I wake up at 5am to run and I already hear the wheels spinning. I look out and see men and women, old and hunched over, taking one small step after the other, encircling the monastery...and the wheels keep spinning until very late at night. The monks we meet here are very different than the ones we met at the Tsogetsanz Monastery ten days ago. I see most walking along with cell-phones, eating out at restaurants, staying up late at night. While they are still friendly, they are definitely not as innocent as our friend Yoni.

I am excited that the Olympics have begun and that they televise them here. But all I see is air-rifle and ping pong and the occasional fencing match. Please give me some track&field! No such luck. I leave frustrated.

After a good rest in Xiahe, we head north-west towards Tongren, 110km away.