Day 44: Xiahe Day 2 (夏河) – July 31

 Waking up to the sounds of monks chanting and prayer wheels clicking…..not. That was what I imagined, but in fact it was more like motorcycles vrooming and locals yelling at each other. We headed over to that nice little cafe again for some pancakes! Mmmm.

We met a few American tourists yesterday, and bumped into them again at the hostel. When we saw them they asked around and were able to find some monks that were able to take them to sleep in the monastery! It’s good to be a Westerner in China, especially if you can speak a bit of Mandarin! We tried to do the same and asked some random monks in the street “Can we stay at your house tonight?”, but we were politely refused along with a condescending smile, as if “What the fck are you guys thinking?”

Apparently those guys got the wrong message too, probably a mis-communication on their part too haha so that’s why we met them at the hostel.

We took the tourist tour of the Labrang monastery, and get to see inside all the halls. Although this is still early in the trip, but Stendhal syndrome is kicking in with all the tonkas and statues. The monastery is situated between two rolling mountains, and very picturesque with gold spires and interesting style of architecture.