Xiancheng (December 3 - 4)

Our next stop was Xiancheng, another picturesque little Tibetan town. There we went to the most pleasant monastery where we were invited to visit for free by the monks. We sat with them under the scorching midday sun trading English handwriting for Tibetan and Chinese. The monastery was in the midst of being restored and will surely be breathtaking when it is finally
completed.


Friendly monk, as opposed to the unfriendly ones...


A beautiful city with...


...lots of charcter!



Later in the day all five of us went for a delicious supper of traditional Tibetan food (very spicy, oily and fatty, but with wonderful noodles and vegetables), and went to shoot pool at one of the many billiard places along the main strip. This was one of the other highlights of our trip along the plateau. As soon as we began to play, we had an audience of about 20 to 30 young Tibetan boys watching our every movement. Most were about 13 or 14 year old chain smokers who obviously spent much of their time in the evenings playing pool, seeing as they we all magnificent players despite the rather shabby cues and tables.


And as she lines up her shot, the crowd watches in awe.

We had lots of fun in Xiancheng but were excited for the next stop on our journey. So we said goodbye to the little town the next morning.