Daniel's foray into the toilet was apparently interrupted by first a workman's equipment (no, not *that* sort of equipment!), then by the workman himself coming through the window. Whether this is true or not is open to question, but it is true that the toilet was used as an additional workspace, with wires and stuff going across the ceiling! There was a large body of opinion that we spend only two nights here and three in Xiahe, but Jane likes the place so we stayed. * shrugs. It's a certainly a place to get away from it all, so why not?!

We went to Leisha's for breakfast in the morning. I had apple pie - Dette had recommended this last night and she was right! Pastry well-cooked and actually tasted of apple, rather than just tasting of pastry.

We took a tour around one of the two monasteries in town. For such a small town to have *two* is interesting, it certainly shows what people consider to be important in this part of the world. These are genuine Tibetan monasteries, with genuine Tibetan monks. Who, like monks everywhere, lead a good, pure, religious life. Well, kind of. As our guide (Karsang) was showing us round, and explaining that the tenet of Tibetan Buddhism was to eliminate desire, and therefore the needs of worldly goods and pleasures, the distinctive sound of a mobile ring tone was heard, and a nearby monk looked somewhat sheepish and slunk off to answer his modern call of nature. I suppose it could have been worse. Karsang and Jane both pointed out that in many monasteries, the monks spend half their time on the Internet, downloading things that show they've lost none of their Earthly desires ho hum!

Langmusi looks better from this angle. Most of this is monastery!

The monastery was actually quite interesting. Although each building wasn't that large, there were quite a number of them, and they were spread out over quite a large area. Most of the buildings had been demolished during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt several years afterwards, when policies had become more "liberal". This is a common feature of this part of the world; many many ethnic things were destroyed during this time in the effort to Chineseify (and centralise, and control) all aspects of Chinese culture and lifestyle. In more recent times, this process has been reversed somewhat, with the many minorities being given a limited amount of freedom to practice their own beliefs and practices, hence the resurgence of Tibetan Buddhism in this part of China. Needless to say though, the Lama (the head monk and reincarnation of the founder of the monastery) is currently resident in India or Nepal ...

Karsang has his finger in many pies - his family run the hostel we're staying in and the workmen behind it are building a new hotel for him - and after lunch we went to another of his projects. On account of the rather poor schooling system in China, and the fact that state education isn't free, he's set up a small school some 30km outside Langmusi, funded purely by donation (and sponsored by our tour operator).

On this and related topics, while we were going round the monastery, I had a couple of chats with Jane and James, and also Karsang. Tai Chi is popular amongst the elderly because it's free and keeps you fit. Both health and education are expensive, and there appears to be no benefit system; thus the elderly have to try all means possible to stay fit, active, and healthy. In terms of pure communist ideology therefore, we decided that the UK and Ireland were more "Communist" than China, and that the most "Communist" state we could think of was Sweden. Mona and Tom didn't deny this point.

I also had a chat with Karsang about the nature of Tibet. In Sichuan there is a large minority Tibetan population, and it seems that historically Tibet itself was larger than I imagined. When the Chinese took control of Tibet they altered the boundaries. What is now the Xizang Autonomous Province (what we know as Tibet) is only a small part of what used to be a much larger country. The Tibetans who want independence don't just claim their rights to Xizang, but also to the entire neighbouring region of Qinghai, and much of Sichuan. Langmusi and Songpan both lie in parts of Sichuan which are claimed by the Tibetans as their territory! Karsang thinks and hopes that Tibetan independence will come, one day, but it might take a while.

Anyway. The school was another rough drive but hey we're getting used to it now. It lies next to some old, partly-demolished barracks that apparently had been a Chinese village located to house people in the Uranium-mining industry. It's a very small school, maybe thirty children in total, two teachers and two classrooms, but its slowly expanding.

The kids seemed genuinely pleased to see us. Not in a "please help us, give us money" sort of way but simply in a "coo, foreigners, wa-hey!" sort of way. I had noticed this attitude a lot so far. While people might not necessarily approach you as you walked down the streets, they did look at you, maybe they said "hello". I guess it was a case that they were surprised to see us, and I suppose they treated us like some kind of tourist attraction. We were admiring them, seeing the way they were, but they too were examining us, seeing how we were. It's rather odd to think about really!

We spent some time in each of the classrooms. In the first, the kids were learning Chinese - both the characters and the associated pinyin form. In the second, the kids there were learning simple mathematics. A quick word with those standing nearest to me (Kathrin and Jane) confirmed that none of us could actually remember being taught at this basic level, though of course we had been. The children in this school were between six and nine years of age; I presume we learned our basics at a much earlier age.

Then we had playtime with them. Me, Mirella, and Tom (and at times Louise) played a bit of basketball, others played football and skipping. They were only too eager to play with us, they gave us the ball and we let them have it back. One or two of them seemed pretty good at it - as did Tom as a matter of fact! It was fun, but a tad tiring; they're youngsters and also used to the altitude!!

Eventually we had to leave, but not before a few photos were taken.

And they actually *like* being at school!!

We didn't go straight back to Langmusi, instead we went about half an hour further, to a series of hot springs - "Tibetan Stew" was Jane's overview; "Half-naked Tibetans bathing in pools of hot water". And that's exactly what it was. Have to say I considered it to be a tad intrusive, but the others were pretty keen on having a look around and the Tibetans themselves were only too keen to encourage us to join in! We declined, despite one or two of us (yes, Vivian, we mean you!) having been initially keen! There were a number of different pools, some in buildings but most just in caves and alcoves in the rock face.

On our way back, some people decided to walk the last couple of miles; I felt lazy and fancied just flaking out in the hostel room. We passed by a broken-down minivan full of backpackers but we couldn't give them a lift, which was a bit of a shame.

We relaxed in Leisha's that evening, and Alan shared a Yak Burger with me (he's learning fast!). Beer was 3Yuan per 640ml bottle but even so I was only having water, the altitude wasn't doing me much good so beer would not have helped! I went to bed some time after the Swiss girls; this caused some comment when they left before me. Oh yes, the rumour mill had started!! :p