Oct. 28- Free Day in Lhasa

Tuesday was our free day in Lhasa so the first thing on our agenda was to sleep in. I woke up at 9 and tried to not move until Selina woke up so I could stay warm. She woke up around 10 and it was too late for breakfast so we had Chips Ahoy cookies and more Ritz crackers for breakfast. I'm pretty sure we got all the food groups in there :) Once again we got ready at a jogging pace and left the room around 10:45 for our independent exploration. Technically foreigners are not supposed to go anywhere without a guide but Joe said if anyone stopped us to call him and he would come find us. Every time we passed a soldier stationed around we hoped he wouldn't stop us and thankfully we didn't get stopped all day. The rain had stopped and the sun came out periodically so we had much better weather to walk around in. In the internet cafe Selina had looked up popular local spots in Lhasa so we had a few of those on our list of things to do. First we stopped at on outdoors store to buy thicker socks. We learned from the first day that your feet get cold very quickly up there. After we bought our socks we walked for about 30 minutes to a pedestrian street near Jokhang Temple. We went into a local restaurant called Tashi for a brunch meal. It was tucked away in part of a family's living quarters and it was very colorful on the inside. They had a huge menu that was in English and Selina ordered honey ginger tea and I got some lemon tea. To eat Selina got a banana pancake with honey and some fried apple momos and I got an apple pancake with honey and steamed apple momos. Besides the braised eggplant that pancake is the best food I've had in China thus far. At this point we had been out and about for an hour and a half and I was loving it.

After we finished at Tashi we headed down the shopping street to buy some souvenirs. I made a bee line for a local music store and bought a Tibetan CD. I'm actually listening to it as I right this and it's pretty cool. It's chanting with soft instruments in the background. Anyways, the first store we entered sold a lot of things made from yak wool. They had really cool stuff but we didn't buy anything since it was the first store. A couple shops later I bought a prayer wheel and a warm hat made from yak wool. It felt really warm and it looked a little ridiculous on me so I couldn't pass it up. After we finished with the big shops we headed toward the street stalls. I bought a necklace with the Buddhist chant on it and then we went looking for Barkor Street by Jokhang. Selina pointed in front of us and said that she thought the Temple was that way and I thought it was behind us. Then I looked to the right from our exact position and there was Jokhang Temple. No matter where we're going Selina and I never have a sure direction but we always seem to find what we're looking for by accident. There were many street stalls open in front of the Temple and we perused them for a while. I stopped at one of the stalls to look for a gift for a friend who will remain anonymous and I picked up a prayer wheel. I was spinning it the wrong way and didn't understand what the man and woman were telling me until they came around the cart and showed me my error. I was so embarrassed and apologized profusely and they just waved their arms and kept saying it was alright. As I now know you're supposed to spin it clockwise, not counterclockwise. I bought a gift from their cart and turned to wait for Selina to finish bargaining at another stall. As I waited there I felt a tap on my shoulder and the man from the cart I had just visited draped a string of prayer beads around my neck. His wife came up behind him and said that they were giving them to me for no money. Of everything I got on this trip those beads are by far my favorite. The man and woman looked so pleased to give them to me and I was genuinely touched at the gesture. They're very simple beads which makes it even better. They smell like the incense from the temples we visited which is so great because that is one detail that I can't really describe in the right way.

After the prayer beads I bought a t-shirt that says Tibet and has pictures of yaks above it and underneath the yaks it says "yakyakyakyak." It's the kind of shirt you would buy for a little kid which is probably why I liked it so much :) Next, we went back to the first store we went in and got all the things we liked the first time around. I bought a yak wool jacket that has fleece lining. It's really warm and Selina would say it's cozy but I like to say it's squishy because the fleece and wool provide a good padding layer. Once these final purchases were made we went to the Summit Cafe for a glass of hot chocolate and some leisure time. I read my book and Selina wrote in her travel journal. As I was reading Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" came on over the speaker and I couldn't help but smile. Only Johnny Cash would be playing in the middle of Tibet in a small local cafe. We left the cafe around 5:30 and headed back to the hotel. I got some good pictures of the mountains surrounding Lhasa that were not visible the day before. Every Tibetan that we passed smiled and some said hello in English with big smiles on their faces. They are the most unique people that I've ever encountered and I found I liked them immensely. We went to the internet cafe for another hour and then retreated to our hotel. We weren't hungry for dinner so we snacked on Ritz crackers again. Overall our free day was a tremendous success and I fell more in love with the city with every passing minute. You simply cannot go to a place so deeply rooted in religion and spirituality without having a religious experience of your own.