Hey Hey Hey, Langmusi isn't such a bad town after all.

I woke feeling just awesome, neck was still sore but 'Forest Had Run Away' and breakfast was on it's way. We headed down to 'Eli's Cafe' which had a pretty yummy menu if I may say so. If you come to Langmusi, forget about Lesha's Cafe as it was and is usually full of Israeli tour groups and the rest of the seats are usually filled until mid morning when everyone is off on their little yellow flag walkabout. Head up the road to Eli's Cafe, it's actually at the end. It has a tiny little court yard out front with strange looking tree stump seats with yak horns and skins covering the backs.

Our bus wasn't until 2:30pm so we had the entire morning and half the arvo to walk around the towns back streets and up and down some of the hills to see the Lama Factory. The town was very beatutiful. It had a little river running through it where if you spend some time on any of the bridges crossing it you can grab some nice happy snaps of the women doing the family washing or washing the vegies ready for cooking.

In the time we had we covered almost every street you could in the little Tibetan side. The children were great and the women got around town in when we began to call 'The Best Melbourne Cup Hats'. Seriously, the women all had on these beautiful hats that really didn't go with the rest of their attire.

But hey, like I can comment the way I dress!

I say go for it, Run Forest Run!

The main Monastery 'Dacheng Lamo Kerti Gompa (built in 1413) cost 16 Yuan to get in. Bugger that we said and walked back around to the other side of town and headed up the hill from the side and then followed the Lamas up their trail, through their rubbish heap consisting mainly of ice cream wrappers, past their disgusting smelling toilets and through the side entrance. The only place we needed a ticket was the building or hall with a horrid fence around it. Everywhere else was pretty cool.

Hey can anyone tell me 'who pays the damn lamas mobile phone bill?'

I really would like to know.

They get fed and they get clothed at the monestary...but...they all have mobile phones (all over China). Plus they spend endless hours on the internet. Are these paid for my donations?

Who actually pays these bills?

Prior to catching the bus we grabbed a table at a near empty Lesha's Cafe. I ordered an Egg Sandwich and when it arrived my eyes were nearly as big as it was. It was HUGE mate. The chips were huge, everything was huge. The cries of wonder from the Israeli tour group behind us as they received their portions also said it all. The Good Book is right, if you can find yourself a table at Lesha's, make sure your hungry!

We left Langmusi at 2:30pm in a whirl of beeps and we continued this all the way to Hezou. It was a 'beeping' fun trip indeed! At Hezou we had a change of bus driver whom actually took first prize for my 'worst' bus driver in China. He actually used his horn ten times more than any driver previously. When going up a hill he never geared down, just slowed, slowed, slowed until we finally, FINALLY made it to the top....seriously, several times he actually stalled the bus going up a hill. He barely looked ahead, instead he looked sideways at his buddy as they conversed about who knows what.

As a safety net, he held his hand on the horn!

ACCOMMODATION: When we finally arrived in Xiahe (say Shar Her) my head was aching and my neck ach was creeping into my head in 'beeping' waves. We gladly got off the bus and almost ran out of the bus station before he could been again at a passing fly or for no damn reason at all. We checked out a couple of the bus station area hotels and finally found one for 70 Yuan with an attached bathroom. The Good Book sometimes describes some rooms as grotty, well, this is one of them.

But hey....I can be a grotty guy so who gives a damn!

We headed up the road to find the Tara Guesthouse area and to find something to eat. On the way we found a great little BBQ Area, mainly four tents with some tables. We decided to continue walking until we found Tara's Guesthouse. Tara's was at the end of town where the huge Monastery is. From there we headed back again pricing hotels as we went. We had found the best deal in town no matter what condition the bathroom was in. No really, it wasn't that bad, it just had smoke butts on the floor and in the bathtub and a bit of dirt here and there.

Could have been worse I guess and had a dead body on the toilet!

Like Langmusi, I couldn't believe how many foreigners were actually in town. They were everywhere. I was glad we got our little bus station area hotel in the Han Chinese Quarter. If up near Tara's one might as well go home. Just jokin mate! Seriously, I was pretty amazed at the amount of 'us' in such a out of the way place.

EATING: Xiahe has heaps of places to eat both upstairs and downstairs. Many have English menus and English signs. One will never have a problem finding food in this place. We ended up eating at the little tented BBQ Area. I had the clay pot full of noodles and vegies and a very warm beer that was very very hard to finish. We were chatting to an English couple at the next table. She had been here two years teaching and he had been here for three weeks. Mate he was so happy and never wanted to leave.

On a normal night I would have joined him throwing back his beers but over the course of the day my neck had gotten much worse and around 9:45pm my head was screaming to go home. By 3:30am I was still shuffling around the bed trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in with out pain shooting into my head from my neck. Strangely five minutes after sitting up in anger and frustration I fell asleep and woke up laying down feeling relaxed four hours later.

How bloody stupidly strange I can be!

Beers N Noodles to ya....shane