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We made it home....our flight was delayed by more than 5 hours leaving Xi'an so the airline took us by bus to a hotel...checked us in and fed us dinner....all this time we really did not think we were going to fly that night. We went to dinner and true to Chinese fashion we were seated at a large table with other people. One couple we had met earlier in the week at a restaurant and then again in a Monastery. Their guide would not go into this particular Monastery (our guide thought it was because that Monastery was on the payroll of the Chinese government) so we invited them to join us. Turns out they live in Shanghai and are from the US and own a campground in Sturgess (sp?), SD. Go figure??? Our other table companions were from Poland. Three guys that were on holiday. Two live in China in a small city (6 million people) and the other was a friend from home. They had been on a similar tour as us in Tibet and were on their way to Shanghai to watch the road rally ( I forget the name of the race). It was really fun to exchange stories about Tibet and also living in China. They have a much tougher assignment than we do.....that small city of 6 million people has very few expats. Our dinner lasted until they turned the lights out on us.... It truly was one of the highlights of our Tibet trip.....who knew???...being stranded in Xi'an could be so much fun.
Shortly after we left the restaurant we got on a bus, went back to the airport and boarded the plane. We arrived home at 3:30am.

Our last two days in Tibet...
Thursday
We drove back to Lhasa by the same route as we had arrived. I read a book....Abi watched several movies....Tim pointed out interesting things along the road. We went back through all the check points. As I mentioned before if you arrive early....most of the drivers pull over to the side of the road and wait. We were about 10 minutes early to our last check point. Our guide asked if we wanted to get out and walk around again. Tim and I got out...decided to take a few pictures and walked back to the car. Our driver and guide were sitting on the ground and we were just hanging out....killing time. A motorcycle approached with two young men on it. They stopped and guess what....they were Chinese traffic control cops. They asked what we were doing and looked at our drivers papers. The driver quickly told them we stopped to take pictures. This seemed to satisfy them and they went on. We talked with another family that were also stranded in Xi'an about their experience. They said their driver arrived early at a check point and was charged a "fine". They thought it was about 200 kuai....the driver was not given a receipt for the fine.

When we arrived in Lhasa we went to lunch....we were all starving. Tim and I had a yak burger and fries and Abi had...guess what???...cheese pizza. The yak burger was very good and so were the fries.

From lunch we checked into the same hotel we had been staying at previously. I got the room key and it was the exact same room we had before....remember the one that keep locking us out for an hour at a time? What are the chances??? I went back and told them we need a different room...after a short explanation about our previous stay...they were quick to change the room for us. We took a short rest, Abi found the Internet, and then we went to guess what????? Another monastery!!!! The only reason we agreed to go was because we were going to see monks debating in the court yard at the monastery. It was actually very interesting...we have pictures to follow. The monks that debate are the "younger" guys. This is a way they learn and test each other on their knowledge. They are very animated in their debating. They gather in small circles...the monk that is asking a question stands up...and as he asks the question he claps his hand together and stomps his foot. The foot stomping is to keep the demons away....I am not sure about the hand clapping. After the question is asked....the others in the circle answer....and debate other possible "correct" answers. I would guess most of the monks in this court yard area were about Abi's age and slightly older.....maybe in their 20's. They were all very curious about Abi and we teased her about causing some of them to leave the "monk hood" after our visit.

When the monks were finished we went to the market to do some last minute shopping. We decided to skip the Lhasa Museum and went back to the hotel after dinner.

Monk gathering

Monks question and answer time

Little boy at the market.....sooooooo cute!!!

Gives you a whole new meaning for "meat market".

Sewing machine store and service center.....

Friday
We slept in for a little while. Then checked out of our hotel and went to a furniture market and then stopped at the rug factory again on our way to the airport. We purchased two smaller rugs and ordered two larger ones. I am soooooooo excited. We got to see them making one of our rugs. It is on the loom and is about half finished....there were two ladies working on the rug. We watched them weave for a long time and I found it fascinating. The owner of the factory said it would take about 2o days to finish it. There were two other rugs being made....one rug had three weavers and the other rug had just one weaver. All the weavers sang while they worked...three weavers would sing something and the other two would respond. It was really an interesting experience. They are going to deliver three rugs to Shanghai in about 25 days. The fourth rug is an odd size (for our dining room in the US) and will take much longer to make. He thought we would have it in 3-5 months.

I am sorting through about 700 photos....Yikes!!! Can't wait to share some of them with you!!!

Tibet rug factory