Monday, May 07, 2007

Tibetan Home Stay

After our trek through Jiuzhaigou National Park we moved accommodations to a Tibetan Homestay with Andrew's friend. We arrived around 7 pm and were very impressed with the set up. Unfortunately by the time we arrived I was feeling so ill from lack of caffeine that I pretty much went to bed. I was really disappointed because the owner of the homestay made us dinner of Yak Butter Tea and boiled potatoes. I was so nauseous that I couldn't even drink anything. Hopefully I will get the chance to try the tea again sometime!

all_house_1

Here we all are in the main room before I headed to bed.

The bedrooms were really great. We had two very comfortable beds and a basin with a canteen of hot water to wash up. The bathroom was down that hall and was Chinese-style squatters. I haven't talked too much about squatters as I try to avoid them at all costs. They are basically a porcelain hole in the ground in which you squat on your haunches to go to the bathroom. During that night Gemma and I became professional squatter users!

Gemma had a ball at the house. The owner of the homestay had a 12, 11, and 9 year old who spoke mainly Tibetan. Gemma speaks a bit of Chinese, so she would have been able to communicate with the kids a little bit, but everyone was amazed at how well the kids were able to communicate with each other without even speaking.

gemma_kids

Gemma and the kids playing a little pool.

lodge

Here is the lodge where we stayed.

interior_3

The inside of the main room. It was beautifully painted!

interior_1

More of the interior.

interior

snow_mountain

A view of the gorgeous snow capped mountains outside the lodge.

village

A view of the village across from the lodge. This is a traditional Tibetan Village.

village_closeup

A close-up of the village. The colorful flag are prayer flags.

farmers

We went for a little walk outside the property the lodge was on and there were three farmers planting trees. Gemma went to check out what they were doing.

basketball

I met some boys who were playing basketball and shot some hoops with them. They were really good players!

boy

This boy was so shy, but I finally convinced him to let me take his picture.

gemma_flowers

Gemma ran back to the house to play with her new friends. The spent about an hour collecting dandelions from their property.

us_kids

After our walk and a fabulous lunch of boiled lamb and shredded potatoes we headed down the road to meet Andrew. We took a few snapshots of our new friends and said our good-byes.

us_laoban

Here is me with the owner of the lodge. We are planning on coming back to stay with them again in August with Jonny's parents.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kim, that lodge is gorgeous! Sounds like such a neat experience. It's amazing how well kids can communicate with each other.