Picture Highlights

In the left picture, the headdress of the woman on the left indicates she is married; on the right, an unmarried girl.

The Summer Palace was built for the current Dalai Lama, #14, who is of course in exile now. A place of rather unseemly luxury when compared to the abused, impoverished lives the Tibetan people led under the rule of the Lamas.

The women in the bottom right picture are building restoration workers. They are making a pounded-earth floor in traditional fashion, which is like polished concrete when finished. They sing a very cool song while they work, punctuated by their hammers.

Norbu (pronounced Nobu) Lama stayed with Josh in L.A. Norbu Lama is a good friend of Mary Ann, our tour organizer.

Left picture: Eating yak cheese, with a honey-mustard like sauce, and drinking yak tea. I'm the only person who liked yak dairy. I also liked the $1000-per-lb caterpillar herb and sugar desert, which no one else liked.

Right picture: Norbu Lama's family and our tour guide. Our tour guide, Lee Chuan (maybe, her name was hard to decipher), is in the red and white dress. Norbu Lama's sister is in purple, sitting in the first row; those are her two sons beside her. Her husband is the first man on the left (standing) in a white shirt. Norbu Lama's dad is the man in the hat, first row. The gentleman to his right is a relative and also a local official; it was his house we were at. His wife is the woman standing behind Norbu Lama's sister (I think!).

Our guides from Muli didn't speak English that well and Lee Chuan didn't know much about the area. Matthew (real name was Jashi) found us. He is also related to Norbu Lama. We passed by his basketball game and he heard us speaking English, which he is majoring in. He left the game to come to our rescue and take us around. That's Matthew in the burgundy t-shirt, bottom picture, with the manager tour guide (a serious photographer, like Josh) who came out to help us and Lee Chuan.