Shangri-La

Whaaat a day:) This morning I woke up to liam and walsh fighting. Something they do quite often, especially on this trip since we're all together nonstop. It's kinda funny actually...It always goes the same. Walsh hits liam. Liam hits walsh. They both laugh. and repeat until Liam hits Walsh too hard. At this point in the fight Walsh does one of two things. Either Liam runs and Walsh bolts after him ready to thow a punch or Walsh looks around and if my mom's watching- huge crocodile tears spill out of his eyes and he cries till they're both in trouble. haha, whatever.

Anyway. After Liam and Walsh's hourly fight we got up and headed for breakfast. For me, this was fruit with yogurt, a piece of toast and a mocha that was more like hot chocolate then anything. Very western of me. Especially considering we've been having rice, dumplings and potstickers for breakfast most mornings.

Ah, what am I saying? You guys dont care what I ate for breakfast.. I'm all over the place tonight.

SO after breakfast. We headed up the hill. At crest of this hill, on the egde of town is a huge prayer wheel. When people pull the ropes and walk around the whole 25 foot gold encusted, cylindrical monument spins. The boys did that for a while, I liked the view better... standing on a bench you could see the whole town spralled out in front of you: each oriental roof set slightly apart from the next and the mountains as a back drop.

Later we took a tour of the Tibetan Museum which was located at the bottom of the hill. Shangri-la is about as close as you can get to Tibet without crossing the border and Tibet's culture influences this town alot so it seemed logical to check the museum out. Our guide, Rou, spoke very good english which, for all my world travelers out there, you know is a god-sent sense 98% of the time your dealing with tours where the speaker says barely comprehendable words. Rou gave us a lesson in Everything Tibet 101. I love learning about the way people live. He started with Tibetan medicine, showing us portraits of famous doctors and medicical pioneers. This medicine is mostly about finding the source of pain and working with that. Example: In western medicine, you say you have a headacre and the doctor gives you pills. In tibetan medicine, you say the same thing but instead the doctor tries to find out why you have this pain and deals with the root cause. It sounds good to me， in theory.. I'm not sure I buy the acupuncture and palm reading stuff but what do I know?

After medicine Rou talk us about Buddism (tibetan religon) and death. Try swallowing this one: Tibetans believe that vultures are sacred birds；the vast majority of these people choose to have their bodys cut into 206 pieces and fed to vultures when they die.. It is believed that the vulture will carry the soul to the heavens. Talk about culturally opposite right?! idk, I think I'll stick to cremation on this one.

One thing I'm really interested in is buddism. Idunno much about it but it seems, like Rou says that these enlighted people are always smiling. No stress, no insomnia. It just strikes me as a religon thats focused on enjoying life and helping others.. I'm down.. I like that idea. Plus Gandhi was buddist. and come on. That guy's awesomeee. But idk... I think I need to learn more... Well thats what i have my life for right? Exploring the world and learning everything there is to know. Although, I've made a pretty big dent in the exploring part I think..

It's like yesterday morning- my dad and I are counting the countries I've been too.. 21. Is that not ridiculous?! Just as were talking about future trips, I hear Logan in the backround: 'no, yeah; doctor pepper is HIGHLY flammable‘. Conversation forgotten i turn to him. ‘no its not!' Logan: 'yeah cause the number one ingredient is AWESOME' hahahaahaha. Lame. Okay I'm off track again. Whatever. I'm done now. More cool stuff happened today: a flat tire, a rural village, and shopping for cheap northface jackets but I'll tell you later. 你给. for now I'm off:)