Kandze, Sunday morning

The daugther from the guest house owner and her friends

I'm at the Lung Ta (Windhorse = prayer flag) guest house in Kandze (N
31°37.185' E099°59.161' Alt: 3349 meters). I just had breakfast after
a good night of sleep. I'll spend another 24 hours here and then
leave with the Lamas from Rigul.

Yesterday's drive was alright despite being sometimes bumpy. The bus
left on time at 6.15 am when the sun was about to rise. It took us
one hour to reach the top of the Gye La pass. It was cold but not too
bad. We only stopped three or four times, including a longer one for
lunch at Tawu (N 30°58.528' E101°08.020' Alt: 2955 meters). The
afternoon was much warmer and I ended the drive with only a t-shirt.
We reached Kandze around 5.40 pm. I decided to go to the guest house
I stayed at last year as they were very kind. I'm actually sharing
the room with a young Dutch couple on a one year trip in Asia that I
met in the bus. The comfort here is quite basic but it's good enough
and the owner was kind enough to let me use his private phone line to
connect last night. When I later met Chuga and Khenpo Senge from
Rigul it appeared that they are actually staying in the same guest
house. After a couple of tries, we were abel to phone Ringu Tulku in
Scotland to give him the latest news. I also got myself a new sim
card for my mobile as I could not recharge the one I had. They told
me that I should be able to use it in Dzogchen (a big monastery &
village near Rigul, see www.dzogchenmonastery.cn )and in Yachen. But
there are few odd things, I can send to but not receive sms from
outside China and I can receive but not give call from outside china.
Well I actually received one call from my father after I sent him a
test sms, but Ringu Tulku tried to call but without success. So maybe
I can't even receive calls from outside after all. We'll see.

At first I wanted to go to Rigul today but as the Lamas still have a
few things to do here, it was decided to leave tomorrow May 1st. It
gives me the opportunity to relax and rest a bit here. I washed some
clothes this morning (the water was SO cold!) and I'll go for a
shower at the hot springs this afternoon. The smell is quite bad but
it is said to be very healthy. I'll also try to contact the family of
Yushi. Yushi was our translator when Arnaud and I first came here in
July 2004. She doesn't leave here anymore but i think it would be
nice for me to say hello.

I now plan to stay in Rigul for about 10 days, with a visit to
Dzogchen and/or Tsa-Tsa in the middle. Actually I would like to take
a few of the people from Rigul to visit a school in Dzogchen. The
school was sponsored by the Zangdok Palri foundation in Brussels
(www.zangdokpalri.net I think, or look for a link on
www.patrulrinpoche.org). I'm not sure in Rigul people have a real
idea of what a school could be.

Last night, I showed the Lamas my pix from last year. It was not
always fun as a couple of times person on the pic died recently. So
I'm not sure I'll show them again. I had some pictures printed and
I'll give them.

I'll leave you here. I'll now try to find the guest house owner and
ask him to connect. I hope to be able to do it again tonight. We'll
leave early tomorrow morning and I'll not be able to connect after that.