Shangri-la, China

Brrr...its so cold here my fingers arent even working on the keyboard! Im in Shangri-la, China right now and and it is probably....umm...5 degrees right now? (maybe less)　Shangri-la is pretty much a tourist trap, but its low season right now because its winter so most of the shops and guesthouses are closed and there arent many people, which is nice after all of the chinese tourists in Lijiang. The town is 3,150km...very easy to get a sunburn and takes a little extra time to climb up the stairs to the Tibetan monestaries, which are really beautiful. Today I went to one with Roy that has 600 monks．．．we watched the monks pray, sat and talked with one for awhile, got blessed, drank holy water and had holy water poured onto my head...

Have been travelling the last week with two guys from the netherlands and two isrealis, but tonight we part ways, which is really sad! We met in Lijiang at Mama Naxi's and hiked Tiger Leaping Gorge together and have been pretty much living together ever since. The guys from the Netherlands are heading to Thailand, the Isrealis are going to Yhongzhou and Im heading back to Kunming to catch a train to Chengdu. My original plan was going to go to Dequin, a small town very close to the border of Tibet, but it is higher altitude and colder than here and I have heard that the town is just a mud pit right now with not much to do, aside from horseback riding and trekking. Im not really into horses, but was really excited about doing the trekking...but seriously, it is so cold here in Shangri-la at nighth I think I would freeze if i were in a tent in Dequin! (memories of Fansipan mountain all over again...)

So tonight I hop on a sleeper bus and hopefully get on the next train to Chengdu! I plan to arive in Beijing April 16th-ish to have enough time to see the city, then head to Korea to party with Tim :)

It was been REALLY hard to find internet here...Ive been told by a guesthouse owner (that refused to let me use his internet) the it is because it is the 50th anniversary of Tibet and they dont want foreigners writing bad stories. There are no internet cafes...you can only get online through your guesthouse that has to give you a special password that gets connected to your passport number so they can track you down.... (As a note, Youtube has been blocked here for over a month with no expected date of return)

Ｏｈ! Everything here in Shangri-la is yak! Yak leather, yak meat, yak yogurt, yak cheese, even yak butter tea! I tried the yak butter tea last night...oh man LOL it tastes like your drinking thick liquid, salty butter! I wasnt going to drink it all, but one of the guys from the netherlands and I bet each other to drink more and more and we finished it off ughhhh but yak cheese and yogurt is tasty :)

Coming home soon...Im feeling pretty ready to come back. Some things Im really missing about home:
-set prices! love to bargain, but really, sometimes you just want to buy water and not spend 5 min haggling over the price
-mustard...and real ketchup...and franks red hot ummm
-dill pickles! salsa!
-black beans...miss mexican everything
-no smoking: in china, everyone smokes and smokes everywhere...its really hard for me in close window buses, especially sleeper buses!