Nina and I organized our own car, driver and guide for today as the itinerary for the group was 3 more temples/monestaries. So at 9:30 our guide (Chinese with English name) Susan and driver (also Chinese lady with English name Fay-Fay) arrived at the hotel and we were off. The plan was to see a little of the local country side. On the train journey to Lhasa we had noticed that grain harvesting was under way and we wanted to get a closer look. Similarly with horses. Tibetans are as enthusiastic about horses as Mongolians so if possible we wanted to get closer to some guys and their horses.

As you can see from the pictures we achived the goal with the harvesting. The grain is barley and they hand harvest it in big piles and then load it onto a truck and take it to a plant to be threshed and winnowed into actual grain.

The guys and their horses was an interesting story. This group had to transport a sizeable load of reinforcing rod (as you can see) to a site up a steep hill not accessible by vehicle and had hit on the idea of using horses. The problem was at the time we saw them they had not figured out how to tie bundles of the steel so the horses could drag it or carry it. So in some of these photos they are puzzling over that issue.

At the turnaround point of the days exploration, a village the guide called a Horses village we found an older lady who was prepared to show us her house, and of course she offered us tea, and not just any tea - butter tea. This is black tea with yak or horse milk, salt and yak or horse milk butter. Nina declined, the guide and driver did not drink theirs, but I actually like this stuff so had 2 cups. The photos dont show it but the ladies house was extensively and intricately decorated.

In addition to the things we saw with the guide the conversation was very interesting. The 1 on 2 relationship meant that all kinds of topics came up. How does eduction work in China, when did you and your husband come to Lhasa and why, and by the end of the trip she was asking whether it was the same in the west as in China that women got a raw deal and had to work much harder than men.

We finsihed a great day at a group dinner at a Tibetan restaurant with a Tibetan band playing traditional music and songs. Between sets we had discusions about Tibet, the west and other things with the band leader.