I got in a car the next morning to go to Dzogchen. When I arrived, I went immediately to the hostel, had some snacks and then went to take a nap. After the nap, I got up and walked over to a temple. There were several foreigners. Then I noticed that inside the temple there were also several foreigners. I asked them if they were doing renovations, and they said no, only preparations. Afterwards, then I met a nice monk and we chatted for a bit, and then found out it was Patrul Rinpoche, who is actually quite renown in Europe and throughout the world. I found out there would be a Vajrasattva empowerment practice the next day and that I was invited to join in. I walked around the temple complex to Pema Tung, and then enjoyed the property a bit.

I took many photos of people adding lights to the complex. I went back and tried to do some kind of official registration. Then I went to the top of the mountain for the sunset. I wanted to see Patryl rinpoche’s cave, which was (I found out from a man in a small house) that it was on the very top of the mountain. I enjoyed the journey to the river so much, and I had perfectly enough time to see over the entire valley. I did not have enough time to go to the cave unfortunately, and I would be unable to do so since I joined the retreat. I was thrilled a retreat was happening. It’s very good timing for me, and I have exactly enough time to do it.

I left Yaqing in a car with one monk and a Chinese girl and several others. We were going to give our respects to a higher lama. It ended up taking 3 hours. We went to one temple and he wasn’t there, and then we went to another temple situated up on a hill. There was an old man living in his original home which had been somewhat enshrined in the new building. They also gave respects to their lineage. Afterwards we went to the area below with several tents. We arrived and they were serving some bread and yogurt for lunch. We sat, had tea, and waited for the lama to finish his lunch and then we got to sit with him for a few moments and ask for blessings. I really liked the journey, even though it was out of oru way. Then we went to Ganzi. The landscape along the way was beautiful. I dozed off for most of the trip. We arrived and I said goodbye. I found a car for the next day to Ganzi. Afterwards, I walked to a hotel, and at the same time another lady walked up. We ended up sharing a room together. We went to eat at the Tibetan restaurant and had tea, dumplings, and yogurt with buckwheat powder. Afterwards, we went to the hotsprings together and did a soak in the pool. It was really nice company.

I arrived to Yaqing. I got into the car with a monk at Baiyu. They loaded the car full of as full of stuff inside and outside the car. A cute old couple sat in the back and I sat next to two men. We drove the full four hours to a small town.  I arrived and immediately the group started to jump out of the car to pick up the small black caterpillars. I had no idea what they were doing. Eventually, I realized they were saving the caterpillars from being run over in the road. I went to Yaqing hotel, which only had rooms for 120. I had lunch in the little chine restaurant next door. I ended up walking across the campus to a different hotel which allowed me to sleep upstairs in their cafeteria for only 25 kuai. I was going to sleep on their maroon I passed by the temple which had a loudspeaker of some of the people chanting inside. It reminded me of some of the muslim areas that I had visited. Then I got to the hostel. I slept on some of their chairs.

After I checked in, I headed to the main monestary again where I heard the chanting and I took photographs. The entire hall was full of monks. I had no idea what was going on or if this was a normal occurrence. They were all chanting in unison with the buddhas all over the walls. I watched them get served yogurt and tea, and then they arranged the small round things with the rice, fuck I forget what all of this stuff is called. I sat there for an hour or more with them while they chanted. It was truly incredible. Afterwards,  I went to get some snacks and ended up getting some sweets from a handmade Chinese sweet shop. They were tasty. I walked over to the area with the nuns and as I arrived and sat down, shortly afterwards they all got up, so I followed them. They began to line up and there were a few ladies in the front with conch shells and the large reed instruments. They started walking, and lining up, all of the nuns came out of the temple together and threw on a yellow shawl. They started walking somewhere, and I had no idea where they were going. We walked around the field together with the oboes blaring. It was a big circle.  There was a big festival happening for the death of a famous lama. So there were more than the usual people here. Afterwards I went to eat dinner and a nice Tibetan girl sat with me and ate dinner. Then I went to sleep. I woke up in the morning and went back to the temple and then to the nunnery. I sat with the nuns and they offered me some of their tea. I left and went to a temple where they were offering butter lamps. I ate some noodles for breakfast. I went and did some prayer wheels. I went back to the hostel for a moment and then decided to leave because they were burning plastic in the wood burning stove again. I had to get up so I left to explore some more buildings, and eventually got some baozi snacks and fried bread. After a while of resting then I took a long walk over to the neighboring village which was made in a rock quarry. They had a lot of rocks they were pounding into smaller piece with axes. I wanted to see the small temples up there, but it seems that it had disappeared once I got over there. I got a ride back to the temple. I walked to some of the temples that I hadn’t seen yet, like the lama’s temples and their paraphernalia. I walked to the top where guru Rinpoche was and watched the nuns circle around the grasslands from the hill above. I wanted to see the head lama of the temple speak and then I walked around until he started class. I attended class for a short while. Then I went to get a closer look at the main temple now that all of the people were gone. It was beautiful. There was still rice on the floor.. I tried to similarly see the nunnery but it was closed.

I got to Chengdu and walked around in the park. I got sick in the car because one of the men was smoking like a chain smoker and there was a young girl who was sick. I read a book and processed some photos on the train. I ended up catching her cold and wanted to sleep in the hostel in Chengdu for the rest of the day, but instead I got a coffee and wanted to go for  a walk and process photos. I walked around a tiny market across the street and next to the Wuhousi temple. Since I found the history of Wuhou si unappealing for the ticket price, I decided to walk down the market street next to it. Jinli alley or something like  that which had a lot of interesting boutique shops, but nothing unlike the same exact street in Beijing or Shanghai that the tourists walk down. I walked a street parallel to the one where the hostel was and it was filled with Tibetan shops and restaurants. I ate at a pure tibeetan restaurant and had some beef soup and a small bread that was like a thick pancake mantou, but overall very tasty and somewhat fluffy and dense. After that I did eventually go back to the hostel and did some processing, and fell asleep at normal time. I went to Kangding the next day on the bus. I arrived and was too tired to do much of anything, but I managed to check into the hostel and go walk around town to a Tibetan restaurant, which was on the 6^th floor of an apartment building, but inside was a lavish Tibetan decorations. I didn’t sleep all night due to bed bugs in the room. The food was a buckwheat beef soup, and some beef, potatoe, and rice. I was still sick and tired. The next day I woke up late feeling still a little sick and went to the two temples in town, Wufasi, which were both incredible works of art. I walked the wrong road to get there, which was actually a highway, and the huge loaded semi’s filled with construction materials were annoying and troubling. The city as well was going through tons of construction. I was quite impressed. I went back to the hostel and slept for a few hours due to lack of sleep the night before. I woke up and went to the hot springs. I soaked for an hour and had a very deep meditation. I was quite impressed.

I had dinner at a Mao Cai restaurant and then ended up going back for another hour long soak which helped cleanse my skin immensely. I got on the bus the next day to go to Dege. The ride was incredible, and one of the best rides I have ever taken. The landscape was stunning green rolling hills dotted with the kham style Tibetan buildings. It was like Tibetan mansions and grasslands and hilly mountains, which then grew to being terrifying huge mountains and a drop off of hundreds of meters down the side of the mountain in a bus. I enjoyed the ride so much watching the temples and houses go by, the herds of yaks getting in the way and the azure lakes in the distance, which were breathtaking in such nice weather. I only wished I had my camera, but some parts of it were so amazing I might never forget. I had never seen Kham before, so the difference between Amdo was really obvious. I had no idea they were so drastically different. I got to Dege and the whole place was a huge construction site, and there were a few traditional houses, but for the most part the majority of the small valley had been converted to apartment buildings and hotels. I was stayed in a really terrible hostel with no security and didn’t feel safe there. I left in the morning to go to Baiyu. I got there and it took over an hour to find a hotel for less than 50 kuai after the temple told me there was no guesthouse there. I spent the entire afternoon at the temple and a few of the monks befriended me. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to buddy up to the monks here because of the language barrier, but we did quite well. One of the monks helped me open all the doors to the temple, and told me about the latest reincarnation that lived on the temple on the top of the mountain. The schedule was strict for weekend visitations only and it was Wednesday. It was incredible to see all of the deities, especially Padmasambhava, whom I hadn’t been seen by in deity form since the US. The reconstructions were so beautiful. I ate a traditional Tibetan pot pie and some milk tea for dinner. I’m heading to yaqing si tomorrow hopefully and then onward to ganzi, Dzogchen monestary, and then the litang horse racing festival.