________________

We had breakfast in the Hotel again, but I wasn’t really hungry. I always feel bad in the morning here.

Today we went up to go shopping for a dining room carpet at the
Tibet carpet factory. Mom picked out a big carpet after a lot of bargaining, and I saw how they made them. They’re reallllly complicated. I saw two women making the yarn. Then we went inside. There were about 10 people making carpets, some men, some women. They were all singing and working. One person can make a skinny carpet. Two people next to each other make a medium carpet, and a big one like ours needs 3 people. They only make about 18 inches a day. They fold it up into the shape of a suit case with, string, plastic, yarn, cloth, tape, etc. Then we can carry it on the plane. If we don’t carry it, it costs $250 dollars to mail to our house.

      
Then we went to our tour guides house. I had four cups of sweet tea. They also drink Tibet tea. It has Yak butter and salt in it. Mom and Dad drank some, and Mom drank a whole cup. I saw the wife, daughter, dog, and I played a little on their electric piano. Their house is very nice for Tibet. They have 4 rooms, and lots of nice rugs and blankets. One of the rooms is just for storage. They have many pictures, but they have to hide the Dalai Lama picture because you can go to jail if you have one. The guide Dop Jor showed us some pictures of his trips, and gave me a picture of Everest base camp.

Then we out and shopped a little for hats, jewelry, jade turtles, etc. Shopping is like Beijing, lots of negotiating but mostly junk for sale!

We went to a nice resteraunt for dinner called Dunya. It is the best restaurant in Tibet!!! It is owned by Foreigners, including an American woman, and some people from Holland. I had Penne. Dad had the Yak Sizzler-a big Yak steak. Mom had Lentil soup she said was really good. She also had a baked potato she said was good but couldn’t compare to a “good ole” Idaho baked potato. Then we went upstairs for dessert, ice-cream, Apple Pie, chocolate mousse cake, and coffee. Dad smoked a little smelly Tibet cigar.

Then we went picture shopping and bought some really nice paintings. I picked out a really pretty painting of snowy, white mountains.
  
Today was long. Bye! Zai Jian.