On our way back Zhao left their camera bag and wallet on the bus. This brought the sky down for the Zhaos. They discovered this at the old town when they wanted to pay for something. They then chased after all the buses. They made reports to the police and the police showed up at the hostel. This made the owner of the hostel very upset. The owner then used this time to rub in salt by telling Dr. Zhao that he didn't understand the street way and shouldn't have reported to the police because of sensitive relationships with the cops. I told the Zhaos they did the logical thing.
In Old Town as I searched for food I ended up dancing in the town square with local Tibetans. I figured out that there are only about 10 moves thrown together in different combinations. Don't ask me to show you because I don't know any even though I danced for almost two hours. I just moved my body that was it. I didn't pick up any moves. I was so hungry that I was sneaking in pistachio nuts in between songs because I didn’t want to leave the dance circle. It was interesting to listen to Tibetan music mixed in with pop beat in the back. Even with the pop beat the movements are the same. I think my mom would like Tibetan traditional folk group dancing.
I have not been able to withdraw money here. I don't even know if they take my card because all three I tried had ATM machine trouble, either that or they didn't have an ATM machine. I really would not like to run out of money again and be in great distress and stuck.
While waiting for the free internet access here at the hostel the tv was on. At first the free internet service was only known to westerners. I was told to use the local internet café. I only knew about it because I saw a westerner use it and he told me about it. The TV was showing badminton world cup. I learned there was a country called Taipei, no ROC or Taiwan. I watched the women's double and secretly cheered for the Taipei team as they competed with mainland team. Tt was great even though they lost on the 3rd set. Everyone else here of course was glad the inland team won.
In terms of animals I've encountered in Tibet and here I must say I never really looked at animals this way. The working animals have bells on them. This must be annoying, always got the bell ringing in the ear all the time. Then the others are all for livestock. My experiences with animals have been in the form of pets, including pet chic and pet fish etc... Anyone who thinks it's cool to be an animal must never have been in livestock farms. It's just sad.
People here like to say Westerners don't take showers every day and does praise how they are into walking. I think it's really because Westerners I've encountered here really hold it out until they get proper western shower and toilet sometimes. I think it's a cultural mistake. They also say how Westerners are more optimistic and are more positive and full of encouragement. I for one refuses to use the showers here because some genius decided to build it in wood in a very humid environment. As a result it smells like mildew. Yup, I don’t want to be inhaling mildew.
Both of the girls working here like me and would like me to stay and work here. They said I could speak English here. I told them I don't have time to work here. But really, I already do speak English and I come from a place that speaks English and also makes for per hour than here. But I wouldn’t spoil their joy in their novelty of speaking English to westerners. Tonight for dinner I had BBQ veggies on charcoal off the street. I hope it all goes down well. It was cheap and it was veggie, lots of different kinds too.
At night I had to hang out late so the Zhoas can have space to just chill if possible and work through this major crisis for them and all the self guilt, blame, etc... I hung out till 11:45pm. I was very tired. At the room, after being belittled by the owner when the going was rough Dr. Zhao then decided to make his mark by telling me how I have to figure out what I want in terms of travel because he is not a person who takes other people's opinion well. He was basically laying power on me so he would feel better after being step all over by the owner. I didn't enjoy that but I can see where he was coming from and with all the distress he was feeling. I didn't get flattened by him even though he rudely stomped all over me. I was too tired to think or bother with this muscling or shall I say run me over to inflate and rebuild his own male ego.
