And here I am, well almost :) Words cannot describe the scenery and the landscapes around here - but since it is a blog I guess I have to give it a go in any case! We arrived here early this evening having driven all day from Lanzhou, but stopping off at various places along the way. 
Xiahe is famous for one thing and one thing only - the Monastery on the hill, the name of which temporally escapes me: ah have no fear, I have the itinerary in my pocket so I can sound well-informed for a change :) The Monastery is called Labrang and is one of the biggest Tibetan monasteries - monks come on pilgrimage from Tibet here, it must be that impressive. It used to be a lot bigger than it is now, but of course they ran into some "local difficulties" around 30/40 years ago. We'll be visiting tomorrow morning as well as going to walk through the grasslands. Should be an amazing day.
Today we drove, as I say, from Lanzhou to Xiahe. Essentially we passed through two minority areas, firstly the Dongxiang (Mongol) and secondly Hui (Muslim). This was a fascinating experience, to see the differences in the people, dress, customs etc. We stopped for lunch in the town of Linxia (on the silk road) and visited the mosque there.
It was a great experience. From there we drove, upwards and onwards as they say (well essentially just me on this trip) through the foothills (...) reaching our current altitude of 3300m. The scenery is incredible, you see the pictures but nothing ever prepares you for landscape like this. In the lower areas, the land is extremely fertile - all maze and hay - with the yellow and other rivers (all looking yellow) flowing ferociously through the valleys.I am coping well with the altitude at the moment. No ear problems, no implosions or explosions so that’s all good! You do feel lighter though very odd; we went for dinner in this "global cuisine" cafe - you could have everything from Mexican, to English, to Chinese and to Tibetan - but an electricity cut limited our choices! I had burritos and English chips (I am not kidding you, the chips were just like in England - I suspect Tibet and I will get on like a house on fire!).
The electricity cut was not, as we first suspected, caused by the thunderstorm, but by the monks in the monastery (maybe using too strong a sound system, I'm not sure...) anyway it's back on now - I did not have to requisition a monk on a bike out the bike! :)It's a lot colder too - but after 38 in Xi-an I ain't complaining! Ok have to dash through the wilds of Xiahe!
More to come,
Rob
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