Partie du Champagne.,.+*

sea. The small teahouse/chilling space by the shore is actually operated by a Taiwanese and his wife. It was on many news articles.

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很奇特的地方, 但有種說不出來的奇怪感覺. 在路上隨便照相, 照到當地人可能會被纏, 在寺廟裡更是不能照相, 否則不然一定沒完沒了. 
 

Our first stop was the Kumbum Monastery about 30km from Xi'ning. It was a much different world when we got there.
 

說實在的, 這地方有點令人畏懼. 這和我們認知中的佛教太不一樣了... 有點像是某種神秘的 cult. 而且是有很多祕密的那種. 屋子都昏昏暗暗的, 裡面都是一種說不出來的怪味.. 還有用活生生的獵物掛在廟中祭神..   一進去就覺得渾身不自在.  光頭的小彌撒坐在進每個寺廟的路口, 將門票一一在讀票機上刷過. 然後就是讀票機很不和諧的廣播, 大致說票 ok , 可以進去了.


 To be honest, the people and place there made us feel a bit uneasy. The Buddhist tradition there also looks so different from what we've always known. Small monks waits outside of each front door for each temple, collecting tickets and scanning them through the ticket reader machine. Then the machine will say something like the ticket has been validated, please proceed. & no photos were allowed in any of the temples, which was understable. But on the street, you also have to be careful not to irritate the locals and make them think you are taking a photo of them. I don't know... this place just seems so strange to us.
 

 塔爾寺是中國藏傳佛教格魯派六大寺院之一,  也是該教派創始人宗喀巴的誕生地.

Kumbum Monastery - one of the 6 most important Tibetan Buddhist temples. It's also the birthplace of Tsongkhapa - the founder of that school of Tibetan Buddhist religion.
 

每棟屋子上的裝飾都很精湛.  這裡最早的建築物有 600 多年歷史.
Every building here is so lavishly decorated.

屋簷上長著小草, 屋子裡有種說不出的奇異味道的酥油花館.
Those are real grass growing on the roof. 

這邊的活佛都住在很高檔的大宅裡, 而且和尚可以吃肉!
 

猜猜我們在哪裡. 在等著做什麼?
Along our way to the last stop, this has been one of our biggest challenges.
 

一大片的油麻花田.

在公路公共廁所附近等待遊覽車客人上門的攤販.
Outisde of a public washroom near the highway, there were people selling cooked potatoes and corn.
 

羊咩咩兵團.
When you drive around here, you'll realize nature is a powerful thing.

 

遊牧民族.
Nomadic tribes here.

很柔和的空間.
The restaurant in the first station.
 

我們的 "裝甲車" 拋錨 了! 等待救援中.
Our "truck" had an engine failure... so they got another coming to rescue us.

 

在青海岸旁拍著婚紗照的男男女女.
畢竟..內陸沒有其他地方有這們大一片像海的美景.
People taking wedding photos. After all, for people who live so "in-land", this huge lake just looks as pretty as the ocean.
 

這就是青海湖.
 This is the sign that everyone would take a picture of when they come here.
 

 

Behind us is the desert. & we are wearing our mask because it was actually COLD.
你沒看錯. 在我們後面的真的是沙漠. 但青海湖畔邊的溫度算是整趟旅行最低的地方, 我們戴面罩 partially 是為了擋風保暖.
 

聽說這前方的水域下面有一艘泡在水中的車子.. 前幾年, 一次開著那車在冰上走, 結果一個地方的冰厚度不夠, 所以連人帶車栽了下去, 人是游出來了, 但車子就沒辦法了.
So the owner pointed that way and told us they had a car down there.. Well... it fell into the water some winters ago when they were driving on the ice.

另外一對在拍婚紗照的新人.
 Another picturesque scene.
 

 

讓人想起台灣花草茶的茶. 老闆還有在賣魯肉飯!
So you can tell this cafe has a Taiwanese owner. This reminds us so much the good food.

The interior of the chilling place where bride had their make-up and we had our tea.
This was named the Sailing Club.. but you look around and you'll find no sails. That was just the way things are.
帆船俱樂部的內部. 這間 cafe 雖然叫帆船俱樂部... 但它.. 就是沒有帆船.
 

很優美&浪漫的景觀... 這和大部分人印象中的中國不太一樣吧.

You wouldn't guess this is China if you didn't see anything else. It's so different eh?
 

沙漠看起來很近, 又很遠.  也許我們正在遠眺著唐代文成公主到西域嫁給異族所經過的日月山.

The desert looks so close to us but it's definitely much further than we can tell.
 

網狀的蔚藍天空.
Sky from the rocky truck ride that took us back to the first station.

 

好多小蚊子!
The parts circled are.. flies that decide to get a free ride across the field.

  

戶外的木地板都翹起來了.
Maybe it's because it's so dry here that the wood can't really stay "flat".
 

往青海望去, 前面是一片平原和藏族包.
 Looking for the Cin'hai Lake and you'll see a huge grass field with the Tibetan tents. One way of differentiating a Mongolian tent (蒙古包) from other tents (eg. Tibetan tents/ 藏族包) is that the Mongolian tent has a sharper tip at the centre-top area. The ones you see in there are flat so they're not Mongolian tents.
 

 

我照了後才發現上面居然是真的牛頭骨....
It was a bit scary to realize what I took a photo of later on.
 

 

晚上由青海拉回西寧的路程是兩個小時, 中間還有一段像是在坐慢速雲霄飛車的上上下下路段.
After dinner, we got back on to our portable home and on our 2-hr ride back to the hotel in Xi'ning. The road condition of one of the sections of the road was SO BAD that we felt the bus was going to fall apart from excessively going up and down huge bumps.