A very early morning bus ride out of Kangding.

The road was horrible, the bus cramped, and the ride lasted nine hours. No pictures of a grumpy, sore Alex Sciuto. And as we came over the last mountain top, and Litang presented itself, I wondered, "We came all the way for this?"

One of the oddest parts of Litang was this restaurant run by a guy who trained in cooking in Beijing and Shanghai. He spoke English pretty well, and he had book after guest book of people's notes to him from throughout the world. South America, Israel, Russia, Scandanavia, Germany, Britain, Korea, Japan, and China. He had lots of visitors in this little town in the middle of nowhere.

a map of Litang

While Litang does not have indoor running water, it does have big concrete gutters with evenly placed pipes spouting clear water. The water is cold, but the clothes have to get washed somehow.

A little too out of focus.

Panorma of the main courtyard of the Buddhist temple

This is the only picture I have of the temple itself, but this is the outer room. You'd need to go in the right-side door to see the massive Buddha. Where the vestibule was light and airy and filled with construction equipment, the inner area was dark and moist and had smooth wooden floors. Two little boys ran in circles around the two-story Buddha so it wasn't too serious, but it was pretty amazing how every inch of the huge space was covered in painting and decoration.

We ran into a group of monks. They had fun with my camera.

Two Jeffs! This is taken from the mountain behind the temple. I think we were at 4500 meters. I couldn't get to the top, but neither could Jeff. The air was thin!