This morning we met our guide for the next few days – Tsering. He has the most magnificent face I think I have ever seen! I spent the better  part of the day trying – completely unsuccessfully I might add – to capture him in a photo. 

Our day was spent in large part driving to various monasteries. By far the highlight of the day was Hemis, which is tucked away in a remote and inhospitable valley, on top of a tall hill naturally. We were fortunate enough to be there during this big Buddhist conference. People from all over, monks and nuns, kids, parents, oldsters and everyone in between. All smiling and the energy was incredible! I had butter tea from these huge cauldrons brewing for all the pilgrims. I figured that the tea was well boiled so likely no harm, no foul. Then we toured through a number of normally closed prayer rooms, libraries and such. The climax of the visit was under a huge tent with nuns singing and dancing, pilgrims arrayed all across the floor of the tent and more senior monks, Lamas and the like than you could imagine!