Somehow we managed an extra hour of sleep this morning and got on the
bus up the mountain about the same time as yesterday. Rachel tried
desperately with some solid lies thrown in to avoid paying 80yuan each
for the buses again but park staff were wise to it and despite being
told we would be fine by others online we had to buy them.
Unlike yesterday's random bus destinations we were dropped at the
tourist centre & took the next bus up to long lake which was quite
high an extra 30 mins up, plenty of snow about and a frozen lake which
compared with the stunning clear water elsewhere wasn't so amazing.
We spent 5 hours in the park today the wind chill was solid but
otherwise not too cold. On our walk down the valley we found a
favourite spot-sparkling lake it had the beautiful clear blue water
and a partially frozen waterfall going in to it.
Saw and spoke with our first western person in 4 days not particularly
exciting but just noting we were the only westerners in the park till
this woman arrived.
Being valentines day we had a special dinner and given this is as
close to Tibet as we will get and in a Tibetan village we had a
fantastic meal at a Tibetan restaurant of yak meat in potato
croquettes, parcels of yak mince in foil served on a flaming dish and
flavoured rice with( you mite see a theme here) yak meat. We were also
served what I think was yak milk?? It tasted like milk but was salty
not as nice as the food! Also endless cups of house tea was great
because it was so cold out!