Switchbacks

After I left you on Monday, we went and had local noodles and tea for about $2. I know right?

And we've still been drinking a lot of water.

Monday afternoon was a little more sightseeing, and then had dinner with one of Daniel's old friends. We went to a nice local restaurant and as always, it's an experience when you're with the natives!!

Our friend was ordering and asked if mutton and yak tongue was okay. (if i'd known him better i would've been honest, ha). But never wanting to be rude to your host, you always say yes and try to eat whatever is put in front of you with a smile.

Honestly, the yak tongue was really good, it tasted like thin slices of roast beef. If you can mentally get past what you're actually eating, it's pretty tasty! The mutton however was not my fave. I'm sure like any other meat you can cook mutton a variety of ways, but we had it in the form of fat on the bone. I do not like fatty meat. But again, i chewed and chewed and actually swallowed.

What's hilarious, is that halfway thru the meal our friend was telling us about some of his recent travels, and we asked him what new foods he tried and liked. And he told us he doesn't really try new food, but just sticks with what is familiar. I had to hold my laugh in, and really wanted to ask him what part of yak tongue and mutton fat did he think was familiar to me hahahaha?? But seriously, he's such a great friend to Daniel and i was excited to get to meet him.

Tuesday, we had more of a down day. We had breakfast at our noodle shop and ate steamed dumplings. Daniel could eat this every meal of every day.

They actually steam them on this fire stove thing.

We ended up running into another friend of Daniel's (it really is like a small town here, you can run into anybody anywhere) on our way to lunch.

From left to right: bread filled with meat, fried meat, green veggie, and fried potato/meat dumpling. This restaurant is one of our faves too. I found it right before i moved last time, so i need to make up for lost time and eat there a few more times!

Tuesday afternoon we rode to the river and just enjoyed the quiet and scenery.

This morning we were up before the sun to do a little sightseeing outside of town. The drive was beautiful and the mountains did not disappoint!!

Here's me, hanging out with the wild life.

We actually were at about 15,000 feet. After just climbing a few steps, you get SO out of breath and feel completely out of shape! Here is the road that we drove up on. Notice the switchbacks (that's one of my favorite words).

We walked around the top of the mountain. This was the level part of the path.

It's hard to really capture it, but can you see that we are completely surrounded by mountains? love. it.

(those are mountains in the back, they just keep going and going)

We asked our tour guide to take our picture. Clearly, we weren't ready.

This reminded of Psalm 50:10, instead of cattle, i was thinking "He owns the yak on a thousand mountains."

The next few days we're spending time with friends and taking in all the beauty around us.

love

Laura