North Tour Part Eleven; Gangtok (continued)

     After the Holi celebration we had free time for the rest of the day. A group of us went back to the market in the evening for dinner and found a real Mexican restaurant (well, more like American-Mexican food) that also had wifi. After dinner we walked around for a little bit and happened on a large group of people at the far end of the market holding a candlelit prayer session for Japan which we joined. 

     The next day drove for hours way up into the mountains to the northern most point allowed of foreigners. We were 50 kilometers from the Chinese border and passed several military settlements and stations along the narrow, winding road. There is a lake and little cafe that marked the limit to where foreigners could venture. We walked around on a path by the lake and climbed on boulders that had probably been left by glaciers or rock slides. We took a lot of group photos which are all on someone else's camera. By the way, I plan on getting the majority of the pictures that were taken on the tour and putting them on my laptop and when I do I'll put some favorites here. 

If I were to make a single, one hundred percent factual statement about Amanda it would be that she's an animal lover (except spiders and bugs but i don't think those count as animals).

We crossed a bridged that had prayer wheels on either side. Prayer wheels are a Buddhist concept, they are hollow cylinders with mantras or prayer on the outside and often on paper on the inside. When a prayer wheel is spun in a clockwise direction the prayers on it are released into the universe and the spinner's sins are lessened. This is looking back on the road we came up and one of the military stations.

Franzi (Germany)

Me and Amanda.

Looking towards the lake, and China. Prayer flags (not pictured) are pieces of cloth, either in white or in the five sacred colors of Buddhism, with mantras written on them that are hung outside. Whenever the wind blows a prayer flag, like a prayer wheel, is releases the mantras and good energies into the universe.