Now this was a pretty little Tibetan village, in China of course. We stopped by here during the 4 day tour. The hill you see in the background was covered with flags of every colour. It is said that every time they flap in the wind, a prayer is said to the heavens. I guess it's a lazy monk's best friend. It did look rather impressive.

I would like to say visiting that village was a nice memory, but sadly it wasn't. We were conned by smiling Tibetan monks, 99 RMB to stick a flag on the hill. Not that we had much choice in the matter. First they led us through all this prayer and ceremony, made us drink funky tasting tea, go through a long tedious explaination of what each coloured flag went (peace, security, harmony, yadda yadda), and before we knew it, we were holding one and they were asking for money. No way out either. We were surrounded by scary smiling people blocking the one door to the outside world.

What has religious meaning come to in China? Everywhere you go, there are so called "holy" people sucking your money dry in order to give you blessing from God. It's turned into a huge scam if you ask me. No holiness left. Very sad.