Up to the Stupa

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A little delayed today. Last night a dog barked in the street for what seemed like eternity and then all then all the other dogs joined in! Sleeping was slightly tricky.

Breakfast was our first stop. The usual please sir!

We then headed off to a temple about 5km away. The route was really nice. Past small homes, across streams, butterflies everywhere, baby cows and amazing scenery. Idyllic! We made our way downhill, then up again and eventually found the huge monastery complex.


Palpung Sherabling Monastery is a huge site and is a study centre for monks.  There are eight beautiful stupas lined with prayer flags along with many school buildings.  We entered one and were told it was the last day of teaching and all the students were receiving blessings.  We were allowed in to watch the ceremony.


We stopped for a cup of chai in the grounds of the monastery.  When we paid the family running the little stall asked to have their photos taken with us.  We lined up and were joined by various people.  One lady started off with her hair up in a bun and then let it down, it almost reached her knees, we were quite shocked!


We then head up to another beautiful, coloured temple within the complex before starting our decent.  We found a short cut through a pine forest which took us back to the road we had arrived on.  Back through the little villages, we arrived at the paragliding landing site just in time for the last flights of the day arriving at sunset.  We counted at least 25 coming down, quite a sight.


It was now getting cold as the sun had gone down so we headed back to our accommodation to don our warm clothes before heading back to our favourite place for veg thali.  After dinner we sat and drank chai with the owner and her son, sharing family photos and getting tips on other places to visit around Bir ... looks like we will be staying in this beautiful place for longer than originally planned!!

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