The building behind the hotel is not a temple. It is an abandoned fort. One day I asked Ngam, the woman on the right above, to help me find some coffee. Ngan didn't exactly know where coffee could be found, but she said she would try to help. After two blocks we found a well-stocked Chinese store where I purchased my coffee. As we left the store Ngan said, "Not too bad for having studied Chinese for just five weeks."

These days in Tibet the Chinese and Tibetans often don't have a mutually intelligible language. It's kind of amazing, but again and again I saw the two side-by-side cultures unable to communicate.