Long drive on the bus to Mount Kailash. The scenery kept changing from long straight roads to winding mountain passes.

On one of our stops, we encountered a group of Tibetans that just seemed to come out of nowhere. We had a cultural exchange where we gave them things like combs, hairbrushes, and toothpaste and they gave us colorful Tibetan Knik Naks.

On all our long days on the bus, we developed a great rapport as a group, and we had our own “choir” at the back of the bus. Music mainly from my Ipad along with Eva’s speaker.

We ended up getting into Mount Kailash late, where we realized that there had been a “snafu” with the accommodations. The hotel that we were all supposed to stay at only had room for about half of our group, so the rest of us had to “rough it” at a YMCA full of cockroaches. This severely tested our mindfulness and staying in the present moment however, all of our fellow YMCAers survived the night and came out stronger for it, with a story to tell.