9th birthday, a hidden museum and Richard Long

It's A's birthday so she opens a few presents before breakfast before we head out to Napa Lake just west of town... well, a lake at certain times of the year but now more like marshland with grazing cattle - half yak, half cow (cak, yow?). The afternoon is spent wandering around the Old Town: a few souvenirs, a temple and massive prayer wheel on the hill, and a surprise birthday cake for A at a nice cafe just off the square. 9 years old... Before I know it, she'll be a teenager!

Continuing the Joseph Rock theme, we visited a small, very private museum about explorers. It was founded by the interestingly named Wong How Man who also runs the China Exploration and Research Society, but it's not in any guides and only opens by appointment. Anyway, four fascinating, beautifully presented rooms covering women explorers in SW China, expeditions to find the sources of the Yangtze and Mekong and a well-stocked library including Tintin in Tibet in Chinese (which translates as Tintin in Chinese Tibet). And no-one knows it's there.  

Finish the day at a lovely traditional Tibetan house which Amy co-owns with two artists, and where Richard Long stayed as part of a residency last summer. Looking forward to seeing the results of that in due course: the perfect landscape for Long.