24: Much to our surprise when we rounded a curve in the trail and drew close to the Monastery we found a welcoming committee. The Abbot and what must have been most of the people in the Monastery including several with trumpet-like instruments making enough noise to wake the dead were in the open gate and bowing to us. How they could have known we were coming I will never know. All this brave show required a substantial outlay of Rupees and the skill of Ugden Thundup Lal, our interpreter, to get us on the way again.