2019 Dec 21 start the Molam and from 22,23,24 is the mask dancing festival in the monastery.

Hi Jeff, Sorry I didn't see your email. In Shangri la we rented the car at our hostel, the Dengba Hostel, his name was "Jessie" (don't know how it's spelled but it sounded like that), he was Tibetan and we spoke only by gestures, but surprisingly we managed to communicate very well! We payed 250¥ for the ride for the day (50¥ to the hostel and 200¥ to the driver at the end of the day) for a minibus (with 8 seats, to fit the 5 of us plus the driver). He picked us at 7h00 at the hostel, took us to the monastery, at around 12h30 picked us at the monastery and took us to a restaurant in our way to Potatso park, at 18h00 picked us at the Potatso, took us to eat something at the city and left us at the airport at around 20h00. We also rented a car from Lijiang to Shangri la, I wrote a review for that also (and wrote some details there), we payed 600¥ for that trip for 5 people plus the driver and an English guide. It included a stop at the first bend of Yangtze River and 2h stop at Tiger leaping gorge. We arrived to Lijiang at lunch time. The guide's name was Muu, we found her at the entrance of the dayenguozhen city in Lijiang. Hope this information is useful =) For any more details feel free to ask, we'll try to answer, Cátia