Day One – Kathmandu (1300m above sea level) to Nyalam (3700m)
The first day was probably the worst, our ‘tour guide’ was the most arrogant and rude person we had met in Nepal so far, we got stopped by fake Maoists and had to give them 500 Rupees each (our lovely tour guide was going to leave us behind with them as we didn’t have enough money on us, they don’t accept Chinese Yuan apparently, but luckily a guy from our bus bailed us out…) and then finally we arrived at the border to find out that they hadn’t covered the backpacks properly so everyone’s bags were soaked. That was the first day, thankfully it got much better from that point on (or when we got into Tibet!)

I could write for pages and pages about how beautiful the Tibetan landscape is, but I’ve decided to write out our itinerary and just upload the pictures instead as they speak for themselves!

Day Two – Nyalam (3700m) to Lhatse (4350m)
Day drive uphill to the highest plateau of the world with a typical view of the Tibetan landscape, offering the feeling of standing on the roof of the world. Crossing over Lalungla (5050m), from where, weather permitting, you get a breathtaking panorama of the beautiful Himalayan ranges including Mt Cho Oyu (8201m) and Mt Xishapagma (8012m), although these are dwarfed by the vastness of the Tibetan plateau. From Tingri, you can enjoy the magnificence of Mt Everest (8848m).

Day Three – Lhatse (4350m) to Xigatse (3900m)
Continuing the scenic drive you cross over Gyatchu La (5220m), the highest pass en route to Lhasa.

Day Four – Xigatse (3900m) to Gyantse (3950m) and back to Xigatse (3900m)
A mornings sightseeing at the Zhashenlunbu Monastery and then a drive to Gyantse to visit the Baiju Temple.

Day Five – Xigatse (3900m) to Lhasa (3650m)
A full day’s drive on the Friendship Highway passing the Tibetan lifeline river Brahma Putra.

Day Six and Seven – Lhasa (3650m) Sightseeing
Two full days of sightseeing in Lhasa including the Jokhang Temple, Barkhor Bazaar, Potala Palace and Sera Monastery.

All of the Monasteries and Temples we visited were fantastic but you couldn’t take photo’s in most (without paying a hefty fee!) so I’m afraid you’ll just have to imagine what they looked like! We did manage to get some photos of the Monks’ debating at Sera Monastery for you though, plus there’s a video too but you’ll have to wait until we get home for that pleasure!

After a couple of days of relaxing and not being part of an organised tour we set off for our last trip before we had to head off to China (Another big story in itself…). We hired a jeep for 4 days to explore Tibet with some new friends we met on the bus from Kathmandu – Martin and George – packed up our bags once again and almost set off on time (don’t think we’ll ever manage this!).

Nam-Tso Lake
After a few hours in a jeep that couldn’t go quicker than 20k/hour uphill, we arrived at Nam-Tso Lake, one of the four holy lakes in Tibet. The photos speak for themselves again but we have a few stories that go along with them quite well. There was a yak skull perched on some rocks by the lake, and having seen them all over Tibet we decided to take a photo, first mistake. Nothing at Nam-Tso is free, and so soon after taking the picture a nomad ran over demanding money, and with one arm in his coat holding what we assumed was a knife we handed over some cash and moved further down the shore. This is when we got completely surrounded by the locals, some of which turned out to be nice and then some of them were not at all. All in all our little encounter with the locals was fun though, I got to play with one of the babies, Jon learnt some Tibetan pronunciation, and they got to play with my camera (unfortunately not taking any good shots!). We also decided to go on a Yak ride just because you couldn’t say no, really ? you couldn’t!

We were planning on doing the Kora (in non-Tibetan terms, a long walk!) around the rather big hill but decided against it as we were far too tired to be walking uphill for any length of time, instead we decided to go back down to the Lake for some peace and quiet. No chance. Within about 2 minutes of sitting down we had another Tibetan lady and what we think was her son wanting to play with my camera and talk to us ? so for about 15 minutes we did this and it turned out to be a really nice experience, the lady gave me her coral necklace and they asked for nothing in return ? quite a rarity in Tibet!

Reting Monastery
Back before the Chinese ‘liberated’ Tibet, this was one of the most important Monasteries. Unfortunately it is now all in ruins thanks to bombs and a general smashing. It is still quite an interesting place, but it was really hard to try and imagine the scale of it when it stood. Martin (someone who always has a crazy amount of energy for walking up steep things!) walked around the grounds more than the rest of us so could probably tell you more things than I can, but to sum it up, it would have been good to go there about 50 years ago!

Tidrum Nunnery and Hot Springs
A Nunnery and Hot Springs usually sound quite strange in the same sentence, but not here!!! To be honest, we really only came here to go in the Hot Springs and relax for a day, and we almost managed as well!

I’m afraid we have no pictures of the Hot Springs, that’s because everyone was naked (except us four westerners!) and treated it more like their monthly bath, so we didn’t think it the right thing to do. Obviously the men’s and women’s springs were separate, but that didn’t stop the blokes peering over the wall and staring at all the naked women (including Nun’s) constantly.

George and I had a great time in the ladies, in full swimwear of course (which didn’t stop the locals trying to take it all off!), swimming around and soaking in the hot water, attempting to speak to people who found George’s piercings fascinating and trying not to pay much attention to the Nun’s helping each other wash (!?) ? and then it was my turn to get a wash (my back and neck only, thankfully…) from a local woman, not delicately I might add, she must have thought I had an extra few layers of skin that needed to be removed!

Ganden Monastery
Another important Monastery that was badly damaged during ‘liberation’, but thankfully this one has been mainly rebuilt. Unfortunately when we got inside we found that 99% of the grounds were locked and there were no Monks in sight who would open the doors for us so we didn’t get to see the inside of the buildings which was a shame.

After wimping out of the last Kora (at Nam-Tso) Jon and I decided we were going to do at least some of the one here, so set off on what we thought was the path. I don’t think you can tell from the pictures just how steep this hill was, I had to take my shoes off as they were too slippy, and us being us decided that going along the path would take too long so decided to walk straight up, walk is not the right word really, for a lot of it we had to crawl for the constant fear of falling the whole way back down! Thankfully we made it to the top and the views were absolutely fantastic, well worth the ridiculous climb. I was a little concerned (‘Insert expletive’ myself in reality) about walking back down, that was until we realised we had started walking up the wrong path (the one we thought would take too long) to start with and there was a nice short path on the far right of the hill (our hour and a half crawl could have been a 30 minute walk ? oops…) Needless to say, the walk back down was easy and we made it down in one piece!

Drepung Monastery
This Monastery is in Lhasa so it didn’t take long to get to, but the place itself was massive! Jon and I spent about 3 hours walking around and still had to cut a lot out as we were heading over to Yamdrok-Tso Lake later in the morning. Again, we couldn’t afford to take any pictures due to the very high charges but we’ve downloaded a picture for you so you can have a visual!

Yamdrok-Tso Lake
The last part of our four day trip, and what a let down it turned out to be… After 3 hours of driving, our driver, who couldn’t speak a word of English, stopped the car at the top of a mountain pass. This was as close to the Lake as we got. You could see the Lake (and the road running down to it) but he wouldn’t go any further, there’s not much more to say other than it was a nice Lake from a distance and we rode another Yak!

Apart from boring you with days full of shopping and random walks around Lhasa, that pretty much sums up Tibet. We decided after a trip to the bus station that the 4 day bus to China sounded quite masochistic and instead have booked a plane ticket which will take us to Chengdu, China!