City Life

After being in the countryside for quite some time it was time to explore the citys. The first stop was Shigatse where we stayed for 2 nights. We got there in the late afternoon, so we didn't do all that much. Had dinner at a nice restaurant where I tasted Renates yaksteak! It was really good!

The next day we went to see the Tashlumpo-monastery, which is the biggest one in Tibet. I hadn't really given any thought to where we were going, so I'd put on a pair of trousers which reached to just over my knees... And of course that wasn't allowed so I had to borrow this really lovely bright orange sarong to put over.
The monastery was really nice, lots of different rooms with Buddha figures and gold. We also walked through a big room full of chanting monks which was quite special. Afterwards we walked around the whole monastery, which took about an hour. It was worth it though, cause we had some great views of the city.

After lunch a couple of us headed off to the local market. It wasn't that exciting, but we did see a scorpion!!! It was about 5 cm, just crawling around on the ground. I almost stepped on it, and the locals laughed when I jumped as I saw it.

The next day we drove to Gyantse, which was once an important city for trading. We started off at the monastery which was nice, the monks were making there really gorgeous mandalas out of coloured sand. Basically they are round figures made on the floor, about 2 meters in diameter and really really detailed.
Next to the monastery was a stupa which was 7 floors tall and with 77 rooms, and we climbed all the way to the top. Looked in some of the rooms, but they all contained buddhafigures in some way or another so we got bored after the first ten...
Had a great lunch with caramelized apples for desert, mmmm. After that we climbed to the top of the fort which used to protect the town in the old days. It was quite hard, as we were still at a high altitude. At the top they had a sort of museum, but it was just lots of large mannequin-dolls who looked really scary and with no explanation what they were doing. Went down a different way and ended up in the old part of town, where it seemed everybody owned a cow which they just tied up outside their door. So the whole street was full of cows!

The day after we set off to Lhasa, which is the biggest city in Tibet, and where the Dalai Lama used to live. The drive was about 240 km, and on the way we drove over some high passes, saw a glacier and had lunch by a beautiful lake. It's one of the most scenic drives we've had until now.

The second day in Lhasa we went to the Potala palace which is the palace buildt for the Dalai Lamas. We were only allowed to stay for an hour, so unfortunately we only got to see 20-something of the 1000 rooms. It was very nice, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. After lunch we went to see another monastery in town. Getting a bit tired of monasterys I must say...

In the evening it was party-time! Our tourleader Tamara and our driver Ian had been given a huge suite, so we all went there. Some of they guys had bought lots of beer, and some horrible Chinese white wine which was about 50% alcohol, so it turned out to be a good night!

Had yakburger for breakfast the next day before we went to see the last monastery for a while. It wasn't all that different, but they demonstrated how they printed their prayerbooks and we got to see a lot of monks debating in a big courtyard. They sat in groups, and one of them stood in the middle asking questions and clapping. Pretty special!

Today Maeve and I have just wandered around looking at shops and souvernires. Tomorrow we're heading north towards Golmud, back to camplife!