Gyantse and Shigatse, Tibet

We leave Lhasa today for the towns of Gyantse and Shigatse. We will spend most of our day driving. The scenery is just spectacular. Pictures or words will never do it justice. Green mountains, rocky mountains in the distance covered with snow, fast flowing large rivers. The highest point of our trip was passing through Kampala Pass at 15,000 feet - simply spectacular. This part of the trip, we were on mountains that looked down on other mountains.

Leaving Lhasa, seeing breakfast being cooked:


The Yarlung River, about one and a half hours outside of Lhasa:


Cow herding along the road:


Getting close to the Kampala Pass:


Kampala Pass. Click to see larger. I like the guy sitting on the yak:


Another Kampala Pass view:


Further along the journey:


A word about our driver, Mr. Tang. He is a safe, considerate driver. On the upward slopes and dirt roads, although still a good driver, he likes to hit top speeds. You have to respect a driver who has worn his horn button down to the metal:



We liked the English translation here. We thought these were just for decoration until we hit the dirt road swerves and ditches at high speed and my head slammed into these handles. Good addition!


Our first stop (other than picture taking stops) was the town of Gyantse and the Pelkor Chöde Monastery. The monastery, established in 1418 looks across at a large 14th century fortress on a hill, the Gyantse Dzong. This was site of conflicts between Tibetans and the British in 1904.





We then drove to Shigatse and visited the Tashilhunpo Monastery. Built in 1447, it is the seat of the Panchen Lama. Its most famous characteristic is being home to an 85 foot tall bronze Buddha. It was pretty unbelievable seeing this huge sculpture inside the chapel built for it.


This isn't the main chapel, but rather the burial place containing a massive gold and silver altar-like tomb that holds the bodies of the early Panchen Lamas. The original tombs were destroyed in the cultural revolution.



We finished about 5:30 p.m., checked into the Wu Tse Hotel, then had dinner at the Tashi restaurant. Another Nepalese-owned restaurant, I ate quite a bit more cautiously today. In fact for lunch, I just had white rice and sliced cucumbers. For dinner, I stretched it to Chicken Tandoori and seem to be doing fine.

Before we went to the restaurant, I asked Aaron if there was anything from home he missed, like a favorite food. I mentioned a Snickers bar sounded really good, but hadn’t seen one for a while. We walked up the stairs to the restaurant. The first thing we see is a glass case with probably forty Snickers bars in it for sale. Yes!

We’re going to get to sleep early tonight. We check out tomorrow and head for one of the destinations I’m most excited about on this trip – Mt Everest and Everest Base Camp.

On the plane from Tokyo to Beijing, I watched a video I had downloaded. It was the first season of the Discovery Channel series “Everest.” In the first episode, one of the Sherpas dies from altitude sickness at Base Camp. WHAT!!!? I’ve already been concerned about whether we’ve planned enough time to acclimate, knowing that it takes two weeks to fully acclimate to a high altitude like this. Not that I think anything that extreme will happen to us, but for any of the more common symptoms – severe headache, nausea – the only cure is descent. It would be a shame to come this far and not be able to go the rest of the way.