On the road to Gyantse...

  Gyantse, China
Wednesday, September 15, 2004

15 SEPTEMBER 2004
I feel a bad road rising....

As promised, I woke up early and took snapshot of the Potala Palace as viewed from our hotel rooftop. Nice!



We had a long day in store for us. We were driving from Lhasa to Gyantse. The tour guide told us that we should bring some snacks because the "food may not be so good" and it was going to be an 11 hour tour. Almost 7 hours of it was over the worst road I have ever been on. I'm talking serious gut checks at every turn and straightaway. To add to it all, we would be going over two high passes, one of which topped at at 17,890 feet. But it was also some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, and the people were so friendly with their genuine smiles and waves as we passed by.

Here are a few pics of the scenery:



This picture was taken of the road behind us as we began to climb the shortest pass (about 15,000 feet).



At the shortest pass there was a large truck carrying lumber that flipped on it's side. Our bus got stuck trying to find an alternate way around it. We ended up having to push the bus up the hill. It's a pretty hard thing to do when you're lungs are already aching for air. (If you couldn't tell, Amy looks concerned.)



At the highest pass (17,890 feet) we took a break for some photos. Here's a good one of me gasping for air. That litter behind me is actually prayer flags. It was pretty windy up there and their were little whirlwinds of prayer cards swirling around. Tibetan flavored Buddhism walks a fine line between colorful and littering.



I didn't walk around much. I felt pretty loopy. It's hard to make your brain think and talk and walk and breath at this altitude. It was like walking on the moon or something. You did everything REAL SLOW. I did manage to explore a little bit and snap off this photo of some prayer rocks with some cool mountains in the background.



We stopped and ate some box lunches. It was a really scenic area with yaks in the background. Amy used one of the "natural toilets"(code for find a place) and was chased by a yak for a bit. In this picture you can see the snow capped mountains and some of the yaks (I'm not sure if the one that chased her is in this photo).




I gave most of my food away to these Tibetan nomads. I wasn't sure if he was friendly or not. It wasn't liked he smiled or anything. But whatever I gave him would disappear in his poncho/shirt, and he seemed to appreciate it.



Towards the end of our road trip on the rough road it seemed to smooth out a bit and I got this photo off.



We got into Gyantse pretty late at night and went straight to the restaurant before eating dinner. The city of Gyantse was invaded by Britain nearly 100 years ago. If you ask me it could have been just last week. The city doesn't seem to have one real sidewalk and all of what used to sidewalk is strategically arranged to block all traffic and every possible choke-point. There were also some pretty scary looking dogs parading around the streets. I seriously thought we it looked like a war zone. Imagine our surprise when we checked into the hotel and found really soft beds!

Until next time....