Day 2: Chengdu-Lhasa

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Yawn!

Woke up at about 5.30pm today....the sky was still so dark. It's been a long time since I last woke up at this unmanly hour..... haha..

Had breakfast at Soma Hostel -- toast with butter and jam, hash browns, eggs and the best yoghurt cereal I've ever had!! The yoghurt was so fresh and tasty....thinking of it again now just makes me salivate.

Flight was bound to fly at 7.40am on Air China again. Arrived Lhasa at about 10am. I was filled with anticipation....already we had breathtaking views of the mountains from the airplane. At Lhasa, we are already at 3650m above sea level!

We will be staying at Snowland Hostel for the next 3 nights. The picture you see here is just the hostel section. The hotel section has a decent bathroom (very important!) complete with standard facilities except the lift 😱. We're beginning to feel the effect of the altitude.....climbing up two levels feels like climbing up 4 levels!

Without wasting much time, we set off to explore Lhasa. First stop..lunch 😊 Sounds like we are always eating huh? Well, we need the energy, right? Had lunch at Snowland Restaurant just next to our hotel. We're glad to know that they have English menu.

Feeling all excited and adventurous, we had our first Tibetan meal of Momo, Rice and not forgetting yak butter tea!. Lonely Planet described the taste as "boiled old socks". With such description, how can you not be curious to try it!!??

Honestly, the tea wasn't so bad after a while. I must say that liking the tea is an acquired taste. If Tibetans drinks them like Starbucks and even doubling it as a lips moisturiser, it can't be that bad. Let me attempt to describe taste to you....on first sip, you feel the smoothness of the brew. The taste and fragrance of the tea leaves is strong. Then it hits you....this pungent smell, like an almost rotten milk. But if you let it dwell longer, it is just really the smell and taste of thick milk...like 10 spoons of milk powder in one small glass. Haha....never mind if you can't imagine....😊

After lunch, we walked around Barkhor Square and Jokhang Temple. Barkhor is quite like a market area where you can get all your touristy souvenirs. Had some great buys here. You can get nice Pashmina shawls for less than S$3. Even got myself a cowboy hat for S$2!!

After all the walking around, we ended the day with dinner at New Mandala Restaurant. I must say they serve real good yak curry.

Fantastic for the first day!

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