We need to leave Shigatse early, we had an early breakfast so we can leave before 8am, Tenzin our driver stopped in town and we did not realize that we were supposed to have breakfast now, another miscommunication with Sofie our guide, by this time Russ has had it and asked me and Boris' permission to dress Sofie down and he did it in full blown fashion, we kept silent and we felt uncomfortable but this is our 7th day with Sofie and she has not really been a good guide, not a lot of informations given and i think the problem is she does not understand us too well, her English is ok but cannot communicate properly, and she gave us poor informations, the train tickets when we arrived which we could have bought there ... read more

Weird dreams again last night, the altitude playing tricks on me again and on Boris and Russ as well. We had free breakfast today at the hotel as they did not clean our toilet last 3 days and Russ was upset. We got picked up at 8am Sofie our guide and the driver Tenzig, we dropped by the China Bank ATM to get some money. The drive out of Lhasa was quick huge highways they have here , the scenery is dramatic, clear blue skies, brown arid looking hills, green valleys. We stopped at Yamdrok lake a gorgeous green lake, we took some fotos and we way above 4,000 meters, the winding roads to get here is well paved, I call it an engineering marvel, how they built the road in this terrain is incredible. Lots ... read more

I stayed at Riverside YHA, from the place where the bus dropped us off in Guangzou I asked around where the metro was, no one can understand me a bit frustrating, welcome to China, hardly anyone speaks English not their fault i am the stranger here, I found it finally and took the train to the hostel it took me awhile to figure out the directions and after 20 minutes walking in busy street near the river i found the hostel, they put me in a nice room overlooking the river cause the dorms are full, I share with a Chinese dude who hardly spoke to me as he can't speak English. I found street food at 10pm, the streets are alive with food stalls and grilled stuff in the middle of the streets, i picked ... read more

Spent the night at Changi's budget terminal, trying to avoid having to pay a cab to the airport I took the last train at 11pmish from the city to the airport, gOod thing they have wifi I spent couple hours internetting to get myself entertained. Nothing to do in the terminal quite basic a couple of restaurants and that's it. 4am the counter opened and I checked in quickly to get in to the departures lounge. Tiger airways my 1st time to fly with them, not bad.The flight was abouT 4 hours, I just passed out and woke up when we were about to land. The airport is not that busy and it's huge and very efficient, within 30 minutes I am through immigration and customs. Found ATM, and walked to the bus stop for the ... read more

On the way to the beaches of the western coast we stopped at a few temples and sacred pilgrim sites, one of them is Kirinda situated near the beach, there is a temple perched atop huge boulders, there are lots of people walking around the beach, mostly families on a pilgrimage during Vesak.Another is the ancient place called Situl Pauwa and like most of the other temples here it's perched atop huge rocks, apparently they did this so everyone can see where the temples are cause way back then there were no roads and people have to navigate through the forests, this serves like a beacon, a guide for them to follow directions. Then we stopped at this town called Kudawella where they have this blow hole among the rocky cliffs near the sea, I have ... read more