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Published: December 5th 2005
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Hi,
Later that afternoon, after some food and a little rest, we got back into our car and drove the short way to Manasarovar Lake, called by the locals Mapham Yum-tso (4560m). It is only 30 km from Kailash, and a holy lake on its own that gets quite a few pilgrims who circle it as well.
Right next to the little Chiu Monastery there is a tiny village where we spent the night. Behind the village there is a hot spring that has been turned into a hot shower booth. A few dirty bath tabs separated by thin walls are being filled with the not-so-hot water of the spring, without any real water pressure for washing. Since it was my first opportunity to bath since I've left Lhasa I felt a deep moral obligation to the subject. It was hard.
The lake wasn't that impressive. I assume it is because of the cloudy weather and also because I have seen so many lakes in that scenery already, which affected my judgment.
The next morning, after a short stroll around, we started the long way back. We drove to Paryang again and spent there the night, and the next day we
A Tibetan woman
Near Manasarovar Lake. drove again to Saga to spend another night on the way.
After a long time away I found in Saga a small shop of CD and DVD copies. It is very common in China, and I believe they are not really concerned with the violation of rights. I wanted to burn a copy of my pictures to a CD, but I got the usual Chinese response - "Mayou", meaning "don't have". Apparently they ran out of blank CD's (!) and a new supply wasn't coming for another few days, which is amazing considering the fact that this place's business is burning CD's and DVD's...
Instead they offered me to use their computer for internet connection for an outrageous price. I agreed.
Later the workers there invited me to have dinner with them (which they had in the store itself) and they claimed there is a local festival and that I just have to join them. It was nice, even though they didn't eat much more than what I had for the last couple of weeks - rice, beans, and some additional protein from a can (in this case - sardines).
Later I found out that one of the people there,
who just came to see the foreigner and to practice some English, is a teacher and he originally came from Chongqing. Since I visited his birth place (this is where I took the boat ride on the Yangtze River through the Three Gorges) he was very pleased. Then I showed them the blog journal about Chongqing and the boat ride, and they were very happy about the pictures.They added the page to their bookmarks on the browser, and since then this entry is booming up on my blog statistics page...
From Saga we turned South, to a short cut that leads to the Nepali border. The road goes through a gorge in the desert, not an easy ride, and quite dusty. We passed by Peiku-tso (4591m) - an nice turquoise lake, from which it is possible to see (on a clear day...) Shisha Pangma, which is 8012m high, the only 8000m peak that is situated entirely in Tibet, the lowest 8000m peak, and the 14th highest mountain in the World.
During that picture taking break, in a strange way, between one shot to another, I found out that my digital camera broke! It was fine, I put it back in
my pocket as usual, and when I pulled it out again I noticed that the LCD screen in broken. Other than that it worked fine, but it was impossible to view the pictures or the look at any of the settings. Bummer!
We drove on and instead of turning to the border we headed a little bit back in the direction on Lhasa, to a town called Tingri (4390m). A sunny afternoon convinced me to do some laundry.
From Tingri it is possible to see Cho Oyu, a huge mountain on the Tibet-Nepal border. The Lonely Planet states that the peak is 8153m high, which got me excited and I made a whole book of that mountain. Later I found out that the official figure is 8201m. Well, at least not 8200...
Early in the morning, when the sky was clear, I got a first glimpse of the top of the world. From 50 km away Everest already looks impressive, tall above its surrounding. It is not surprising since it is the northern most peak in the ridge, which makes him also closer than the other mountains, but why do we have to explain every beautiful thing and ruin the
magic?
That was where we headed that day, and it will be told next,
R.
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yaron and hagit
Baby makes six
local patriot
just realized your patriotism at Cho Oyu :)