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Published: July 12th 2005
Our travel bus for the 5 day trip to Lhasa
This bus had a serious engine problem from the first day on. Indeed in did not survive and collapsed on the next dayWe had to get up fairly early that day and walk to the meeting point close to the travel agency where we had bought the package. As we were ahead of the scheduled time, we were obliged to wait for about 20 min, in addition to that it started to rain (once again) and it was not easy to find shelter. When a representative of the travel agency arrived, we were told that we had to walk a further short distance to the bus. Klaudia absolutely did not want to get wet, so she decided to take a bicycle rickshaw there, while the luggage was loaded on a second rickshaw, but Peter and Stephan walked to our destination. We were among the first travellers to arrive, so we could choose good seats. However just while Klaudia was boarding the bus someone decided to lift the canvas cover that protected the luggage on the roof from the rain, and guess what happened, Klaudia got all wet. By and by the bus filled up, in total there were 18 passengers, and we left Kathmandu around 7 a.m. The bus was very comfortable, with 25 seats, and the luggage was stored on
Road winding its way up
The town of Dram stretches over more than 4 km but only has one street the roof, so there was enough space for everyone. We were full of expectations and very much looking forward to the diverse sceneries we would encounter on the way.
The trip started without any complications, for about 2 hours we drove through the beautiful Nepalese countryside, lush green slopes filled with nice flowers, always following the course of a river, sometimes on the same level, but mostly far above it which guaranteed spectacular views of river plains, steep gorges and long suspension bridges. Around 9 a.m. we stopped in
Dhulikel, a mountain resort, for breakfast. The view from the restaurant was breath taking, but the food was quite lousy, anyway the scenery offered a powerful compensation. On we drove close by the river, approaching the border and continuously climbing in altitude. Several km before the actual border, the bus stopped, and two young men entered unexpectedly. The turned out to be money changers, our guide asserted that this was the only possibility to get hold of Chinese Yuans, but we had learnt the exchange rate to the Nepalese Rupee in a newspaper beforehand and found that their rate was 15%!i(MISSING)nferior to the official one, so we refused. Most
Dangerous landslides
The road has been cut inside the landscape and is constantly under threat due to erosion and landslides of the people in the bus accepted the offer, though. Finally the Nepalese bus stopped in the village of
Kodari, we had to leave the bus with all our luggage and walk over the Friendship Bridge that crosses the Sunkosi river. This would take about 10 min, our luggage was quite heavy and Peter had a suitcase that was quite difficult to carry, so we engaged two of the porters who were waiting there in droves. The Nepalese border formalities passed without any complications and we got the exit stamp. At the other side of the bridge a huge red flag was waving and it was strictly forbidden to take pictures. Welcome to China!
On the Chinese side our luggage was disinfected and our temperature was taken (really strange precautions, maybe against the bird flu). The customs office had to be passed and at first it all happened very quickly, we were positively surprised, but as soon as we caught sight of the Tibetan bus, it turned into a shock. This bus was much smaller than the previous one, the luggage could not be stored on the roof but had to be taken inside the bus and the seats
Amazing river gorge
The landscape was really spectacular were really narrow. In addition to this, it looked as if it would break down any minute! Already on the first 10 km to
Dram (in Tibetan, Nepalese name=Khasa, Chinese name=Zhangmu, a bit much for such a small place) we had to stop in order to let the engine cool down, as the road was really steep. A further passport control had to take place in this town and the Chinese authorities were using sophisticated systems, computerized scanning of passports, still it did not take very long. And there huge numbers of money changers were waiting for the tourists, this time with very correct rates, and Stephan changed the Nepalese Rupees that we had left. Our guide then had to take care of our visas at the PSB (Public Security Bureau) and we had a short break that we spent in a restaurant, about which we were not unhappy because it had started to rain hard in the meantime. The guide stayed away very long, when he finally turned up again, he informed us that we could not go on because of unexpected complications with a Nepalese couple on board. They obviously had fake passports and were believed to be
Waterfall
Water everywhere and the raining season hasn’t started yet illegal Tibetan refugees. We were shown to several dormitories, the three of us shared the room with a very nice young Nepalese man. Unfortunately he, too, was sent back to Kathmandu, this Chinese “compromise” allowed the rest of us to continue. We thought that he was unfairly treated and pitied him, but could not do anything and we hope that he got another chance to see his relatives in Lhasa. That evening we walked to a restaurant far up the hill, the sprawling town extends down the hillside for over 4 km through a series of switchback bends. The menu there did not contain any prices and only when we ordered the waiter appeared with a pocket calculator to show us the respective price, he would not reveal them beforehand. Thank God the dishes were really cheap and delicious. Klaudia had a noodle soup into which extremely thin slices of beef were cut, and Stephan had a fantastic plate of Chinese mushrooms. There we met a reporter from Radio Chinese International, who was dead drunk but still lucid enough to tell us how wonderful Tibet was and tried to explain Tibet to us. Quite a strange situation it was.
Matsang Tsangpo river
The river we had been following since the Nepali border where it is known under the name of Sunkosi river Day 2 Dram (Zhangmu) is a truly incredible place. Due to the constraints of landscape, there is not much place to build houses, so there is only one street lined by buildings on both sides. It is probably Tibet’s richest village due to its position as the major trading post between Tibet and Nepal. The one street is constantly clogged, parked cars turn it into a one-way street where there is no other way to drive! When we walked around, we were constantly wondering how this paradox could be solved. Up to now we still don’t know what miracle was active, but we managed to get away in our rattly bus next morning. From now on we should constantly be driving uphill, from 2,500m to the next place, where we should have spent the night, at 3,700m. Our guide stayed behind with our passports (!) and was supposed to catch up, everybody in the bus wondered how he would manage. The tarred road came to its end at Dram, but the conditions were still pretty good and the driver drove accordingly fast, using the horn wherever he considered it appropriate. Fortunately there was hardly any other traffic. And the passengers
First snow covered mountains
We were getting higher and higher and could now enjoy a glimpse at the first snow covered mountains of the Himalayan range did not pay much attention to his driving style, anyhow, everybody was distracted by the magnificent surroundings, the road that was literally cut out of the mountain slopes, the river rushing down from the Tibetan plateau, often culminating in splashing waterfalls and by breath-taking views backwards as far as the Friendship Bridge and glimpses of Nepal. The afore mentioned river is called Sunkosi in Nepalese and Matsang Tsangpo in Tibetan, we only mention this in case somebody would like to follow our trip on a map. In any case, the diversity of names quite puzzled us the more because the Footprint guide book only sticks to the Tibetan names and completely ignores the Chinese ones, which made it difficult for us to find our way considering the current political situation. Sorry for the digression but this was on our minds all the time. Quite abruptly the landscape changed dramatically, we had obviously crossed the tree limit, only shrubs were to be found and the soil had gotten much more arid. Still, the boulder-strewn plains had a fascination of their own, particularly in stark contrast to the green Nepalese mountains and even more when we caught the first glimpse of snow-clad
Changing landscape
All of a sudden the lush green vegetation disappears to be replaced by all kinds of shades of brown rugged mountains, which were unfortunately very coy and hardly showed themselves.
After 2hrs drive we arrived in the capital of Nyalam county, simply called Nyalam in Chinese and
Tsongdu by the Tibetans. We stopped only shortly to take petrol and for a toilet break (supposed more civilized than in the open air), but the toilets were so filthy that we wished for the countryside toilets again. The peculiarity of Chinese toilets is that they do not use any water, the leftovers simply stay where they had fallen, and there is not even a primitive water bucket around, to which we had already grown used to in India. Shortly afterwards we stopped at a police checkpoint and our guide actually joined us with the passports and the permits for Tibet. The strange thing about this visa (which was not stamped in the passport) is that it was a group visa, whereas every tourist was a group of his/her own. Up to these days tourists are only allowed to enter Tibet in groups, a public bus service from Kathmandu to Lhasa that was all over in the Nepalese newspapers had to be stopped soon after its start because the Chinese embassy
Strange vehicle
At least the engine gets enough fresh air to cool down in Lhasa would not grant individual visas. Unfortunately we had only got a visa for 20 days instead of the 25 promised, which for most of the group did not matter because they went back to Kathmandu. Only the three of us and Diego from Mexico had planned to continue the trip in China. So we hoped that we would make it to a big city in time to extend our visas as promised by the travel agency in Kathmandu. Our ascent had not stopped yet, we were on our way to the first Himalayan pass at over 5,000m! Now the bus was driving much more slowly, it also seemed to have some problems with the altitude. The pass was amazing, Tibetans consider passes a kind of holy places because they are much closer to the gods there. So our first impression consisted of myriads of prayer flags fluttering in the strong winds, sending people’s wishes up to the heaven. We also encountered a huge number of stone pyramids erected in gratitude for the positive crossing of the high altitudes. We walked around a lot, in spite of the high altitude it was not cold at all, and inhaled the
Kids
In this part of the world, tourists are still an attraction. However it won't take long until these kids learn to ask for money for each photo taken special atmosphere of this unique spot. The humans were all quite fine, maybe a bit short of breath, but our bus definitely had troubles, the engine got quite hot in spite of our guide’s assurance that it would be perfectly cooled in the wind coming from the front. But the wind did come from the back and the bus had to stop several times to take water to cool the engine. On our way down from the pass there were suddenly strange noises to be heard and later on even black smoke was visible. A fellow traveller, a guy from Israel who had a transport company and was also gifted for mechanics predicted that this bus would not make it very far! With a lot of stops and at very low speed we did actually arrive in
Dingri Gangkar (Tingri in Chinese) at 4,300m. There the bus finally broke down and would not move a further metre. It was already late afternoon and too late to organize alternative transport, so we took accommodation in Dingri Gangkar. The guesthouse was a nightmare, the rooms were humid, the plaster kept falling on our beds; the beds were incredibly hard, fortunately there were
Coming back from school
Peter is admiring the teamwork displayed by these girls to carry their school bags many blankets available, so we put some of them on the “mattress” to make it a bit softer; of course there were no private bathrooms, but neither was a hot shower available in the common bathroom, the only possibility to wash ourselves consisted of a tap connected to a barrel in the middle of the courtyard and the water was ice cold, when the barrel was empty we were forced to use a bucket for the well; but the worst thing by far were the toilets, same Chinese type as mentioned before, the women’s did not even have a door! Grrhhh!!! At the beginning we had not yet discovered the extent of the disaster and were only dying for some food as we had hardly eaten anything since breakfast. But then Stephan developed a severe headache (due to the altitude) and as soon as he took a pill, he started vomiting. The only thing for him to do was have a rest. Klaudia and Peter had also lost their appetite in the meanwhile and when they ate the first bites they decided to go to bed without having eaten a lot, the food was so lousy. We only hoped that
Tibetan plateau
The landscape above 4500 meters is pretty deserted the next day would start better than this one had ended!
Day 3 All of us had not slept very well in these extremely hard beds but everybody was looking forward to leaving this dreary guesthouse. In any case, our guide informed us that we could not expect any transport to turn up before lunchtime because it would be sent from the Nepalese border. As there was not much to do in the guesthouse than watch Tibetan TV, we decided to explore the village. But we had to do so slowly, being at an altitude of 4,300m, our knees were shaking with every little step we made. Fortunately Stephan had fully recovered, so he could join Peter and Klaudia walking around in
Dingri Gangkar. The village itself is not very big, the houses lie to the south of an army camp in close proximity. This place is a good example of an old Tibetan settlement with typical clustered Tibetan-style housing at the foot of a hillock. Houses there were flat-roofed and made of adobe, horizontal timbers were placed above the upper window frame, colourfully painted, most of the door frames alike. Since the village lies at the heart of
Stone heap
Alongside the road these stone heaps are built to thank for a successful passage the 80-km plain formed by the Bum-chu (Chinese Arun) river, there were a lot of rivulets to be found, all of them containing relatively little water but offering a welcome bathing place for the local children. We did not check the water’s temperature, but guessed shudderingly that it could only reach maximum 16 degrees. This plain was also dotted with large sturdy tents belonging to nomadic communities, a very unusual sight for us. We were definitely the attraction of the day, people came to stare at these strangely clad foreigners in a friendly way. Much to our regret they not only stared but practically everybody tried their luck begging for money. We ignored the begging but felt free to stare for our part, and there was much for us to observe. The weather-beaten dark brown faces full of wrinkles; the oily black hair that was mostly braided and the braids were twined around the head, often both sexes had ribbons interwoven into the braid, sometimes black but mostly in red, these looked especially attractive, both men and women wore the hair indiscriminately long, we got the impression they hardly ever cut it; men and women also wore more or less
Nyalam Tong La pass
Our first 5000 meter pass in Tibet, and the bus was still working the same clothes, long-sleeved gowns tied at the waist with a sash, women’s sash mostly consisted of a broad plate of battered silver (or any other white metal) plentifully adorned with semi-precious stones, mostly turquoise and coral; these stones as well as the highly prized chalcedony and amber were also used for the hair or any other jewellery on both men and women, both sexes wore a high amount of jewellery anyway; women proudly displayed a very special kind of bracelet made of one huge white conch that seemed to fit so tight that we wondered how and whether they took it off, and came to the conclusion that they must be wearing these conches since childhood and this way were not able to take them off at all; children were wearing one peculiar item of clothing, their pants: these were provided with a slit that left part of their bums in the air so that they could execute their “number two” quickly and efficiently; a very strange sight!
Noontime approached and there was no bus or other means of transport in sight, the only thing for us to do was to wait. The group sat on the upper
Prayer flags
As on every pass one can find thousands of flags flying in the wind floor of the guesthouse’s restaurant, which was a very comfortable place with many tables, benches and pillows, sipping tea, sleeping, reading, playing music or chatting. We talked a little to two Dutch girls who had previously been in Nepal for several months working as volunteers. Being hungry and as we did not have the least intention to try the food in our guesthouse another time, so we went to a restaurant next door. They only sold the local speciality,
momos (steamed dumplings mostly filled with some kind of meat), and these were delicious. The conversation was rather limited, we did not know any word in Tibetan, somebody spoke a little English and it helped that Stephan remembered the numbers in Chinese from a previous trip. But we got what we wanted and really enjoyed the Tibetan food. All of a sudden, several jeeps turned up but only two of them were for us, while being 16 we would have needed four. So the group inevitably split up. For one reason or another we were in the group that stayed behind, we did not really care, believing that other jeeps would come our way very soon, what our guide assured us
Tibetan landscape
Ruins of all kinds of buildings (maybe monasteries) can be found all over the Tibetan plateau anyway. The first jeep left without any incident, but the second one had problems, the engine would not start up, then it drove only a couple of metres to the end of the bridge and they had real trouble making it going again. Soon after they all had gone, loud cries and the sound of horses were to be heard fro the street and our guide shouted: ”The cowboys are coming, the cowboys!” What a nice distraction, Tibetan cowboys, we thought and rushed out of the guesthouse. The cowboys were proud riders clad in exuberant colours and riding towards the plain at break-neck speed. When all of them (around 40 men and boys) had passed, Stephan and Peter grabbed their cameras and followed them. This was a chance not to be missed! They watched them practice for a riding tournament, which was scheduled for the following day as part of a big festival. We fostered some hope that we might see this, as it seemed difficult to organize more means of transport. We knew that we were rather close to some mountains of the Himalayan range and tried quite desperately to spot them, but they were all covered with clouds.
Looking for the Everest
The view over the Himalayan mountain range was magnificent, but the Everest was not yet visible Only shortly before we left, as a farewell present so to say,
Mt. Everest was completely visible, though from where we were it did not look like the world’s highest mountain and was even less impressive than other high peaks closer to us. Anyway, it was impressive enough to be taken many pictures of. Nevertheless it was getting late and we had several hours ahead of us to our next destination. We discussed this problem within the group and decided we would refuse to leave after 8 p.m., considering it too dangerous at a later hour. So we had another serving of momos at the same restaurant and kept waiting, wondering whether we would reach Lhasa in time. When we informed our guide about our resolution, he looked unhappy and wretched, poor guy. But when he told us that he intended to skip the visits of two famous monasteries on the way, because his job consisted of taking us all to Lhasa and not of offering cultural programmes, howls of protest arose. After tedious discussions he gave in and we left on the spot, around 9 p.m. Thank God there was natural light until 10 p.m., so we would not
Tibetan lady
Klaudia was duly impressed by the jewellery and the colourful dress of the Tibetan ladies have to drive the whole distance in the dark.
At first the road was still very good, but then it turned into a huge construction site. It went on for some hours, clogging the road with lorries (building went on 24 hrs a day) and several times the driver got the wrong way and had to turn around, not an easy task. We later found out the reason for this road-building frenzy: a two-laned tarred road would have to be ready for the Olympic Games in 2008, the Olympic Flame was to be brought from Mt. Everest to Beijing. The Chinese authorities wanted to show the whole world how much Tibet had prospered under Chinese rule… They were definitely guaranteed a huge audience! After a long, dusty and very bumpy ride we arrived in Chushar Town (Chinese Lhatse), the county capital of Lhatse, around 2 a.m. We were so much hoping for a better night!
Day 4 We had slept very well but far too short, the bus already left a 5 o’clock next morning. Up to now we had not seen much of the famous Friendship Highway and imagined that we would finally reach it again. Far
Easy rider
The motorbike is quickly becoming the most popular means of transport in Tibet, and it helps when you have a girlfriend from that! This time it was not under construction but completely blocked, so we had to take another road. The way was very pleasant, though, running in a beautiful river valley. In the end, we reached the Friendship Highway again, wonderfully tarred and smooth to drive. Around noon we reached
Zhigatse (alt. 3,900m), situated in the midst of an incredibly green valley formed by the Nyangchu River where it joins the Brahmaputra. We were very impressed, as we had not imagined Tibet to be such a green place. In Zhigatse, we were awaited by the rest of the group who had already had doubts whether they would see us again before Lhasa. Soon after our arrival, our guide declared that we would drive directly to Lhasa without stopping in order to catch up with the time lost. Some group members did not care very much, they had to catch a flight in Lhasa quite soon, this interested them more than two monasteries, others were not sure what to think, but we were determined not to skip the cultural part and threatened to leave the group and come to Lhasa by our own means. In this we were backed by the
Tibetan cowboy
This is the name given by the Chinese to this horse rider preparing for a traditional horse race two Dutch girls who had done volunteer work in Nepal. This threat (actually we really wanted to go our own way and would also have done it) frightened our guide, our acting such way would have put him into great troubles, so after some phone calls with his company we were granted the right to visit both monasteries, though only in a limited period of time. Thus, the famous
Tashilhunpo Monastery in Zhigatse was the first on our list. Klaudia was completely worn out and preferred to stay behind in the hotel lobby, while Stephan and Peter set out for the visit. Unfortunately, the premises of the monastery were already closed, but the two men caught some nice glimpses on the vast array of buildings from the outside and immediately decided that we would come back for further explorations, this way Klaudia could also see it. When they were about to go back to the hotel, they found a small footpath lined with prayer wheels leading all around the compound. As it was time to turn around, they only walked up to a small stupa. They regretted leaving the holy place, the little they had seen of the old monastery
Preparing for the horse race
Without warning the street was suddenly invaded by a horde of riders. According to the locals an important horse race would take place on the next day from the middle of the 15th century had left a lasting impression.
As the whole group was gathered again, our convoy headed towards our next destination, the town of
Gyantse, where we arrived at about 4:00 p.m. after using a perfectly tarred road. The jeeps drove directly to the
Pelkhor Chode Temple Complex comprising among others the famous the Gyantse Kumbum, a giant octagonal stupa said to have 108 gates, nine storeys and 75 chapels, as well as the main temple. Once again we did not have much time at our disposal (only about 1 hr, we would have wished for the double), but were determined to make the best of it. Klaudia was still extremely weary but this time she did not want to stay behind, so we went about rather slowly. Father and son both took nice pictures of the imposing
Gyantse Kumbum from the exterior, but they refused to pay additional 10 Yuan (ca. 1 EUR) for pictures from above, pictures inside the monasteries or temples are forbidden anyway. The Gyantse Kumbum, a massive stupa, was built in the 15th century. Inside are six floors containing chapels whose walls are lined with murals and statuary. Stupas
Feeding the horse
An old basketball is used to give the horse some food were originally built to house the cremated relics of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni, and as such have become powerful symbols of Buddha and his teachings. Stupas are highly symbolic, and the five levels represent the four elements and eternal space: the square base symbolises earth, the dome is water, the spire is fire and the top moon and sun are air and space. The 13 discs of ceremonial umbrella can represent the branches of the tree of life or the 10 powers and three mindfulnesses of the Buddha. The top seed pinnacle symbolises enlightenment and in fact the stupa as a whole can be seen as a representation of the path to enlightenment. After climbing the Kumbum to its top and visiting some of the many chapels we headed towards the main temple. The main temple
Tsuklakhang was built between 1418-1425, miraculously survived intact and contains important 15th century murals and images. We first made a round of the ground floor, admiring the images of the four Guardian Kings, entered the strongly atmospheric chapels with its terrifying frescoes depicting charnel ground scenes in bold colours, enormous images of the Buddhas of the Three Times and various clay images of ancient
Tea time
All horse riders got together outside of town to drink some butter tea kings, buddhas and many other peripherical figures. Everything we saw were impressive examples of ancient art, but they lacked the vividness we had experienced in some holy places in Nepal. Against a 10 Yuan donation it was possible to take photos, and this time Stephan couldn’t resist. For a further 10 Yuan one could buy a white scarf and throw it at the Buddha statue in order to get blessed. These scarves would then be reused for the next visitors. In this place we unfortunately got the impression that it was no longer dedicated to religious activities but merely served as a money machine. We quite disliked this fact, and we were not the only ones to feel that way.
We were among the first to arrive at our designated guesthouse. We were out of ourselves with joy when we heard that in this common bathroom (actually two for women and two for men) there was hot water. This would be our first shower since we left Kathmandu! Klaudia had to try it out at once, but was very disappointed (and freezing) when the water would not turn warm. After enquiring upon the matter, Stephan assured her that she
What a hat
The red colored ribbon hats are famous around Tingri just would have to wait until the long water pipes warned up, which they actually did after 15 min. To the big pleasure of our fellow travellers arriving later and all rushing into the bathrooms, the water was already hot upon their arrival. The three of us again had a room for ourselves, although the guide had tried to put a fifth bed in, whereas the room was already quite tightly packed with four beds. However, we could avert this and slept very well, only too short once again.
Day 5 We again had to get up very early, the jeeps left at 5 a.m., but we woke up earlier still by the alarm clocks and jeeps of another party leaving around 4 a.m. We were told this was necessary because if we left later we could not use the road any longer due to the building going on. Well, that’s life, we promised ourselves that we would sleep longer once in Lhasa. From Gyantse we crossed another pass at an altitude of a little more than 5,000m, this time it was pretty cold as the sun was only about to rise. This pass is actually a defile between
Another type of hat
This guy seems to enjoy having his picture taken two formidable roadside glaciers, which also marks the border between South Tibet and West Tibet. Then we came across a magnificent lake that appeared more like a river due to its peculiar form, the
Yamdrok Yutso Lake. This lake situated at 4,400m is considered sacred and revered as a talisman, supporting the life spirit of the Tibetan nation. It is said should its waters run dry, Tibet will no longer be habitable. Well, when we were there, this big and beautiful lake bore enough water not to make Tibet endure this fate for a very long time. Its name means turquoise in the Tibetan language, in fact on our 2-hour drive along its bank we could observe its splendid turquoise blue waters with several peaks reflecting mysteriously in them. This freshwater lake, unlike other Tibetan lakes, is sweet and nonsaline, extending for 624 square km in the shape of two pinchers of a large scorpion. We left the lakeside to climb the last pass of this trip at 4,800m. There a beautifully decorated yak waited for tourists to take pictures and of course Stephan could not resist the temptation and climbed onto its back. We all had a lot of
Cho Oyu
Cho Oyu 8201m as seen from Dingri Gangkar (Tingri in Chinese) fun, Stephan ‘riding’ the yak and Peter and Klaudia taking pictures and watching the scene.
From now on, we kept driving downhill since Lhasa lies at ‘only’ 3,650m. The plains at a higher altitude had already seemed green to us, they grow mostly barley there, but the lower we moved the greener the surroundings became. Now we also saw plenty of sweet corn and potatoes, in addition to this hundreds (maybe thousands) of trees were planted systematically to prevent the erosion of soil. Only fast-growing trees were to be seen, like poplars or willows. We were duly impressed by the Chinese way of handling things, whatever they did they did very thoroughly, positive or negative. Finally we understood why we had had to get up so early again, whereas it did not really matter whether we arrived in Lhasa at noon or in the afternoon. We had to do so to avoid the tarring machines, once they were on the road nothing else se was moving any longer.
Before we entered the holy city of
Lhasa itself, we followed another river in its beautiful valley, the Kyi-chu river. The city is encircled to the north and south by
Mount Everest
Finally we could see it, as the clouds covering it just moved away long enough to take a picture impenetrable mountain ranges, one of them 5,200m high. The outskirts of the city, which boasts a history of more than 1300 years, were not very attractive, the whole place seemed too small for the gigantic streets and buildings it housed. Extensive housing development was going on, but the houses looked like a forced Chinese imitation of Tibetan style. After quite a long drive we finally arrived at a small hotel recommended by the travel agency, where we could have stayed, but everybody immediately went to look for another place to stay. We had made too bad experiences with the hotels on the way, so we no longer trusted the travel agency, although to be honest the place looked all right and was quite cheap. We left our luggage in the hotel and were decided to find a decent hotel with a clean private bathroom, also if we would have to pay a little more. What we then found exceeded all our expectations, the Mandala Hotel had an outstanding location in close proximity to Tibet’s most sacred shrine, the Jokhang Temple. Fantastic, we were enchanted from the very first minute!
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