Gyantse

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After a post-trek evening of rest in Shigatse we opted for one more day-trip in the area, before returning to Lhasa. The small town of Gyantse had come highly recommended by fellow travellers, so we were keen to explore.

After some breaky we wandered down to the Shigatse bus depot to locate some transport. A taxi offered to take us for around 50 quai, this seemed like as good an option as any. We were sharing the cab with two elderly local women, who spent most of the journey offering us food, including 'yak jerkie'. About an hour down the road (roughly half way there), our cabby stopped the taxi to speak to a mate who'd been driving in the opposite direction; he then proceeded to move Fred to the back of the taxi and place one of the local women in the front seat... when we questioned this apparently bizarre behaviour, we were told: "Police!". Sure enough, a few miles on, we came to a police road block... neither of us were exactly sure on the legal technicalities. We'd been told by a travel agency that we needed no permits to visit Gyantse, but that didn't necessarily mean we could use local transport. (We later discovered we should have had a permit to stay overnight in Shigatse...) The police didn't seem to notice/care about us, thankfully.

The fort at Gyantse was quite unlike other places/buildings we'd seen in Tibet. A fairly large and impressive structure, well intact. We found some very atmospheric places and rooms within the fort, and had good fun messing around with the photography potential of these places.

Leaving the fort we ambled through the streets of the small town, making for the Monastery. We passed through one street, each and every house had a cow tied up outside... most interesting! There were loads of dogs around the town and also within the Monastery; more like I'd imagined I'd find across Tibet at large. The Monastery was again, quite different to others we'd seen. The Kumbum structure is the largest 'Chorten' in Tibet and was quite impressive.

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