Tibet - touring - Namtso Lake 纳木错

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Pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ourgmb/Namtso?authkey=oCy-n7loGbw

Today (June 12), we headed for our optional trip of Namtso Lake 纳木错. It is a salt-water lake with the highest altitude in the world.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/tibet/nakchu/heavenly_lake.htm

It took us a good part of the day to get there, mainly because our tour bus is not very good, and cannot go fast.

When we arrived, we were given 40 minutes to look around and take pictures.

When it comes time to leave, our tour bus is making noise -- clunking -- clunking. The driver fixed something and get it going, very slowly. To return to Lhasa, we need to go uphill, then downhill. The 2 Km of uphill took a long long time, as the bus broke down after every 200 km.

Finally, we got to the top. The downhill ride back to Lhasa was OK.


Hotsprings
On our way back to the Lhasa, our tour did stop briefly at the hotsprings (originally on the itinerary). There we met our Kunming friends from the train trip.


Another Mix up
While on our way to Lhasa (around 5:30 pm), my tour guide told us that they got airline tickets for us for the next day, and they will arrange a car to pickup us and take us to the airport.

Well, we are NOT supposed to leave tomorrow. We have not gone to Shigatse. We are supposed to leave in three days, and not tomorrow.

So, we need to call our travel agent in Chengdu to sort things out.

I asked the tour guide how often does this happen, i.e. got airline tickets for the wrong dates. She said it happened quite often, but they will take care of us. This is typical Chinese operation. They assumed too much. All they have to do is to confirm with us our departure dates.
Now they have to re-book the flights, etc. .

Anyways, things did get sorted out and we will be going to Shigatse tomorrow.

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