Luxury Hiking in Tibet: Ganden to Samye

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Sept 18 - 23

Sept 18: Cycled 53km from Lhasa to Ganden monastery...45 flat along the meandering river with beautiful poplar trees in fall colours then 500m UP over 8 km on a steep winding road. Steepest road I have encountered in all of Tibet !

Graham (English) and Caroline (German) from South Africa met me that evening at the Ganden Monastery guesthouse (bit of an exaggeration there eh?). They would be my compadres for the next 5 days on our luxury hike from Ganden to Samye in the next valley. The 3 of us were more used to hiking independently (eg, carrying and doing everything on our own) so were in heaven to spend the 5 days with our very own cook, guide, yakherder, and 3 yaks and 1 horse to carry our luggage.

We woke and breakfasted every morning at 8:00. The food was wonderful and varied...the cook rusttled up toast, apple pancakes and eggs for breakfast...lunches were bagged and always varied and too much food...dinner was 3 - 5 vegetarian dishes (well, OK...with a wee bit of yak meat thrown in a few times) spent the 5 days hiking with a small daypack up and over 2 mountain passes over 5000m and sleeping at a maximum height of 5050. None of us suffered from altitude sickness however were noticeably short of breath climbing those hills.

We passed through gorgeous but stark high altitude scenery then descended down from the mountain passes into ever increasingly green and hilly landscape dotted with nomad tents and yaks grazing high above. I enjoyed antagonising the Tibetan masstifs for some prime photos.

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Photos

Ride em Cowboy (tibet style)
Run away yak along the trail Ganden-Samye

Check Out The Shoes
Our yak herder Ganden-Samye

Purposely Antagonizing the Mastiffs...
Nomad camp along the route Ganden-Samye