Obviously with the new tarmac the locals speed up and there is a very nice reminder to everyone what can happen when doing crazy overtakes and you go down the side of the mountain
Now this road passes by a very scared mountain called Mount Kailash and is holy for all Hindu people. Remember we are close to Nepal and then India and there is a lot of Indian influence in the Tibetan culture.
The day started warm and sunny but as we climb another pass but on tarmac, we can see storm clouds in the distance. OK on with the waterproofs and we venture forward.
We seem to skirt round it and finally come across local Tibetan’s living at the side of the road in a traditional manner.
Finally a tea break in a small village on route and the local tea is called five treasures tea which has sugar and spices and is served in a small cup. Apparently it is Jasmin tea but the problem for me is that there is a large lump of natural sugar which made it too sweet for me . Others raved about it.
Outside the tea house was a pool table which are very common in most villages and what may you ask is the funny looking satellite dish things
Very clever device where the sun is very strong due to very little cloud cover
The masks are worn by everyone as the wind blows constantly and this keeps the dust from their faces
We were expecting two checkpoints on this route but they were no longer there and had been moved to just the one. You also get to see the locals always dressing up in bright clothes even though they live in simple homes
Finally we get to our Tibetan tea house which was not too bad and were greeted by very curious locals. Still no showers, but they provided us with a warm flask of water to wash in a bowl.
As we had arrived in good time it was a good opportunity to take a very gentle walk up the hill to the monastery (in the picture on the hill) and have a nose around. Remember we are at 4600m and are still acclimatising but it was worth a look
Outside every Buddhist temple are prayer drums and coloured flags which represent Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. People then have symbols and prayers on them and hope the winds will carry their good fortunes to their Buddha
From up here gave a good view of where we staying and that the road came to an end before the start of the lake
From the top of the monastery gave you great view of Mount Kailash especially as the earlier cloud had cleared
There is only on problem we have and that is Max (youngest in the group at 30), he has not been feeling very well the last few days as we keep climbing to higher altitudes and it has been decided that he will go by 4x4 to a town some distance away and stop overnight and then drive to Lhasa and get to hospital to see if it is just altitude. The only solution to altitude sickness is to get the person lower and they will recover immediately
Dinner was good and they owners settled after the dinner to TV and there was a docu drama on where the Chinese were fighting there evil enemy the Japanese. Did not understand anything but the action sequences were good
8130 miles – Lake Masarover, Tibet
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