Day 9 - Gyantse or Bust

Kim again felt good when she woke-up. We had a 9:00 pick-up time. We were going to Yamdrok Tso. It is one of the Tibetan holy lakes. From the pictures I saw before we left, it was very beautiful. We were looking forward to seeing it. Before we could get to the lake, we had to drive up over a high mountain pass (16,000 ft). The road was full of switchbacks to get up the steep mountain. There was beautiful scenery all around us. When we got to the top, we could see Yamdrok Tso. It was like a circus at the top. Some locals had brought Yaks, dogs, and sheep for the tourists to take pictures, for a price. Of course, we had to ride the Yak! For 60?a ride, it was hard to pass up. The toilets were nothing more than a four foot high wall of rocks and Yak dung with a tattered curtain for a door. While I was relieving myself, I was treated to an awesome view. You could look down the mountain to the lake. When we were finished, two Tibetan women came up asking for "shit-money". I gave her 1 yuan. She said she wanted 20 yuan. I just walked away. It wasn't like she kept the thing clean.

Yamdrok Tso 

Yamdrok Tso 

Ridin' the Yak 

I'm always Leading her around!! 

Driving next to the lake was spectacular. There were several shades of blue in the lake. Close to the shore line there was a beautiful shade of turquoise. Unlike America, there were no condos or big resort towns on the edge of the lake. The Tibetans do not want any boats on the lake.

After we had lunch, some of the groups ahead of us came back and said that the road was closed. They are doing some construction on the road, so there were going to be some closures. Ten Zin thought we may be able too make it to Gyantse. Our other option would be to retrace or tracks and go to Shigatse. When we got to the end of the paved road, there was an Army check point. Ten Zin got back into the Land Cruiser with a big grin on his face. He told us he lied. We all had a good laugh. Our guide told them that we were going in the opposite direction of Gyantse. The road forked several hundred yards after the checkpoint. We were about half way to the fork when a police vehicle started to follow us. We took the road away from Gyantse and pulled over to wait for the police vehicle to pass. When we thought he was gone, and Kim had a "pee-pee" break behind a dirt pile, we cut over to the right road. Less than a mile down the road, we encountered the police. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I think I know what was said. We had to turn around!

It was a long drive back to the main road. We drove for hours through the Brahmaputra River valley. Although the mountains did not have much vegetation, the scenery was nice. Every once and a while you could see a waterfall with lots of trees around it. We hit another check point close to Shigatse. The Chinese must really be picky about having the correct paperwork. At one point, we came across a local parade.

Tibetan Parade 

We got into Shigatse at 7:00. We got settled in and found that the air conditioner wasn't working. On the way to dinner we stopped at the front desk to let them know about the air conditioner. I then asked about a restaurant. She informed me that an attendant would go to the room to look at the air conditioner. They even have trouble with my English. I cannot communicate in any language! I tried again to find a restaurant. This time the massage girl came over. She was very willing to help. I don't think I needed her kind of help! We eventually made it to dinner.