Day 12 – Shigatse to Everest View Point to Lhatse

We had breakfast at Manasarovar Hotel.  The buffet was decent and my compatriots seem to enjoy the hard-boiled eggs.  I have no special affection for the bouncy-rubbery-oddly-shaped item.  I just couldn’t appreciate the taste, the texture, the dryness and the slight rotting smell.  I thought I imagined the last bit until I found the following at eHow:

Chicken eggs produce a sulfurous smell when they are boiled for too long. Overcooking the egg coagulates the egg’s protein and creates an excess of hydrogen sulfide in the whites of the egg. The sulfide reacts with the iron in the yolk. This leads to an unpleasant odor and a green sulfur coat on the yolk.

Maybe I never had a professionally cooked hard-boiled egg before.

But I think it’s good to try food which you don’t like once in a while. Your previous dislike might have been prejudiced and you are giving the food and yourself another chance.  One would have a more convenient life with less dislikes.

Just the other day, I bought some soya bean drink.  Nothing special but I specially picked an almond flavoured one. Now, I am known to dislike the taste of almond flavoured items like almond pudding and almond jelly.  But for some particular reason that day, I decided to retest my taste buds.  Well, I still don’t like it but it’s not so bad that I couldn’t finish the drink.  Maybe it is an acquired taste.

At 9am, we set off from Shigatse for the long road to Everest View Point.

The kilometer stones I have grown to depend on for my riding trips can be found in Tibet.  Over in Tibet, the distance is calculated from Shanghai.  Why not Beijing?

Continue reading →

Day 11 – Lhasa to Yamdrok Lake to Karola Glacier to Gyantse to Shigatse

The girls’ room power tripped more than 10 times during the night.  They complained they shouted for help but only the dogs in the city howled in response.  Well, our rooms were quite a distance apart and the television probably drowned their voices.  Sorry!

After breakfast in our rooms, Dawa and driver picked us up in a 4WD Toyota 4500.  We would be doing a return overland trip across Tibet from Lhasa to Gyantse, Shigatse and EBC during the next few days.  Today, we would be passing through Tsang region via the Southern Friendship Highway.

Our first stop for the day was a very scenic lake.  I couldn’t really remember if it is part of Yamdrok-tso.

We continued our drive to Kamba-la (4700m) for a bird-eye’s view of Yamdrok-tso.

Breathtaking scenery of turquoise blue lake with snow-capped mountains. The coiling scorpion shaped Yamdrok lake is almost the size of Singapore and can circumambulated in around seven days by pilgrims.  Yamdrok lake is one of the four holy lakes in Tibet.  The other tree are Lhamo La-tso, Namtso and Manasarovar.

Continue reading →

Day 10 – Around Lhasa – Norbulingka Palace & Sera Monastery

I woke up at 7am and yes, cold as usual.

Dawa did not turn up at our appointed time and when we called him, he told us he’s still stuck in a queue for some permits.  He advised us to visit Norbulingka Palace on our own and he would meet us after lunch to visit Sera Monastery.

So we flagged a taxi to Norbulingka at 10 RMB.

Norbulingka means Treasure Park and was the summer residence of the Dalai Lamas.  It was from the Norbulingka that the 14th Dalai Lama escaped to India on 17 March 1959.  From Wikipedia:

On this day, the Dalai Lama dressed like an ordinary Tibetan carrying a rifle across his shoulder left the Norbulinga palace and Tibet to seek asylum in India. As there was a dust storm blowing at that time he was not recognized. According to Reuters, “The Dalai Lama and his officials, who had also escaped from the palace, rode out of the city on horses to join his family for the trek to India”. The Chinese discovered this “great escape” only two days later. The party journeyed through the Himalayas for two weeks and finally crossed the Indian border where they received political asylum.

The small movie theatre which Heinrich Harrer built for the 14th Dalai Lama was also in Norbulingka.

These days, the Norbulingka is a tourist attraction and has undergone numerous renovation works by the Chinese government.

Continue reading →

Day 09 – Around Lhasa – Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Barkhor Street

I woke up in the middle of night shivering.  The portable heater had stopped running.  It was another power cut.  I disturbed the reception but unfortunately, the guy did not know where the master switch was and advised me to try to get some sleep and wait until the morning.  J and I tried the row of swiches along the stairs just below our floor but none worked.  So we resigned ourselves to our fate and put on extra layers of clothings.  But it’s still too cold for a good sleep.

The girls gave us a wake up call at 7am (one of them lost a game yesterday night).  I asked if they had any electricity trouble.  They gave the affirmative but added that they still managed to sleep through without any troubles.  How?  With the extra blankets found in the wardrobe, it’s almost too warm.  So they didn’t even bother to leave the room for the master switches found along the stairs just above our floor.

Gals 1, Guys 0.

We booked Kyichu Hotel because it’s a safe choice.  But what I really wanted to try were the charming and atmospheric boutique hotels which were converted from traditional and historical Tibetan courtyard homes.  The power problem gave us a good excuse.

So we went hotel hunting at 8am.  There was only one moon in the sky.

Continue reading →

Day 08 – Train Journey & Arrival at Lhasa

Woke up early but there’s no glorious sunrise as it’s very cloudy.

For breakfast, we had some of the confectionary from Chengdu.  But as we wanted something hot, we visited the restaurant and ordered 1 set meal to share.

Continue reading →