The Road To Shigatse

A rather frustrating trip back to Shigatse. It turns out that when the tour company were getting the permits together for EBC, they'd put us together with another group due to an error on their part. The other group complained all the time, were really rude, and seemed to phone the tour office twice a day to shout at the staff there.

So we spent most of the day waiting for them while they screamed at their guide and demanded all sorts of stuff from her. She even ended up riding in our car because she couldn't stand the shouting any more :-)

But it meant we had to keep waiting for them – which really slowed things down. But once again – Tibet – scenery like a dream.

The famous Rongbuk Monastery where Michael Palin stayed on his Himalayas trip:



The view back - the last time we saw Everest:



Prayer wheels:



Scenary on the way back to Shigatse:



This reminded me of the Dali Desert in Bolivia:



Ruined anicent building:





We stopped at a monastery, but because of the messing around, most of it was shut. Here's a few pics:





So I did the one thing your not allowed to do. Wandered off :-)

And ended up finding this:



When I go to the main door, they wouldn't let me in:



But then they saw the Lonely Planet guide, grabbed it, and started looking at the pictures. I showed them Lhasa and The Potala Palace, and suddenly they wanted photos and let me in. I've never been more happy to have a copy of the Planet :-)

People working on the new monastery:



And inside:





Up on the hillside I found a tiny monastery with a really old monk in. He also wanted a look at the Planet and then showed me around.

Inside:



And the happy monk:



I ran into this young lad on the way back and he showed me his pray book:



This is what I'd been looking for. No control. No tour guide. The real Tibet. So glad we stopped here.

I walked back through the old town to get back to the van, through little streets that looked like this:







Finally - they burn Yak dung here in the winter, and during the summer they collect it, and stick it on the walls. Check out the finger marks - I bet that's one job no one ever volunteers for :-)



Got back to Shigatse at 10pm and the guy at the hotel called a restaurant and asked them to open for us - which was really great. So I had....Indian food. You just can't beat a good curry.