Leaving Lhasa behind us, hoping to find more of the atmosphere of the Tibetan quarter and less of the plastic palm trees and fluorescent lights of the Chinese sector, we set out west along the southern bank of the Yarlung Tsangpo river (it's more commonly known as the Bramhaputra).
After a short stop for Tensing to buy his breakfast (chappati with yak meat)we were soon driving through a variety of landscapes - the 2km wide river (oh how I've missed proper water), snow-topped mountains, sandstone cliffs eroding into sand dunes and desert and smooth green hills that reminded me of driving up the A74 to Scotland.
Although we passed our destination,Samye, on the other side of the river, we weren't going across in the little rowing boat ferry, but over an hour further on to the bridge and then back along the other bank.
On this part of the journey we crossed our first pass (fairly low for starters, but still decorated with prayer flags), met our first herd of yaks
and had our first puncture, though we didn't know that until the next morning.
Once we had found our room in the monastery guest house, been given our thermos of hot water and discovered that the loos on the roof were the best bet, Pinsok took us round the monastery and we discovered how much he knew about the many statues which were beginning to befuddle us.
We also took a couple of turns round the kora - cloisters with prayer wheels all the way round. Afterwards we wandered round the extensive grounds of the monastery, going in many small, lovingly tended chapels. We found the student monks debating in a quiet walled garden - definitely not for the tourists!-and I was amazed by the wildlife - I somehow hadn't expected so many birds, and they were very tame - and a hoopoe posed especially for me.
The following morning (once the puncture was fixed) we set off in the car up a hair-pin road through the sand until we reached a hidden oasis - a meadow with cows, sheep and goats, a stream driving water-prayerwheels, boulders carved with mantras and a view right back down to the river and beyond.
We climbed further up and reached a nunnery, where nuns were playing instruments and chanting, while others were preparing food and one elderly nun was supervising some reconstruction work. Some of the mud built houses of the nuns were equipped with solar panels and a satellite dish. Pinsok took some prayer flags further up the hill and added them to the mass of colours. After we made our way back down to the car and enjoyed freshly cooked noodles, we set off back to Tsetang the town by the bridge, where we were going to spend two nights.
Although we drove through the Tibetan quarter, it seemed it was more like a tenth - the town was new, Chinese and intent on spreading up the valley. While there was some confusion at our hotel-Yarlung, Yalong- it turned out to be the same-we were sitting in a driverless car, when we were approached by the PSB (Peoples' Security Bureau) - four of them - fortunately Tensing spotted them and we were saved from having to make explanations. One (the only?) good thing about the town was the Nepali restaurant - we had excellent daal bhaat for one meal. Outside our hotel were green plastic palm trees with red coconuts - obviously a new strain of the blue ones in Lhasa-but we really did wonder if we were in Blackpool when the street light columns began flashing rhythmically once it grew dark. The town was surrounded by flag-decked hills in a complete contrast to the man-made structures, but this scene from our hotel window summed everything up.
The next day (Tuesday by now) we travelled down the valley to see one of Tibet's first buildings, originally a castle, but now a small temple mostly dating from 1982. The three monks spent much of the time we were there trying out new ring-tones on their mobiles. As it perches, Rhine-like, on a rock, there is the option of a ride up the hill - on a pony, a yak or a camel! (We walked).
There were several commercial ventures on the way and at the top - crystals, rattling rocks and fossils, bunches of juniper to put in the incense burner, prayer flags and small paper mantras to fling over the edge of the hill. Pinsok was very good at this, but we started talking about pollution and he turned out to have very strong views about conservation and talked about the deforestation in his home area.
The other sights for the day were a monastery destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, but now being restored and the tombs of the early kings of Tibet - now mounds surrounded by runs and one temple on the tomb of King Songsten Gampo - a name I learnt (his statue was also in the Tandruk monastery we'd seen earlier and it was his castle we'd been to)together those of his two wives - one Chinese - Wencheng -and one Nepali-Brikhuti.
After a busy day there was only one thing to do - back to the hotel to enjoy our space age shower (I am missing hot water more than ever after a week of luxury!)
Wednesday was a travelling day. All the way back along the river valley towards Lhasa, then up a 4800m pass for a view of what might have been a turquoise lake (it was blue) called Yamdrok Tso, all the way back down(the same way, through a quite dramatic gorge,across a desert and then back west again to Gyantse. Yes it was a convoluted route, because the road round the lake, which would have led us to Gyantse without going round the other three sides of the oblong was 'under construction'. It was 'under construction' three years ago when Roz was in Tibet-conspiracy theory - is there something that someone doesn't want us to see?-like a lake that is being destroyed as its waters are drained for power? (only a guess - probably way off the mark).
The road up to the viewing point was spectacular but slow. We followed a caravan, just about overtok several cyclists and waited for a sheep-jam. We also had plenty of time to admire the view on the way up as we had a puncture,
but arriving safely, we joined a whole carpark full of tourists. And the view was worth Tensing's hard work.
The way back down was simpler.
When we reached the valley again we stopped at a workshop to check the tyres. We were very near the bridge over the river, so Roz and I wandered over to admire the view. 'Lonely Planet' warns against taking photos of bridges - now we know why! We walked past the first guard, who actually moved back a pace to let us pass, then we stopped to look upstream. The guard from the other side of the bridge came across and started saying how welcome we were on his bridge and how he was sure the large camera round Roz's neck was really only a toy -well he could have been saying anything - we took no chances, just walked back to the car.
After passing through the steep sided gorge with cliffs displaying all their rock strata in multicoloured diagonal stripes, we turned left past a hill which we were told was used for sky burials (no vultures to be seen)and found ourselves in a mini-Sahara.
The patterns of the dunes and the occasional straggling hardy plant were very interesting as was Pinsok's repetition of his fears for the future of the land. Just a thougt - he always chose places away from the crowd to air his views - probably sensible. When a pony cart filled with juniper branches and carrying a family of three trotted past we wondered how far they had to travel to find this fuel/food and how often they made the journey. As we continued through several small villages, we were met by several groups of children all holding out their hands and shouting 'Money' - these were clearly the most disadvantaged people we had seen so far. We had heard that some Tibetans had been moved from their homes to less favourable agricultural areas for the development of towns, but moving these people anywhere would have been an improvement.
By early evening we arrived at Gyantse and just had time to settle in to another very comfortable room before it was time to find another Nepali restaurant - noodles? fried rice? sweet and sour? - Tibetans are big meat eaters, largely because of the shortage of agricultural land (the staple food is tsampa - roasted barley flour mixed with water or yak milk)so there wasn't always a great deal of choice, but it was always tasty.
This town was smaller than Lhasa and Tsetang and although there were still Chinese signs above the shops, they were more reminiscent of Nepali open-fronted shops and there was a more provincial feel to the place. The purpose of the visit was for us to see the monastery (what else?) and the Kumbum - a wedding cake of a building with (if its name is to be believed)1000 images. It certainly took us a long time to spiral round the seven floors as the rooms grew smaller, and the statues seemed to grow bigger.
Eventually we had had our fill of images and it was time to set off for the relatively short journey to Tibet's second city, Shigatse. Although there were still signs of continued development, the city looked rather run down and tired when compared to the Chinese parts ofLhasa and Tsetang. However, we found a lively and colourful vegetable market (plenty of plastic covered market gardens in the valleys) and a cyber cafe where cigarettes were handed out to those who wanted them (everyone except us, it seemed).
At the hotel we were tempted by the sign for the health spa and massage parlour,
but I didn't fancy having my ear pulled out and we were rather a long way from the sea for seafood putty. (These seemed quite harmless though when we saw a 'foot bottom massage' advertised in Zhangmu a few days later)
I've made fun of Nepali English on several occasions, but Chinese English has had us rolling round our rooms in each hotel. Looking in the hotel handbooks, we discovered inventories and price lists of compensation for damage to the various articles. Fair enough, but we just had to hope we didn't damage the prinking table in Tsetang or the peep in Gyantse, because we didn't know what they were. We were fine about 'no birds, domestic animals....are allowed to be brought into the rooms' but the bit missing in the middle is 'or other insanity articles' and we were a bit concerned somone might include us in that category. We were also suspicious that our hosts knew more about us than was necessary because in one room we read 'Drinking excessively, making great noise or playing recorder loudly in the hotel is forbidden'. How did they know we both play the recorder?
Back to Shigatse. Roz had been to the Tashilhunpo monastery before and knew there was a lot to see, so we had aranged to spend two nights here, giving us a break on the first afternoon and a whole day to explore. On the first evenng we went to a Tibetan restaurant where we met an American couple we'd aready spoken to at lunch (as there is basically one tourist route, we kept meeting different groups all along the way - very few Brits, many French, a sprinkling from every other European nation and a few Americans). We spent a very pleasant mealtime with them and now we are able to say we had dinner with Father Christmas's brother. I can't remember the guy's name,but his wife is Chrissie and she told us that his bushy white beard and eyebrows and snowy hair make many children (including in Mongolia, where they had just been to a water resources conference)ask if he is 'the Christmas man'. She never says 'yes' but admits it's his brother! Even more impressive was the fact that back at home in Indiana, where they work at the university, the couple know the Dalai Lama's brother and Chrissie worked with his sister-in-law on community legal projects.
It may seem strange that in a travelogue about Tibet I haven't mentioned the Dalai Lama except to say that we went to his summer palace, but that's how it is - he isn't mentioned! It's appropriate to raise this issue now because Tashilhunpo monastery is the seat of the Panchen Lama, the 'second -in-command' and while we saw no photos of the 14th Dalai Lama, we did see many photos of the 10th Panchen Lama who died in 1989. His picture was often accompanied by that of a youg boy - his reincarnation, the 11th Panchen Lama (as chosen by the Chinese - the original choice is somewhere in China - allegedly). In the monastery in Shigatse we saw the photos that we had seen before but also photos of the 11th Panchen Lama as he will be now - a teenager.
There were several temples and assembly halls within the monastery - the winding lanes and passages making it difficlt to follow the arrows accurately - but in the centre there was a large courtyard where tourist, monks and pilgrims mixed. This Tibetan group were pleased to have a rest - it was very hot.
In the afternoon we walked round the outside of the monastery along the prayerwheel lined kora. It took us up the hilside behind the monastery and past groups of mani stones and yak skulls - a reminder that Tibetan Buddhism is still linked to the ancient Bon religion.
Day 11 (Sunday)found us leaving Shigatse for Shergar (yes, alive and well and living in Tibet!) via another monastery in Sakya. My greatest memory of Sakya was not the temple, but the large yak hair coats hanging for sale on the street corner - I'm glad I didn't meet anyone wearing one!
Having entered the Chomolongma (Quomolongma in Chinese) National Preserve at the top of another high pass, we felt we were gradually acclimatising for the final frontier.
Shergar turned out to be a one-street town with a surprisingly comfortable hotel just off the main road. We weren't the only guests that night - the London - Kuala Lumpur Expedition 2007 (celebrating the 50th anniversary of Malaysian Independence)stopped off with more than a dozen cars and many drivers and supporters from a host of different countries.
We went to bed that night with the knowledge that the road to Everest was 'under construction' - in readiness for taking the Olympic flame there next year, we're told. (Point of information: This week Nepal has reduced the cost of permits to climb Everest in the low season by 75% -anything to do with the fear that more and more people - like us-will travel to the mountan from the 'easier' northern side, especially when they can drive all the way?)The alternative was a 'short cut' - translate as 3 hours of off road driving - but it was very muddy and we would have to wait until the next day to see if we could go - would it be a case of so near and yet so far?
