Head Out On the Highway - Westward Across Tibet

After waking up early, I packed up my gear and met my small group for breakfast.  We met Thring in the lobby at 8 a.m. and loaded up the van. We drove west through Lhasa as the city was coming awake and soon reached the outskirts.  About a half hour out of the city, we stopped at a river burial site (fortunately no funeral in progress) and stretched our legs. Our van had much less legroom than your typical American mom-mobile.

Shortly after crossing the Lhasa River, we were delayed for about half an hour because of an accident involving a bus. Getting started again, we made steady progress and saw lots of construction and building efforts, primarily using manual labor. We also quickly learned that even though the two-lane highway was paved, that didn't necessarily mean it was smooth pavement. In fairness, though, much of the highway was built where roads probably shouldn't go.

Despite our efforts to avoid road construction by taking an alternate section of the highway, we were thwarted at the Gampa La (a 'la' is a mountain pass) at about 15,000 feet of elevation. Since traffic was backed up several hundred vehicles deep, Enrico (another member of our small group) and I decided a slow hike along the road would be good to help us get acclimatized to the elevation. After two hours, and in snow flurries, the construction was completed and we got moving and over the pass.

Just over the pass, we saw Yamdrok Lake, an incredible blue body of water sacred to the Tibetans. We then ran into another hour-long delay at the bottom of the pass for an accident before finally rolling into the town of Nagarze for a quick lunch of stir-fried noodles. Soon back on the road, we stopped at the Kara La at about 16,500 feet of elevation and viewed the massive ice wall of the Kharlaga Glacier.  The sun was out, but the wind was strong and we didn't stay long in the cold.

In late afternoon, we entered the old fortress town of Gyantse and stopped at the Baiju Temple, home to about 150 Buddhist monks. The main attraction was a very large stupa over 100 feet tall that we walked around; it is said to have over 100,000 holy images painted inside it, and we saw many of them. 

Reluctantly, we got back in the van and headed out of Gyantse and continued along the highway as the sun set on what was already a longer day than we anticipated, given all the delays. We finally arrived in Shigatse at about 8:30 p.m., checked into our hotel and ate a late dinner. I was tired from the long day of travel and the dry air was aggravating my throat, but I felt pretty good overall.

Next up: Walking through the Tashilhunpo Monastery, home to the Panchen Lama, before heading further west to the small town of Tingri, launching point for expeditions to the north side of Mount Everest.