Yesterday we were taken on a short tour of the countryside of Tibet finishing at Namtso Lake - the highest lake in the world (4718m). The 8 hour drive took us through some very dramatic scenery, with the Himalaya’s above us and numerous rivers snaking round us. The route to the lake took us over a mountain pass at a height of 5190m, a full 1490m higher than Lhasa (Yes, that is more than the height of Ben Nevis). That was the highest point we will reach during our stay here in China!
During the course of our journey, we discovered many things about Tibetan driving. Firstly, they do not have speed cameras so to regulate speeding there are checkpoints on all the major roads. At th first checkpoint you pass, you pick up a ticket with a time on it, and the time you should arrive at the next checkpoint. The charge for arriving early is RMB200 (£20) per minute under. As you will guess this is not a successful system as most drivers know where the checkpoints are and stop for a while just round the corner so they don’t arrive early!
Secondly, they have a really interesting system in place for long descents from the mountain passes. About half way down, there is a man made ford for cooling the vehicles brakes down. Genius!
In the evening, we took a stroll down to see the Potala Palace by night. We got to the square opposite the Palace to find that not only do they light up the Palace at night, but they also have a brilliant water/light display in the square.
Today, we took our final tour before leaving Lhasa tomorrow morning. We went to visit the Ganden Monastery, which is the most important monastery in Tibetan Buddhism. The monastery is set on the top of a hillside about 50km east of Lhasa and houses approximately 600 monks. The views from the top were pretty good, but if there had been less clouds apparently they are spectacular. Nevermind. Otherwise the monastery was amazing and we had a thoroughly good last day, especially as there were far fewer ‘tourist’ getting in the way :). Photos are still uploading so check the gallery for the latest pics.
We have spent the afternoon packing our bags and relaxing. We are both feeling a lot better today. Thank you for your comments, it’s nice to hear from you. Off to Chengdu tomorrow to see the pandas!