The chinese girl brought a korean guy, Yoon-Ki, so we ended up with a decent price when we were five people, about 65 € for me with a return to Lhasa in four days. Not bad at all. So off we went.

We passed a long military guarded bridge and just after it we stopped to look at the scenery as well as a burial site. The water flowing here was a river that flows down to all other rivers in Tibet (sounds close to a myth to me though) and this was a place for one of the two different burial rituals the tibetan have. The rituals are called water and heavenly/sky burial.Both parts have in common that the body is carried to the burial site by a close friend and then chopped up to pieces. Then either the pieces are thrown into the water or left for vultures. The favorite food of the deceased is put forth and a wooden stick with a colorful prayer flag is attached to any existing sticks. Each year the monks remove all the wooden sticks so the count for the burial site begins from zero again. Also all pictures of the deceased must be destroyed, for the person to move on to their next life. Holy persons can have their pictures left though.

As we continue to drive there are sheep, yaks and cows crossing the road. The population of the small villages or scattered houses all make their living on crops or animal husbandry.

After a long coiling road up on the mountains we reach Yamdrok-Tso, another of the four holy lakes in Tibet. This one at the altitude of 4488 meters and popular for pilgrims to walk around clockwise (this taking about a week though). Again, wonderful colors of the water and with a mountain peak of 7191 meters, Nojin Kangtsang, as a backdrop. The lake is considered holy to the extent that anyone caught swimming in the lake would be killed by the locals. The temperature didn’t tempt me although I can see that it would be nice in the summer.The lake is a dead lake, with no water coming either in or out. The huge mass of water on this altitude proved to be too much of a temptation for the chinese government who installed pumps to electrify Lhasa. This was not unexpectedly disliked by the tibetans and protests have halted the work once but now it’s up and running, slowly draining the lake. Environmental scientists claim that the lake may be drained in 20 years, the chinese government however claim that excess power is used to pump back water (?). I guess future will tell.

We drove away from the beauty and stopped in Nagartse for a quick meal and then heading on towards Gyantse. Gyantse has a monastery (surprise!) which is rather famous, Gyantse Kumbum. Kumbum means 100 000 and should number the amount of images in the temple. To a layman like myself they seemed rather similar though, but I guess it still counts.When leaving I heard the same song I’d bought from a vcd vendor and commented on this. The driver, Jue-a, thought this was very funny since it was his cousin who was the artist. I guess Tibet is a rather small place after all. The song was apparently a big hit in Tibet.

When we finally arrived in Shigatse, the Tashilunpho monastery was closed so we instead went to first open restaurant. Which proved to be easier said than done, it seemed like they close this city at sunset. At last we found a warm cosy place who had two sorts of dishes, noodles and noodles. We ordered everything from their menu but could not tell the difference, not saying that the noodles was bad though.

It was time to sleep in the rather cold hostel now, the guys shared one room and the ladies another. The concept of warm water was a mere fantasy but then again, I guess you get used to washing with ice cold water as everything else.

The good news from the driver was that he could drop of Jung-Wook and Sakura and take me back. The price issue was apparently built on the fact that we would be six people (!). He agreed to have a set price for this trip, and had another guy wanting to join the 11th. We would like to leave the 10th, in my not so humble opinion the guy would have to alternatives; to cough up the complete sum and go the 11th or do a four-way-split and join us the 10th. The problem was that we could not get in touch with this guy.

So the deal now is that we leave the 11th, if he shows up we pay about 75 € each, if not I will pay his and my share. The reason for this is that Sakura has another option of the 12th and Jung-Wook might also stay and wait while I need to get my behind moving in order to get back to Beijing in time for my flight home. So what to do the 10th then? Well there were some one-day trips so we make a quick decision to go and see the Nam-Tso lake, which at its 4718 is the highest salt-water lake in the world, according to the local signs atleast.

We would start the trip at 0530, in order to catch the sunrise at the lake, so it was high time for some sleep. Before going to bed we had to rush out and find cakes, beef-jerky and other substitutes for food though, since there were no restaurants on the trip and eating has its documented benefits. Said and done, off to sleep for a few hours and then up again. I had set both my phone and the iPod with speakers which proved to be a good thing since there was a power outage about 0510.

We slept more or less the whole way to the lake while it was too dark to do see anything. Well arriving there it was a awesome sight. The backdrop to the lake is Nyenchen Tanglha mountain range with peaks around 7000m, throw in a frozen shore in sunrise and I got goosebumps just from watching. The high altitude, strong wind, season and time of the day made all their contributions to the experienced temperature though. Refreshingly brisk would be my description as my fingers quickly started to numb off while snapping away photos.

After little more than an hour we get into the Jeep again and head back to Lhasa. On the way back we stopped at a few places to enjoy the view. Tibet has maybe the most beautiful landscape I’ve ever been entitled to see. On the way back we saw many pilgrims reciting prayers facing the mountains along and on the road, I guess they thank their Gods for the nature whereas I simply enjoy it. The ride back was nice and warm except from my feet that were in some sort of draft.

Back at the hotel I no longer felt that my feet were cold. First I thought this was good until I realized that they were yellow and probably better off warm than numbed. A shower and a improvised foot bath (sink + shower) later they had regained their more healthy color as well as sensation. Yay!

Now it’s off to barter for a memory card and see how the plans hold this time. Managed to pay 40 € for a 4 Gb, not that bad. The plan actually seemed to hold, or sort of. We leave tomorrow after waiting for a chinese girl who needs to take a shot after being bit by a dog. So that means that I wont be publishing for a few days.

Sakura, Jung-Wook and me treated ourselves a dinner for good luck at Pentoc restaurant (really good and very cheap) before the meeting. While eating I heard some tibetan pop-techno from across the street and attempted to record it with my phone. It was more or less impossible to hear anything. Still, after the successful meeting with our travel guide I went by the shop selling vcd’s and played the sound for a girl working there. Who of course recognized it and I could buy the works of this artist for 2 €. This will be the big hit next summer in Sweden, I promise.

Trying the trick of use both blankets while sleeping ensured me my beauty sleep. I had breakfast at the ‘missing wall instead of door’ place, nice dumplings at the facile price of 0.05 € each. It was time to check out Jokhang which was closed when I encircled it yesterday. When leaving I checked the message board and called a group heading to Mt Everest Base Camp and back to Lhasa. To my luck they were three people already which meant low price. They would confirm details with the drivers and let me know after lunch.

After “moving” in a queue that would make russians inpatient for more than an hour I broke lose from the crowd, just after bumping into Sakura again. This is supposedly the holiest of holy things which perhaps explains the amount of visitors. I had to pay a 7 € entrance fee while Sakura who didn’t have the western appearance got in for free. The money doesn’t really matter but the fact that I give more than 20 breakfasts straight into the ruling government kind of irritates me.

Off to Spinn Cafe for a miso soup and publishing the blog, who comes in if not Sakura. We decide that we would split a cab to Sera Monastery but not after getting a warm shower at the hotel (the water is heated by solar power which means ice-cold at night or morning, when most people tend to take their showers). Well at the hotel I don’t have any messages from the group so I call them. They left a message for the wrong room and the message was that they joined up with three other guys so now that ride was full. Kind of sucks. I put up my own poster now as a backup plan since Jung-Wook and Sakura will head for the border than back to Lhasa.

The shower was lovely, the luxury of not enduring washing oneself but rather enjoying is not to be underestimated. We grabbed a cab to Sera Monastary, once housing some 5000 monks but now only a few hundred. We looked forward to see the monks debating but it seemed that that was cancelled today or for the season.The monastery had a calm atmosphere and despite some beggars being a bit annoying everyone was friendly, smiling seem to be the default facial expression for tibetan people. The monks use solar power to heat up water in kettles, the high altitude helps but empirical tests showed that the kettles were still hot enough.The buildings were hand-painted white and gave a feeling of something like spain or greece. The sun did it’s part as well and reminded me that I had forgot to replenish my sunscreen after the shower.After some strolling we left for eating outside the monastery and I tried their dumplings with Yak meat. Real nice, same price per dumpling as the breakfast. Who said Tibetan food was bad? To get back to the hotel we tried a minibus full of locals, it was cosy and not less safe then the cabs so I might use those more in the future.

Checking some ways of getting back to Beijing proved that flight was about 250 € and the train about 80 €. I guess we will see how much time I have left, and also weight factors like environment, price and 48 hours on a route I’ve already passed. Next stop is seeing whether we get a deal with a driver at 20 today, I trust my karma to be gentle.