Namtso Lake
When we opened the door to the tent around 7:30am, we were surprised to see light snowfall on the mountains across the lake! What a beautiful view, there was some higher grey cloud while the lower part of the mountains were light by the early sunlight.

Lake Namtso is one of Tibet's holy lakes. It takes pilgrims 2 weeks to circumambulate it. No two weeks to spare, so we quickly got dressed and trekked to the nearest guesthouse for a gruesome breakfast of corn porridge--just add hot water for a chunky, cornmealy mixture--and headed out for the short pilgrim circuit around the small Tashi Dor peninsula.

We first went down to the lake to feel the water which was not as cold as we expected and didn't taste of salt. Just then some snowflakes started falling! The snow stopped quickly as the sun's rays got stronger.

Then we continued towards the Tibetan tent colony that extended halfway along the side of the peninsula. We were surprised by the variety of "facilities" from shops to restaurants to more accommodation; Lake Namtso is a popular 1 to 2-day trip from Lhasa and the informal parking lot would slowly fill with tour buses, private minivans and hired Landcruisers.

Yamdrok-tso Lake
We struggled up the 5010 Karo La pass for an hour. This was one of the steepest roads and largest hills we had to face to date. The climb was over 3000 metres as we started at Lhasa. It was worth it, swicthback after switchback passed behind us as we climbed ever higher until the top was reached and we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the Yamdrok Tso Lake.

This is an alpine lake with no rivers to feed it. Lhasa takes its water from here and the levels are dropping rapidly. The chinese solution is to pump muddy river water from the Sampoo river back up the hill.

Th team found a full human skeleton out on the lakebed. We figured this had been a local water burial that the lowered lake levels had exposed. Either that or we were in the equivalent of the local mafias concrete boots area.

We made camp, ate dinner and then the heavens opened. Our first storm basically blew the tents inside out and they filled with water. Some frantic bailing restored the situation and one hour later calm was restored. That's what camping is all about, the good with the bad.

Samye Monastery
Samye is one of the outlying monasteries in the Lhasa area, set in a remote area near the river. We set off from Lhasa at the crack of dawn on one of the pilgrim buses and arrived 4 hours later after passing stunning scenery of river, sand dunes and mountains. We established the return time of 2.30pm and set off to the see the monastery. It is in a lovely setting surrounded by mountains and chortens (stupas) and is of particular note because each floor reflects a different form of buddhism (ground floor Tibetan, 2nd floor chinese and third floor Indian). The whole monastery had a relaxed feel.

The fun started when we went to the bus at the alloted time. The chinese authorities have imposed tighter than normal restrictions as to where you are allowed to travel during the 40 year celebrations. We had done all we could to check we were allowed to travel from Lhasa, but the bus refused to take us and 2 other foreigners back to Lhasa Beautiful scenery on the way to Samye. No-one really spoke english so we had no idea how to get back to Lhasa and were stranded in the middle of nowhere!!

Maggi managed to track down a tour guide from a Chinese group who spoke English. He helped us secure a mini bus to take us to a river crossing, we then took a ferry, flagged down a bus going to Lhasa (however it stopped about 50km away) and we had to transfer to another mini bus) and finally a local Lhasa bus. We were relieved to get back to Lhasa.