China - Tibet Autonomous Region and a bit of Japan on the way home

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Heading to Nyingchi first stop was to drop the chaps of at their hotel.

The below is not the road to Nyingchi just a photo from the wagon.

 

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On the way to Nyingchi the guide advised the tour company had upgraded us to a different hotel, bonus I thought and that is where it ends. The hotel was new modern and comfortable but for a number of small reasons I did not like it. As I am running behind I have included breakfast as well which was very average.

 

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I walked back into town in the early evening to take a look around and was glad I did. The locals have dance gatherings around town.

 

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Some more photos of Nyingchi, I also came across gardens and a green house.

 

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They also put on a light and water show on the river and the mountain side, music blasts out at the same time. Not sure it it happens all the time but I don’t think there is a festival on or any other special event. It was all quite impressive.

At a guess I think I know what this restaurant may specialise in, I could be wrong.

 

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Heading up the the mountains through the Segrila Pass to see the highest mountain in the region and then onward to the Lullang Forest. The Segrila Pass is part of the Friendship Highway which runs from Shanghai to the Nepal Boarder and is over 5000 km long. It is called route 318 and the characters say ‘must complete go in your life time’. The guide mentioned that over time the highway went into a state of disrepair but it is being fixed. The Segrila Pass has is basically a narrow winding road with great views and traffic speed is as fast as the slowest vehicle as there are not many places to overtake and there does not seem to be any slow vehicle turn outs. On some of the bends depending on the size of the vehicles traffic may come to a stand still as they navigate a way around each other.

 

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I have just realised I am referring to the guide as ‘the guide’, he has a name it is ‘Bob’. He did tell us his Tibetan name but just likes to be called Bob, so from now on if if you read about Bob I am referring to the guide.

 

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We arrived at the the mountain viewing spot and it was quite popular. It was a bit difficult to get a good photo of as the clouds kept rolling through.
The mountains we are here to see.

Clouds got in the way.

 

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Next stop The Lullang Forest.

Local wares for sale

Been here for under 3 days and have not suffered AMS, the forrest is about a few hundred meters lower than the previous stop. The rise and final steps shown below did knock the wind out of me. It is like going to the gym as it doesn’t take long to get your heart rate up.

 

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On the way back to Nyingchi we passed a local on a pilgrimage to Lhasa by praying 4 station which is in the laying position then standing and then repeating the action. Bob said they start in their home town so in this person case it could take several years to complete. The purpose is for mental health and physical body. If I understood Bob correctly the pray sequence is to Buddha, Drama and Sanga, this is based on the hand positions. I hope I got all that correct. I found a video on YouTube that may explain it better Tibetan Monk Praying The photo is not good as we had already passed the person.

 

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Back in Nyingchi we had lunch which was a specialty on the area, it was clay hot pot chicken. IMO there was a lot more vegetables than chicken but it still tasted good.

 

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After lunch we headed up to Mount Biri and visit the temple, it was a bit of a hike up and down. You shouldn’t take photos in Buddhist Temples so there isn’t any. To enter the area we had to exit the wagon and go through facial recognition gates similar to those at the airport. The buildings are being restored to become a science center and in the words of Bob ‘it is so they can brainwash the kids.

 

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Last post about Nyingchi, a few photos in the daylight.

 

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Next stop is Basomtso which is around 2+ hours back towards Lhasa turning off the main highway along the way.

 

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We had to take a stop along the way (mandatory driver rest stop.

This yak wandered by, I thought they were bigger, Bob said it was around 4 years old and they can live to around 20 years.

The horse wasn’t far behind.

The rafting starts further up stream and stop here.

Bob had said we can go over to the rock island, the idiot inside thought that would be a good idea.

So the stepping stones were just sketchy rocks that were piled up and not stable. Around 3/4 over there were a couple of small stools/ low bench seats tossed in the deep parts. After a few weight test to see which way the small stools/ low bench seats would move and giving consideration to leaping (a bit further than I was comfortable with) hoping momentum would get me there. At that point commonsense kicked in with a thought of how to get back without ending up in the water. I conceded it was not possible without the strong possibility of get wet and turned back. In the end it didn’t matter as the sketchy stepping stones moved and I ended up with both legs in to under knee height. It would have been worst at the deeper bit. Below is yours truly.

I am not a fan of roadside squats, in fact I will avoide them like the plague, this one takes the cake with a window and a view.

 

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On the way to the entry

 

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Once inside we headed to Jieba Village to view ‘The Holy Lake and the Three Rock (Holy) Mountains. We then took a look around the village.

The main road.

One of the locals

A personal residence
The wood stock pile is for cooking and heating.

 

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Our accomodation for the night. There is nothing around so you are a captive audience when it comes to to eating, with captive audience pricing.

It was recommended that you do not leave you room or sleep with the windows open and the monkeys may invite themselves in and/or go through and steal your stuff.

The captive dining hall.

Breakfast.

 

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As it was late but still light I headed down to the lake.

 

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Same place but in the morning light and different viewing points.