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Rose early – breakfasted in Hard Yak style, then driven to airport. Met Tse-Ten’s bosses coincidentally during 2 1/2 hour delay our flight.
Also met unfortunate Matt who was sent home home from Everest trek on account of a dog bite!
Got to Yak And Yeti around lunchtime – we have been upgraded to club which is nice. Yak And Yeti all we had hoped for – sunny and hot but not too sunny and not too hot.
Both had a club sandwich and a beer for lunch around the pool.
Enjoyed the afternoon. Briefly saw Sarah and her kids [friend from home, ex wife of Alan Cohen], then had a hard game of tennis.
Enjoyed the cocktail hour in club while observing Danish embassy party.
Excellent product placement on my part in that picture…Janie also does some product placement – nice toes
Got ready to go out and went to Thamel House restaurant (once taxi driver could find it!) – Amazing mutton, chicken and wild boar – staff very friendly and even more so when we gave them the piece from Traveller through which we had found them.
First found “speak no evil” (starting price 145 down to market price of 26!). Then found the previous merchant who had sold us “bottoms up” but was out of the naughty broken one. However we were only five minutes down the road when she ran up to us with a fist full of monkeys including naughty.
Walked back to Snowlands, bought cake, then decided to seek some turquoise – got lost around Barkhor, got bearings, went back via Tremsikhang Market. Found jewellers, no real joy, finished circuit and found turquoise pillbox but nothing for Daisy.
Took cyclo home – great fun – though junctions felt chancy.
Dinner at Yeti – “char shu, sweet chicken, veg, chicken noodles and rice.
It’s hard to explain how much fun we had that day and how unexpected the fun part was. We had been somewhat dreading our return to Lhasa and looking forward to leaving Tibet, having completed our touring in Shigatse.
But we were better acclimatised now and the weather was much better by the time we returned to Lhasa, so our half day of free time in Lhasa felt liberating – we had no guide with us at last and (as far as we know) were exploring the place unsupervised. The Barkhor was great fun for just walking around, browsing and chatting with the locals. And we found the silly little bits and pieces we wanted, not least the monkeys, which still (February 2020) adorn a shelf in the Clanricarde flat.
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Breakfast improved by some yoghurt and cheese.
Visited Norbulingka Palace in morning – both Palace and gardens more interesting and charming than advertised in the guidebook.
Went to Barkhor as the weather is so much better today – firstly to the Tibetan traditional medicinal centre…
…then 2/3 of way round circuit at Makye Amye are stunning views of Barkhor circuit.
Weird Chinese tea with spices floating in it and very tasty some duck (flat noodles in soup) with chewy yak.
Finished Barkhor circuit buying bone shoes and bone monkey.
Back to base for free afternoon which we started at the Internet café. Perhaps it was the chewy yak or maybe the depressing hotel room but we were both in a foul mood – monkey got broken in ensuing pillow fight.
Actually I attribute the dual foul mood primarily to the altitude. I subsequently learnt that tetchiness is a well-known side effect of flying into such high altitude and doing stuff without thoroughly acclimatising first.
Made up in traditional fashion and rested.
Supper at Snowland again, with fried momos, yak burger and fries, yakitori with rice. Chocolate cake takeaway was a real treat with which to celebrate our impending escape from the Lhasa Hotel.
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Another mind bogglingly awful breakfast followed by another snow flurry-ridden outing, this time to Drepung Monastery – amazing murals on the walls and surprisingly little cultural revolution damage. Large complex with many chapels and halls. Saw few monks however.
Light lunch at yeti café – yak noodle soup superb, chicken noodle soup good but fried pork in batter was a poor choice. Resolve to return tonight nonetheless.
Siesta followed by outing to Sera Monastery – we time exit perfectly with the next snow storm.
Sera is smaller but lovely – we meet more monks and almost here outdoor debate – cricket match like, everyone turns up to agree that it snowed off! Witness amazing transient art work of mandala in sand.
Second siesta followed by excellent dinner at Yeti – double cooked pork, chicken in sweet garlic sauce, excellent wok fried fresh vegetables and egg fried rice. Daisy is still suffering altitude.
For some reason I didn’t even mention our visit to the Muslim Market when I wrote up the day, but it is clear from the photo sequencing and photo journal that we made that visit that afternoon. Perhaps the altitude was getting to me when I wrote up.
Yup, the altitude got to both of us, as the next day’s log will confirm. Daisy was suffering more, with breathlessness and extreme fatigue. But both of us for sure got the tetchiness which goes along side the more physical symptoms. Goes with the turf in Tibet, that altitude problem.
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After piss poor breakfast I cash in my dinner vouchers through Wang (George).
Ever since a particularly helpful hotel receptionist in Lebanon, named George, whenever Janie latches onto a receptionist we now privately call him, or her, George.
Set off sightseeing to Potala Palace – stunning site but mighty crowded with Tibetan and Chinese tourists. Statues of various incarnations of Buddha and various Dalai Lamas is starting to lose its appeal at a frighteningly early stage, but some rooms are stunning.
After siesta, sleet is turning to snow but we go undaunted to The Jokhang – strangely charming in the snow but again Buddha after Buddha, lama after lama.
Snow torrential by the time we leave so we defer Barkhor Square for a better day (we hope).
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Rise uncomfortably early (God alone knows why) and dumped at airport circa 6:50, more than an hour before check-in for our flight even opens – Mangal has a bit to answer for here!
Fly to Lhasa…
Mount Everest seen from that flightTibetean Plateau as seen from above
Searched on arrival and have my copy of Seven Years In Tibet confiscated by an utterly charming but firm official.
Have no fear, I read the book anyway!
Guide Tse-Ten and driver Chum-day rescue us and take us to the so-called four star Lhasa Hotel.
We enjoyed a snack of yak burger and chips in the Hard Yak Café (very good actually) only to find that the Hard Yak is the only one of the hotel’s five restaurants that is open at present.
This, together with no central heating (broke down 2 1/2 years ago) and no hot water (breaks down at regular hours as an economy measure each day) hacks us off.
We get a new room and eventually hot water and tolerate some nasi goreng in the Hard Yak determined to change our dining arrangements for subsequent meals.
We had expected a relatively low quality of hotel, but we had not expected basic ultilities such as heating and hot water to be inadequate. We were especially frustrated by the hot watre issue, as it became very obvious very quickly that thehotel was deliberately shutting down the hot water for several hours a day to save money, but the staff consistently denied this, claiming that there were daily unfortunate breakdowns.
I even offered them money to keep the hot water service going for us, but to no avail because the staff were insistent that the problem was mechanical not economic!
Altitude makes people tetchy when they are unused to it; his additional and seemingly unfair privation certainly added to our tetchiness; especially as Janie and I are both people who also get tetchy when we are cold!
