The city of Lhasa

Left the Tibetan plains,we had spent in total 3 nights on the roof of the world with the yaks and the people of Tibet.Back on the truck and heading east to the city of Shigatse,the second largest city in Tibet and the traditional home to the Panchem Lama,the spiritual leader of the Buddhists.Also it is home to the largest Buddhist monastary in the country and has an 80ft Budda in one of it's chapels,i didn't get to see it but wandered passed the monastery and bumped into a few monks.

Shigatse is definitely in the hands of the Tibetan people,they were all about the place with only a handful of chinese around.The Tibetans have a distinctive look about them,their weathered faces and high cheek bones.They dress to protect themselves from the harsh elements of this land at this altitude,mainly with several layers wrapped around them.The women wear colourful aprons and long dresses enclosing their bodies,while the men have long hair tied up with a red tassle wrapped round their heads and stetson hats of some shape or other.Their not big people either,small in height and build and have a lovely nature about them.I even cycled off on one of their bikes while they were making themselves snug round our campfire.Cycled at altitude too,i only went up the road but it was hard work,it got the cardiovascular going.Well worth it to see their faces.Jock has the photographic evidence i must get a copy! The only thing i can not get used to is the spitting,they clear their throats and spit out plugs of mucus,this behaviour is not restricted to the men,the women do it too.You need to be careful where you put your feet some times otherwise your inclined to slip.Lovely!! Not sure if the Nepalis or Tibetans are worse at it.

Travelled on to Lhasa on the Tuesday 17th,passing a massive Budda carved into a rock.Appartently it was all about love.Some wealthy dude had it commissioned after his wife died at a young age.Heartbroken he had a Budda carved into a rock and became a monk.Pulled up outside our hotel which is well plush.Very comfortable,nice to have after bush camping and our hotel in Shigatse was s***se.Lhasa is the largest city in Tibet,although it is Tibetan there is a lot of chinese influence here,it's really only down in the old part of the city that you see the Tibetans hanging out and practising their spitting.The chaps run around here with their arses hanging out until they learn to use the toilet,they wear trousers with a slit in the seat of their pants.(just thought i'd put that in as i thought of it).The old part of town,the Barker area has many Buddhist temples plenty of monks around the place to,dressed in their habits of wine and yellow,great colours together.Checked out a few,this place has one huge palace called Potala,it cost a fortune to go into it so i just strolled outside and took in it's splendour.It's up on a hill so you get quite a good view of it really.The depressing thing is the chinese knocked down a load of houses opposite the palace to build a hideous square put a flag pole up and fly the chinese flag,again trying to lay claim to this place as their own(again a lot of history to try and explain).Interesting reading though,a good book to read on the topic is For Tibet with love by Isabel Losada.Another good book also is Michael Palin's account of travelling east,his book is called Himalayas.

Quite a mix of people here,commerically Lhasa belongs to the chinese but spiritually and culturally the place belongs to the Tibetans.Starting to see a change in people's faces,their midgets here too,a few of the girls tried to go shopping but couldn't get anything to fit them,the clothes too small.They make me look big! At night the place is floodlight with neon lights,the streets are wide and there is clearly money to be spent here.Although you do get beggars mainly the tibetans,we have been giving our left overs to the street children which they are grateful for.Sad to see,some in a desperate state too. Getting a taxi or cycle ricksaw here is a lot safer.No exciting rides to report on,shame.A fair few tourists here mainly from Europe and China,a lot of commerical stuff here geared up for the tourists.I didn't survive long in the tourist areas,went to see the sights and had a look around but you don't get any peace looking at the stalls.Although we did have fun yesterday,Lorna,Punchie and myself shopping for outfits for our fancy dress party which is coming up soon,a lot of haggling went on.I got my outfit for Dr.Nick for less than 10$.Nic is not in the slightest bit interested in exercise apart from kicking footie with the lads a bit,so i've decided to dress him in the most ridiculous of outfits as a professional skipping rope champion.It was that or dress him as a weird doctor since he is a pharmacist during the day job.I went for ridiculous.God only knows what i'll be dressed as,Dr Nick's wife is dressing me up for the occassion and i know Nick will have a helping hand in making me look ridiculous.

Well i have another night here,it'll be a quite one after last night and we leave early morning.Heading towards the Tiger leaping gorge,how much we will see of it i don't know it's the wrong time of season considering it may be under water due to monsoon weather.When we reach Vietnam our truck is not aloud to enter so Vietnam will be covered by public transport with the group or as an independant traveller with a budget of 150$ and you get to make up your own itinery,i'm inclined to do it independantly on the budget allocated.Any suggesting please send to either my e-mail address ( [email protected] ) or post on the message board.

That reminds me Dave J,leave me your e-mail address (hope you Maggie and kids are good  xx ).