Another blue sky day with fabulous weather. Welcome to Tibet where they have a lot of sunny days.
I forgot to write yesterday that Gyantse used to be the trade capital of Tibet, and they grow barley here for export to Nepal and India. It was a nice little town, and the monastery there is one of the most important in Tibet, with the second most important statue that is still original - it survived the 'cultural revolution'. There is a stupa beside it and I've taken many photos of different stupas, the white circular buildings with the eyes of Buddha near the top. Normally stupas are full of relics and scriptures but are closed off. The one in Gyantse, each level has little rooms that we can enter and see the paintings on the wall and the different statues and deities.
So today was another good day. We are now just below 4000m so we are seeing many trees, they are lining the road, and many people working in the fields. Tilling the soil by hand mostly buy some are ox or yak assisted.
The road was very busy today as it is the road between two major cities and the vehicles are driving much faster than on any of the other roads we have been on. On the roads we see big trucks, many new vehicles, three-wheeled scooter trucks and a few people walking, all sharing the road.
The cycling was mostly all downhill today, so really a very easy day. We has a snack break at 25km, lunch at 53km, snack at 70 and 85kms and then we rode all together to Shightse. We were following our van through the city and although it looked like some close calls with the traffic, we made it here safe and sound!
The room is great... but all the linens are so white that I don't dare touch anything until I've showered! So I'm just sitting in a chair in the corner of the room doing this update first. I'm not really needing a rest day at this point but we do have some challenging days ahead of us so a few nights in this luxury hotel before we are back to camping will certainly recharge us.
A comfortable ride on a nice tarmac road to Shigatse. As we follow the Nyang Chu River, we turn one corner after another along a series of bends in the road. Unusually for this trip we are on flat road all day.
Accommodation: Hotel
Maximum Altitude: 4,048m
Sleeping Altitude: 3,852m
Distance: 93km
I forgot to write yesterday that Gyantse used to be the trade capital of Tibet, and they grow barley here for export to Nepal and India. It was a nice little town, and the monastery there is one of the most important in Tibet, with the second most important statue that is still original - it survived the 'cultural revolution'. There is a stupa beside it and I've taken many photos of different stupas, the white circular buildings with the eyes of Buddha near the top. Normally stupas are full of relics and scriptures but are closed off. The one in Gyantse, each level has little rooms that we can enter and see the paintings on the wall and the different statues and deities.
So today was another good day. We are now just below 4000m so we are seeing many trees, they are lining the road, and many people working in the fields. Tilling the soil by hand mostly buy some are ox or yak assisted.
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| Trees lining the road |
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| Manual work in the fields |
The road was very busy today as it is the road between two major cities and the vehicles are driving much faster than on any of the other roads we have been on. On the roads we see big trucks, many new vehicles, three-wheeled scooter trucks and a few people walking, all sharing the road.
The cycling was mostly all downhill today, so really a very easy day. We has a snack break at 25km, lunch at 53km, snack at 70 and 85kms and then we rode all together to Shightse. We were following our van through the city and although it looked like some close calls with the traffic, we made it here safe and sound!
The room is great... but all the linens are so white that I don't dare touch anything until I've showered! So I'm just sitting in a chair in the corner of the room doing this update first. I'm not really needing a rest day at this point but we do have some challenging days ahead of us so a few nights in this luxury hotel before we are back to camping will certainly recharge us.
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| Hotel Room |
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| This is a typical house.... NOT the hotel. |
A comfortable ride on a nice tarmac road to Shigatse. As we follow the Nyang Chu River, we turn one corner after another along a series of bends in the road. Unusually for this trip we are on flat road all day.
Maximum Altitude: 4,048m
Sleeping Altitude: 3,852m
Distance: 93km
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