Tibet

We left Lhasa on Tuesday 16th, the driver found our hotel a bit after 8 o' clock. Emeisha, Binesh and Lazlo were already in the car, a minivan. Emeisha and Binesh are two Australians, originating from Sri Lanka. Lazlo is Hungarian, from Budapest. Just as Eline, he just finished architecture. We can call ourselves lucky to have met these people to share the car with, as they were great. Even more when we noticed that Lazlo could speak a bit Chinese! As our driver was true-bred Chinese (read: no English whatsoever), this came in handy.
The first stop was Yamdrok Tso Lake, where we arrived after a few hours of hairpin bends on perfect asphalt. There was one parking lot, and that was all the lake was about for us, as well as for the dozens of other tourists. The view was stunning, and we enjoyed the view while ignoring the Tibetans (or Chinese) who were running around with decorated yaks and dogs, asking 10 Yuan (1euro) for a picture.
After Yamdrok, we left for Gyantse (yes, I wrote it wrong the last time...)
Tibet is a beautiful region. We drove through small villages, a small sand dune dessert , we past snow covered mountains and cliffs, and all the time the landscape was wide and sand colored, except for regular explosions of intense autumn colors. Mind blowing...

In Gyantse, we visited the Fortress and went for dinner. Binesh and Emeisha, who had only just arrived in Tibet (Lazlo had been in Tibet for a week, while we had been traveling above 3000m for the last 3 weeks) had difficulties during the climb, and skipped the fort. It was hard, as the views were also literary breathtaking.
One tip for future travelers : if Lonely Planet says the toilets are "a bit rough", be afraid!!! Be very afraid!!! In this case, they were completely covered with sh... human waste. We opted for the double room, as Eline wasn't feeling very well, and would need the toilet. Hooray for Western toilets: Our island of civilization in this squat toilet ocean!
The second day, we would head for Shegatse, after visiting the monastery in Gyantse, which has one of the largest stupas in China.
Shegatse is the second largest city in Tibet. Lazlo and I strolled through the old town, trying to reach the fortress which we could see from the hotel. Just when we reached the top, some officials in army uniforms sent us away (bastards), we don't know why...
That day, again we had encountered some amazing sights. Our driver was superb. As we asked him to stop a few times to take pictures, this day he stopped by himself when we crossed something special. I made the most beautiful pictures of farmers, but as I turned the quality button of my camera one stop to far, they are all in raw format. This means that you won't see them until I find decent photo editing software (read December)
The third day we left early, as we had 10 hours of driving ahead of us to Nam Tso Lake. This is the highest salt-water lake in the world. And you can definitely feel it. At 4700m, you are only 100m under the top of Mont Blanc. Running is impossible, and everything goes a bit slower. There were two guest houses, and the metal frames show that a lot of tents must have been here (maybe during high season), and the area looks awful. There's garbage everywhere, and although there are toilets (a bit rough...), people just go everywhere (I saw it with my own eyes...) , which makes the place look like a landfill (which unfortunately can be said about almost every Tibetan village).
But the lake makes up for everything! The wind generated impressive waves, which were even more dramatic as they banged upon the shore, which was covered with small stupas. The sun set the whole view on fire. It was definitely one of the must beautiful things I've ever seen in my entire life. Sunrise was evenso nice, satisfied and quiet I joined the rest in the car, as we left for Lhasa again. The final stop was Ganden Monastery. We first stopped in Lhasa to drop off Emeisha and Binesh, who were suffering from the altitude and didn't sleep that night. Ganden was very nice, and also very high again. We enjoyed the chapels and especially the sights, but we must admit that the point of saturation had been reached. We had seen enough monasteries, and despite the beauty, we were glad that after Tibet, no more monasteries would follow.
Our tour was over. It had been great, and due to some luck in finding the right people, it had been cheap as well. We were so glad we had made it to Tibet. Luck had been on our side for the last weeks.