Namtso to Shigatze

The morning was chilly. We washed up and walked out to the toilet, paying the tibetian lady 1Y for the two of us. The morning scenery was beautiful. The gentle sunlight over the faraway mountains and Namtso lake was simply breath-taking. We had some barley porridge and hard-boiled eggs (which Ross didn't touch) for breakfast. Then we soon started on our way, loading our bags into the four-wheel drive. When I walked out from the hotel entrance, there were droplets from the roof, the ice that formed overnight have melted with the warmth from the sun.

Our journey was 215km away, estimated to take 8 hours or so. After proper roads, three-quarters of the way was dirt tracks with nasty sharp turns. The highest point we passed was 5200m. We also passed by a hot spring, and a thermal power station. We also passed by lots of valleys and plains, rivers and streams. We made our lunch stop at around 2pm at a little town. We had our lunch at a restaurant cum house. The place had just 2 rooms where a small room was the kitchen, the 2nd was the main living area where the beds were too. We sat around in the living area while waiting to be served. Ross had vegetable fried rice (again) and I had noddles soup. It was actually pretty good food, costing us 20Y. Poor Ross had a stomachache where he was very tempted to use the public toilets but backed out at the very last minute. The good thing was that we managed to reach our hotel, Hotel Manasarover (in chinese called Holy lake), within an hour.

Shitgatze is the 2nd largest town in Tibet and at an elevation of 3900m. In fact while we made our descent from Namtso, I could already feel my breath getting easier and more mentally alert. At this altitude which is very similiar to Lhasa, we shouldn't be suffering from severe altitude sickness like we did in Namtso. Our hotel is 1km away from the city center. It was very warm when we reached the town, we reckon around 30 degrees celcius at least. Our room was reachable through 2 flights of stairs, climbing those still left us grasping for breath. It was only a three stars hotel but it was heavenly having our own toilet, hot shower and warm water! Soon after we settled into our rooms, we took a cab out to explore the area. It was a much modern town compared to Lhasa, with some pretty up-market shops. There were also less pilgrims and beggers on the streets.