大象传媒

Lhasa - day two

• Kay
• 31 Aug 06, 05:07 AM

After a pleasant night in the Himalaya Hotel, the group has had a certain amount of down time. In the morning many visited the Jhokang Buddhist temple in the centre of Lhasa. Visit . Many of the group were blown away by the beauty and mystical atmosphere of the place. It was thronged with pilgrims and thick with the smoke from yak butter candles. In the afternoon many members of the group also visited the Potala Palace, in which the Dalai Lama had lived up until his exile. Visit to find out more. This palace was incredible but did not have the atmosphere of the temple, as it is set up as a museum rather than a place of pilgimmage and worship.

In the evening, we had dinner on a rooftop terrace at a restaurant in the centre of the Bakor market. It was great to dine out with the smell of woodsmoke from the street below, and the sounds of hawkers trying to sell the last of their produce at the end of the day. I ate Tibetan naan with mutton and onions, but I only managed a small amount as the naan was extremely thick, with the consitency of a heavy sponge cake. We tried red wine from the Great Wall of China. Hmmm! I don't think the Great Wall is famous for its grape growing.

We have another day acclimatising tomorrow before moving up in altitude as we start our drive in 4x4's to Chinese Base Camp. The number of days spent doing this will be determined by whether any of the group suffer from altitude symptoms. The ascent profile is unfortunately fairly steep.