A journey of a thousand miles - 6 October 2008

We're back on the road today, loading into 3 Land Rovers for the overland portion of our excursion. Jen and I ended up in a car with Mike and Stefan and probably the hippest of the available drivers (but more on that later).

On the way to Giantse we stopped off at the Yamzhog Yumcog (Oh no! It's not in wikipedia).

According to the ticket:

"The Yamzhog Yumcog is located in Nagarze County of Shannan Prefecture, Tibet. The lake is one of the Three Great Sacred Lakes in Tibet. So a large number of Tibetans come to walk it around every year. It covers an area of 638 square kilometers and is surrounded by lots of mountains, which have an average altitude of 4500 metres. Looking southward on the top of Gangbala Mountains with an altitude of 4990 meters, you can see the lake beset in the mountains like a blue diamond. White clouds and snow mountains are reflected upside-down on the surface of the lake. The scenery is so intoxicated."

We, however, are not intoxicated - other than at the sight of the sparkling new bathrooms.

Here's an (unfortunately washed out) picture of the lake:
There were touts around offering necklaces and knick-knacks, and I could have taken a picture with the yak for 5 Yuan, but regrettably there is no yak/ox picture.

We also stopped by another lake that stranded an ancient fort when it was created:

Evidently Giantse was the second largest city in Tibet during the 15th century, but it definitely seems to be in decline now. There's no internet to be found, presumably because the Chinese government has shut it down.

At dinner we commented on how quite the town seemed, which led Mil to say "this place was really happening in the 15th century." Of course we wanted to know where she liked to hang out back then.

Strange what you find funny at this point in a trip.