China – Tibet (Lhasa, Shigatse, and Mt Qomolangma)
I wanted to go to Tibet for a long time. I guess it goes back to the pictures from National Geographic magazine. Well, I am finally on top of the roof of the world, the 3rd pole. It is beautiful here! I really like the landscape, mountain range, and weather. Basically, it takes ~2 days by bus, 5 mountain pass crossings, several valleys, and adjusting to altitudes of ~11,500 ft to 16, 900 ft to get to Mt. Qomolangma (aka Mt. Everest Base Camp) after flying into Lhasa. We visited a lot of monasteries.
Lhasa: The capital of Tibet is 11,450 ft (3,490 m). The first few days, I was out of breath after walking 1 flight of stairs. The nice thing about coming back to Lhasa after going to base camp is that I can walk at least 3 flights of stairs without being out of breath. Thangka and Sand Mandala are found in most of the Tibet Buddhist Monasteries. These were taken at a restaurant. Normally you can’t take pictures inside the monasteries.
Portola Palace: One of the couples that I met, Wolfgang and his wife, has a great picture of this palace at night. When I get access to google drive. I will post it.
Jokhang Temple/Bankor Street: Tibetans are very devote. You see people spend hours walking around the temple with their prayer wheels and doing hundreds of prostrations every day.
Yamdrok Lake: Sacred lake in Tibet
Taashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse
Mt. Qoloommaga/Part of the Himalayas mountain range. You can see 5 of the highest peaks in the world from this pass (when the clouds are not in the they way)!
Mt Qomolangma Base camp (Mt. Everest base camp). I wasn’t planning on going to China, but somehow I packed my thermals. I am glad I did! In these pictures, the clouds are covering the top of Mt. Everest. I took a picture at 1:30am in the morning, it was great – full moon, great clear picture of Mt. Everest – but it came out black on the camera. Too bad. It was a great view of the mountain. I can see Orion Belt and the big dipper in the sky. They seem bigger than normal.
