[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 27 December 2015]
28 July 2015, Tuesday
After yesterday’s extended stay in Lhasa, ST managed to recuperate and recover just enough to make the long road trip to Shigatse today. Along the way, we would be stopping by at two major sightseeing spots – Yamdrok Lake and Pelkor Chode Monastery, at Gyantse. The entire journey would take about 12 hours, spanning about 475km. We checked out of our hotel (bye bye comfort!) and departed at 7:15am, leaving Lhasa and heading in to the highlands.
Along the way, we stopped at a mountain pass at about 9:35am, where enterprising locals had set up shop for tourists like us to pose for photographs with their giant mastiff dogs. The Tibetan Mastiff are primarily used as guard dogs for livestock and property, and a fully-grown male can reach a height of 80cm, making them one of the largest species of dogs in the world. The mastiff dogs on display here appear domesticated and docile, no doubt conditioned by their handlers. I haven’t heard of mastiff dogs before this so I didn’t know what to expect, but according to XY, the ones here are not as big as she imagined.
As soon we came out of our van, a horde of young children approached us gleefully (aka somewhat aggressively) with chants of “Shi yuan! Shi yuan!”, meaning 10 Renminbi, the cost of taking a photo with their prized mastiffs and lambs. I chose a golden haired one, nicknamed “Jin Mao Shi Wang”, meaning “golden-haired lion king”. It had an impressive coat of golden hair, thus rightfully earning its nickname.
After mingling with the mastiff dogs for about 25 minutes, we continued our journey. It was 10:30am when we first caught sight of Yamdrok Lake and stopped for a photo op. From our vantage point, Yamdrok Lake was a perfect shade of sky blue, reflecting the heavens above. The water was as still as a mirror and it was quite pretty. Tenzin explained that Yamdrok Lake is one of the three sacred lakes in Tibet, and it is one of the largest as well. Situated at an elevation of 4,441m, it is a freshwater lake that is shaped like a scorpion.
Looking back at the photos now, I realize that Yamdrok Lake’s beauty is not on the take-your-breath-away level, mainly because there are no trees surrounding the water at all. Also, the lake isn’t framed by snow-capped peaks, but by green grass mountains slopes. Maybe it will be prettier in winter, when the slopes get covered with snow. Or maybe, if there were puffs of clouds in the sky above to cast shadows on the water surface, it would have added a dash of drama and variation to the scenery. So while it was a beautiful sight, it wasn’t an absolutely stunning sight. Hope this isn’t a dampener for those who are thinking of visiting Yamdrok Lake. Just stating my observations.
We continued driving along the highway, and about 15 minutes later, we stopped by the water’s edge for a different angle of Yamdrok Lake. Here, the photos turned out nicer as I could capture the reflection of the mountain slopes and clouds on the water. We didn’t linger for long, as there was still a long way to go.
At about 12:28pm, we arrived at our lunch stop and got off the van for some much-needed leg stretching. We ordered our usual “tu dou si” (finely sliced potato strips), green vegetables, mushroom, a chicken dish and a soup. The food was really good. Other travellers have commented on the sub-par standard of food in Tibet, but we found out that it isn’t true. The reviews probably came from Western tourists who aren’t accustomed to Chinese food. We found the food in Tibet to be our liking, and that was a huge saving grace for the trip.
Stomachs refuelled, we pressed on. About half an hour later, we arrived at Karola Glacier. When Tenzin first mentioned “glacier”, the picture I had in my mind was Vatnajökull Glacier, the massive one in Iceland. It turned out to be quite different from what I expected.
The viewpoint along the highway is at an elevation of about 5,200m. The glacier itself is situated at about 7,000m so from here, we only had a view of the glacier tongue, hanging at the top of a mountain. I thought we would be able to drive past and get a panoramic view of the glacier, but unfortunately, it was not possible.
Tenzin said that several years ago, there was a movie being filmed at this location and the filmmakers had obtained the authorities’ permission to set up explosives, thus taking out a huge chunk of the glacier ice. The glacier has since never recovered from this travesty. I cannot remember the title of the movie now, but what were the authorities thinking??? The effects of such man-made destruction cannot be recovered at any cost. So upsetting.
About 50 minutes after departing Karola Glacier, we stopped for a short breather at Si Mi La Mountain Pass, elevation 4353.8m. There wasn’t much to see here, only a reservoir in front of us – Man La Shui Ku, where the water was a shade of jade green. There was only a small bunch of other tourists, so the locals were pretty aggressive and persistent in their touting. I relented and paid RMB10 to add a string of colourful prayer flags to the mountain pass, to bless us with a safe journey ahead.
Half an hour after departing Si Mi La mountain pass, we drove by flat lands covered with thousands of acres of bright yellow flowers. These were the canola fields of Gyantse and they were very pretty. So pretty that we asked Tenzin to stop the van for a while to allow us to take photos.
Canola is a plant grown for the production of canola oil, reportedly one of the healthiest types of plant-derived cooking oils. It is also used as a source of biofuel. Canola is also grown in countries like Australia, Russia, the U.S. and India among others. Together with barley, wheat and potato, canola is one of the main crops in Tibet. It was a lovely day with the sun out and the puffy clouds hanging amid the perfectly blue sky. We were literally immersed in the fields of gold.
At about 5:00pm, we arrived at Gyantse (elevation 4,000m), historically considered the third largest town in Tibet, after Lhasa and Shigatse. It is significant because of its strategic location, as it lies on the historic trade route between India and Tibet. Its most important sight is the Pelkor Chode Monastery, also known as Palcho Monastery.
The main monastery is a reddish brown building. It is quite similar to the other monasteries we have visited – with an assembly hall, prayer rooms and numerous statues depicting all the various deities and previous incarnations of Dalai Lamas. As usual, photography is allowed but at a fee, so I did not take any photos here.
The highlight is the Kumbum, a 32-metre high, nine-tiered building housing 10,000 figures of Buddhas as images and murals within its 78 chapels. Located beside the monastery, it is white in colour and it has a pyramidal appearance. The Gyantse Kumbum is especially significant because it is the largest chörten in Tibet.
The rule on photography was strictly enforced and we had to surrender all our mobile phones and cameras before we were allowed to enter the Kumbum. Thinking it was an important place of interest, I paid to bring my DSLR camera in for photos. XY and ZJ weren’t keen so they gave it a miss. The rest of us then climbed the nine levels and popped in to the chapels to see the statues and murals. Some of them were really dark and we couldn’t see a thing. After a while, they all looked about the same, so we just headed straight to the top, and came down again quite quickly.
From the Kumbum, we also had a good view of the Gyantse Dzong or Gyantse Fortress, perched atop a hill not too far away. Its lofty position means that it commands an imposing presence over the entire Gyantse town. The fortress was built in 1268 and it has survived the British invasion in 1903 and 1904, as well as the Cultural Revolution by the Chinese in 1967. Much of the walls were destroyed but it is gradually been restored over the years. As we were running short of time, we did not visit the fortress but only glanced at it from afar.
At 5:30pm, we left Gyantse and pressed on towards Shigatse. We had been on the road for over 10 hours now, and were eager to plonk in at our hotel for some much-needed rest. At about 6:20pm, we stopped for a break. It was only much later, after wandering around that I noticed a sign that said that we were at Gepel Water Mill, elevation 3,860m.
After alighting from the van, Tenzin led us into a small hut. He didn’t tell us what was inside the hut, so we just followed him. It was actually a water mill, where the locals cleverly harnessed the water’s energy from the river flow to operate the machine to grind the barley into fine powder. This was the barley powder that they use to make tsampa porridge. It was enlightening to see how they still made use of methods like these. It was primitive but effective.
Right after we exited the hut, a young boy came up and demanded money from us for entering. Even though it was not a large amount, XY was especially aggrieved because Tenzin did not inform us about the fee beforehand and it seemed unlikely that he did not know that there was a fee for entering, presumably having led other groups to this location many times in the past. If he had told us beforehand, we wouldn’t have minded paying. Certainly, with the information disclosed, we could decide whether it was worth making a visit inside. I probably would have been curious enough to check it out. In the end, we decided not to pay because it was a matter of principle. XY voiced out her displeasure to Tenzin and he gave some excuses, but he wasn’t entirely convincing. From then on, coupled with our fatigue from the long journey, it was a quiet drive to Shigatse, as we mostly sat in silence absorbed in our own thoughts.
We finally arrived at Shigatse at 7:30pm, some 12 hours after departing from Lhasa. Our hotel was called Gesar Hotel and it was the best hotel for the entire trip. It was modern and well furnished, with smooth bed sheets and comfy pillows. The décor was more Chinese than Tibetan, with the armchair and wooden furniture bearing dragon motifs. Nevertheless, it was comforting to have a good hotel as a reward for the long drive. After dropping our luggages, we headed out for dinner.
As we were all tired by then, we did not venture too far away, so we chose to eat at the restaurant located just beside the hotel. We ordered a few dishes to share, and I ordered a plate of egg friend rice – another standard dish that you can’t really go wrong with. The egg fried rice turned out to be really good, and KL quipped it “Crystal Jade standard”. To my foreign readers, Crystal Jade is restaurant chain in Singapore serving good Chinese food. So this egg fried rice in Shigatse is comparable to that from Crystal Jade.
After a hearty dinner, we were all ready to hit the sack, not before taking a good long shower of course. It had been a long day, and it will be even longer and more tiring from here on.