After yesterday’s work we had nothing on our tour program except to return to town. Which we did with several toilet stops. Since the air was so dry we had to drink a lot. And as long as you can pee you don’t have a health issue or so according to Dr. Sylvia. Whatever, we were all very healthy.
We made it back to our hotel and after a power nap of 2 hours we once again took the bus downtown. As I said before Sylvia was fed up with Chinese food so we went to Lhasa kitchen (the restaurant from the first day) again. There in the dining room was also an old picture of Lhasa on how it had looked before it was remodeled into a Chinese satellite city.
On the way into town we had noticed at the bus stop a coffee place where someone spoke German.
But on the way to it I saw a street seller with a bracelet I liked and haggled with her until the price was right. And what a surprise, Sylvia bought it for me as birthday gift, so I will have something from her with me for the rest of the trip! I think she would have preferred to travel further with me, but now the bracelet will do it in her stead.
And it was to this German café that we went after dinner to enjoy a cup of excellent coffee and a cheese cake made from yak curd. Delicious!! The owner of the little place had lived for 15 years in Switzerland and also in Vorarlberg. It was such a pleasure to talk to someone in German here. Definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Lhasa.
After coffee we went home and that was it for day 5 in Tibet. Suddenly it was already our last full day. Since we had had enough of the monasteries we had asked on the second day for a change and instead of seeing more religious places we went to see Yamdrok lake.
Another scenic drive awaited us and we made several stops on the way (also for the police when necessary).
The lake was beautiful but since the sky was a bit overcast the view was lacking. Still we had a good time taking more pictures and it was clearly preferable to more monasteries. At the pass it was so quite cold and Sylvia said that she saw flurries in the air. It was definitely nippy at 4441m.
We drove back to the hotel and agreed on a time for our ‘Welcome Dinner’. Since we had missed to do that on the second evening we made it into a farewell dinner.
Another bus ride into the city (by then we felt like locals) and we met Dundhup at his favorite tea house in the center. Restaurants have a grading system A to C with A being indicated with a green smiley and C with a red mean face, ours had a C (probably already a health hazard).
We were greeted by our guide at the door and set down at a table on which a rag laid that I wouldn’t even use to clean the toilet. But here it was good enough to clean the table and also to stay on it for the entire dinner. And still the food was yummy, so we all need to relax with the hygiene standards.
We each had a soup (mine with yak) and then rice with more vegetables. It was served with pickled radishes which were so good that Sylvia asked for seconds and thirds (and then drank the pickle juice).
Then it was time to make the bus ride home while Dundhup jumped on his electric bike with a pink license plate! Yours, Pollybert
