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We drove all the way up and over the high pass again but clouds covred the mountain range so we couldn't see it again. Soon we were out of the National Park and back on the Friendship Highway heading east towards Shigatse. Another mountain pass caught us by surprise at 5400m as the ascent was all so gradual. We descended again and eventually camped by the side of the road. We cooked on dried yak dung for the first time tonight, which didn't go quite so well as it doesn't give off a lot of heat. I'm sure we'll get better at it. We can tell we're a lot lower here as things are getting a lot easier.

Next morning we didn't have to drive far to get into the city of Shigatse. It's quite a clean looking place with lots of shops around. Apparently Dopjar had booked the hotel here before Steve could get a chance to check the price, so it's a really expensive place and the rooms are really nice... it was soooo good to finally have a shower and a sleep in a bed again. Just near the hotel is a little restaurant that is really cheap and has fantastic dumplings and noodles - we've eaten just about every meal there just because it was easy and delicious.

This morning (the 16th) Shane and I and Chris tried out the Chinese breakfast at the hotel by accident. We thought they did western breakfast but it was only the Chinese version, which had boiled eggs, dumplings, rice porridge, momos, peanuts and odd pickled veges. It was actually pretty good but Chinese food for 3 meals a day could get a bit much...

Later on Dopjar took us up to the Tashilumpo Monastery, which is the seat of the Panchen Lamas. We saw a few different temples and buildings including a building with a 26m Buddha statue, another with 1000 small buddha statues and funeral stupas for the Panchen Lamas. We saw the 600-yo building where the monks gather for prayers, and as we were about to leave the monks started coming in in their yellow robes for prayer time, and stood around outside shouting discordantly for a little while before they went inside. It was all very impressive and the artwork on the buildings was amazing.

It's been good to stop here for a couple of days and relax and do a bit of internet. Just so you know, Facebook is blocked in China so expect a bit of silence in that quarter for a while. At least offexploring is allowed :)