Started a little later this morning, departing from our fleapit hotel at 0930 to quickly explore Shigatse before heading back to Lhasa in time to see the debating at the Sera Monastery. Shigatse is about 270 kilometers west of Lhasa and is the second biggest city in Tibet. It is on an elevation of 3840m with a prefecture population of 820,000. The population of Shigatse City is 98,700 about 97% of which are Tibetan. Shigatse means 'the fertile land'. Shigatse has...

Awoke before sunrise and spent several minutes just staring at the clear sky and seeing the stars…a bit of a novelty for those living in China!! It was freezing cold so Sandra and I put on multiple layers and headed outside past our friendly yaks(!!) to see the view. The Tibetans call Everest Qomolungma — Mother Goddess of the World. – and it is easy to see why as we watched the sun slowly come up. Here we were in this desolate area looking at ...