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Made it to Lhasa after crossing a river via ferry (more like a leaking raft really) to see Tibet's oldest monastery (Samye Monastery) - seriously hot again. Lots of little old ladies sticking their tongues out at us hounding us for our packed lunch... guide told us about Tibetan funerals as well - you get chopped up in to tiny pieces and then fed to the vultures or fish... nice.... i'm glad we don't eat fish!
Had a brief wonder round Lhasa and met up with the group for dinner - I don't think the locals have seen many Indian people before - random people just laugh at us or want photos taken with us.
Next day in Lhasa and we checked out the Potala Palace (this is the palace that most people associate with Tibet... we'll post pics soon)... amazing place (170m high), but the 350 steps nearly killed us on the way up - I wish i'd gone to the gym all those lunchtimes!!! One of the highlights for me (Raj) has to be peeing down the full 170m - the urinal was literally a hole running from the top of the palace to the bottom - awesome! Oh yes, we saw lots of interesting monuments/statues/relics as well. We saw loads of bits from Michael Palin's Himalaya documentary as well - it was unreal seeing it first hand!
We also went to the 13th Dalai Lama's palace today, and saw a sign saying "Have Dog"... we thought it was the sign to a restaurant but it was just a warning to say that there was a guard dog. Can't say too much more about the monasteries and stuff, because there's a good chance spies are reading this email - we're told that Tibet is full of Chinese government spies (we saw hidden cameras and microphones pretty much everywhere!)... it's like being in a James Bond movie!!
We went round a local supermarket but couldn't find anything vaguely vegetarian (Riggers - dog, cat and yak is plentiful if you would like me to bring some of that back for you!), so headed to the local market to buy some Mandalas... we've got a few more days here and then we'll start our traverse of the Himalayas - eat your heart out Michael Palin!
Oh yes, Rupal has taken a disliking to 2 of our group members (they are pretty geeky in all fairness), so don't be surprised if they happen to fall of one of the mountains or something!
Hope you're all well and we'll update you whenever we can (we've already been told that electricity is pretty uncertain from here onwards)...
Neeshy n Rups
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