Blog 5 Tibet We both thoroughly enjoyed Lhasa. The highlight was a hike into the hills behind the city. We started in taxi and then little open motorbike type truck for about 5 km. from an area where they perform 'sky burial' the most common form of burial - the dead body is chopped and fed to vultures - we dragged our not fully acclimatized bodies up to a hermitage nunnery where we sat in a cave temple and drank blessed water from a spring set deep in the cave...

Great day with morning spent at the Potala, home of the Dalai Lama's since the 6th century. Not the current one as he is in exile. Never seen such large quantities of gold in one place

Blog 4 Lhasa 24 hours on a train and 3 police checks later we were allowed into Tibet. Huge police and military presence, including artillery, here and permits only began to be issued a few days ago, (having been stalled during March) and then stopped again to groups less than 3 so we feel honored to be here.  We have acclimatized already as the train took us to 5400 meters and Lhasa is around 3400. Still a bit breathless on stair climbs. Days have been warm ...

Blog 3 Xian Hard sleeper on the night train was a better experience than the hard seats we have previously used although little sleep was had.  It's always a shock arriving at a new place. Train stations are always crowded and it is easy to spot the white guys so we have a rush of people wanting to sell maps and offer taxi services.  After a catch up nap, we headed to the East Gate of the city wall. The wall here ia amazing, totally intake it surrounds the c...

Blog 2 PingYao Getting here was another tedious train trip. We were early (or I was) by 3&1/2 hours. Nev left me to report his wallet missing from the last train ride. He got back to me with 5 minutes to spare before the train departed at 1635.  While he was all that time with the police I was sitting on a hard plastic platform seat surrounded by luggage.  That was swapped for a hard train seat in another crowded carriage. We were going to have a late lun...