Lhasa - a fascinating city! On our drive in from the airport - a 60 km drive - we were struck by the barreness of the immense mountains surrounding us. There is absolutely nothing growing on them. As we entered the city, we were shocked at the modern buildings, with wide streets and high-end stores - not what we had expected, but this is the Chinese addition to Lhasa. Fortunately, our hotel is in the old part of the city and is charming, if somewhat neglected. This part of Lhasa is a maze of small alleys with stalls selling everything from yak butter and yak meat to many other edibles we couldn't identify. These alleys surround the Johkang temple which is the cultural and religious centre of the city. Here, in the evening, there is a river of Tibetan people circulating the temple with their prayer wheels chanting and praying. We managed to get completely lost in these alleys twice in the first 24 hours, but loved every minute of it!
The highlight of our first day was the Potala Palace - an amazing structure which domimates the city. It is (or rather was) the winter home of the Dalai Lamas and was built in the 7th century. It is more than 13 stories high and contains the thrones and tombs of each Dalai Lama, most of which are covered in gold and gems. One of the tombs was made of over 3500kg of gold! Most of the other people touring the palace were Tibetan pilgrims from around the country who had come to pay their respect. Many of them brought yak butter which they put into the various burners throughout the rooms. We were moved by the devotion of these people in their numerous styles of traditional dress, and stunned by the grandure of this building which is one of most magnificent sites we have seen anywhere.