This palace (now a monastery) was built in the 2nd century BC by the first Tibetan king. It is located on the top of a steep hill, and as we are now at over 12,000 feet, we were gasping somewhat as we climbed! The view from the top was magnificent with fertile farmland all up and down the valley and steep mountains on each side. We know that we are now truly off the beaten tourist track as we have not seen any other caucasians at any of the sites we have been to...

Today we travelled 160km over mostly rough, gravel roads through several small towns. We felt transported back 100 years as we watched women thrashing wheat by throwing it into the air with wooden pitchforks and men plowing fields with yaks. The trip took us along a beautiful valley with a large river flowing through it and then over a pass where this photo was taken. You can see the many colourful prayer flags which are found everywhere from on the roofs of peo...