It has been a while since we last blogged, we have been without mobile phone or internet/wi-fi. Please check out our recent stuff. The bus to Nako was a drag. We were entertained at first, however, by a guy at Peo trying to hitch a free ride for a couple of Kms which prompted the bus conductor to get off, run after him and take the fare 'out of his face'. The 5hr 105km ride along the Hindustan-Tibet highway was only 128Rp each. We stopped at an army checkpoint a couple of hours in and foreigners had to get off to have their permits checked. When we got back on there had been a seat reshuffle and I was seatless again, Paul checked the tickets of the guys in my seat, but it appeared that they had been standing until they had an opportunity of sitting in their reserved seats. I was offered half a butt-cheek's worth of a seat by a row of very slim gentlemen - I was very grateful. Paul had to wait until later in the journey (3 hours) for an offer of a similar sized seat. The landscape along this route became more and more barren and canyon-like. The raging Satluj river snaked through the valley below. The road was cut into the side of the mountain for great stretches. There were 2 landslides to be cleared from the road on the way - male road workers used diggers and female workers used wheelbarrows to manually shift the rocks. We even saw a wheelbarrow used as a makeshift pram for a toddler - child friendly employment policies! Our fellow passengers slept happily around us while we watched the scenery of canyons and 6000m mountains. My neighbour had fallen asleep on my back and Paul said that his neighbour was happily drooling down his back. We made a stop in the town below Nako to change the wheel which had presumably given up the ghost after bouncing over rocks for the duration. Nako (3670m elev.) is less than 20 miles from Tibet and is a tiny place, most definitely unspoilt. It is surrounded by snow-capped mountains and barren hills and overlooks farmed vegetable terraces now bursting into life. The town has a very small collection of residences white-washed wood structures plastered with mud and a lake, which rather looks like a man-made reservoir polluted with algae. There are no satellite dishes, so no TVs and although there is one mobile phone mast it is not the right one for our Indian Sim card. We were completely cut off. The town has a decidedly Tibetan flavour - from the ethnicity of some of the locals to the Tibetan cuisine at our hotel, there is also an 11th century temple, a Buddhist monastery (Gompa) and other Buddhist prayer huts. We stayed at Lovon GHouse 550Rp (£6.43) 5 days. We sampled many of the Tibetan dishes in the restaurant - Momos, Thukpa - a noodle soup/stew and Thuntuk a soup/stew with ribbons of the pastry with which momos are made. The best has been the Tibetan bread which is the closest thing we have had to freshly baked bread for a while. On Wednesday 29th I had banana champa pooridge for breakfast - very nice whatever it was and Paul had his Tibetan bread. We walked up to the lake then continued on up the local rock laid path up the steep hill to 3910m high for views across the Himalayan range and the town below. The path was scattered with boulders painted with Buddhist mantras, Tibetan prayer flags and masts. We saw a track winding through the hills into the distance it looked fairly flat and seemed to promise closer views of the mountains beyond so we endeavoured to follow it. The path was seemingly never ending and we walked for around 6kms before deciding that we never would reach the mountain views by the end of the day. The silence on our walk was strange, very few birds, little flora and fauna and just the sound of the wind and the occasional distant rumble of the river below. We saw only one other person, a goatherder. The town and our hotel are so peaceful, the town appears to have only one dog and the only sound to wake us occasionally is the braying of one of the towns many donkeys. The next day I was feeling a bit ill - too much chilli in my Thukpa - it could happen to anyone! Paul decided to have a wander around the village at 6am visiting the 11th century gompas - white sheds, which were decorated with 1000 year old buddhist murals. He then roamed around the back lanes of the town. Some touching photos of the very poor existence of the villagers. The only other walk we did was to the Gompa, where there had been a ceremony the previous day. The start of the trek was just outside our hotel and it was a dirt track through the terraces and watercourses. Considering the track was to the town's Gompa it was seemingly not well worn. We tip-toed through the boulders passing two white wild horses on the way. After climbing for 1hour 40 mins we arrived at what appeared to me to be a deserted, dilapidated building, being used for storage - strange! The rest of our time was spent doing our laundry, eating momos, people watching from our hotel terrace and having walks along the flat roadway past the village. The next stop on the Tribal circuit was Tabo.