Cloudy day in Shigatse (hey, that rhymes!)

It was time to leave the big, ugly city of Lhasa, and head for Tibet’s second city: Shigatse. Unfortunately, I didn’t get up early enough to catch a minibus. Apparently, in Tibet, buses only leave first thing in the morning.

As a backup plan, I headed for the main bus station, where a guy directed me to a van. I paid, then I waited. And waited. The people sitting in the van left, and new people came, then eventually left. People kept coming and going, but we never went anywhere.

A moment of excitement came after two hours, when a guy started the van. But then he turned it off again. Finally, after three hours, we drove to the exit... then waited 15 minutes.

When we finally got on the road, things were good, until we started having engine problems. We stopped a few times, apparently to wait for the engine to recover, but eventually the van pulled through, and we drove on the bumpy road through a remarkably desolate landscape. The Chinese are building things even out here.

I wasn't alone on the kora

Shigatse was a shock after Lhasa. Dusty and dirty, with gaping holes in the sidewalks. Guys are furiously building things everywhere, and it feels like an unfinished Wild West town. I walked the kora around the Tashilhunpo monastery, which overlooks the city, a huge, spread out, Chinese mess. There’s a Tibetan quarter, which looks poor but interesting.

After the long trip I was hungry. One of the Chinese’s greatest contributions to Tibet is food, and I had some tasty sweet and sour pork served by a friendly Chinese lady for dinner. Later in my room I met an interesting Israeli hippy character who had hitchhiked from Kashgar without any permits, stopping at Mount Kailash and Mount Everest en route. Amazing