Mandala Hotel

Hi All,

  Randal is sound asleep.  We actually did a bike tour along the river today.  Our guide Lobsang met us in the hotel lobby at 9 am and we walked about 15 minutes to a bike rental shop.  There we quickly picked a bike, had the seats adjusted and took off through the semi-predictable Lhasa traffic.  My bike gears didn’t work and the seat was really too low, but I really enjoyed the ride; at least for the first hour and 20 minutes.  Then I got tired and when we turned as if to climb a hill and keep going into the countryside, I told Randal I was about ready to stop.  So was he; but he wouldn’t have said anything.  Our guide Lopsang turned us around and we rode back to town, returned the bikes and Randal and I went to lunch while Lobsang went off to do his own thing.  We had almost 2 hours for lunch so decided to eat and then return to the hotel to rest before our afternoon outing to the Tibet Museum.  That’s where we’re

going in about 20 minutes.

  Anyone with hotmail didn’t receive the email about our train trip.  Apparently the file sent as an attachment was too large so they were undeliverable.  Sorry, but that’s my only option with this little netbook computer.  www.mydoramac.com will post the email and the photos. 

  Off to the museum.

Ru

DoraMac

ps neither Randal and I have been sleeping well for lots of reasons, altitude and very dry air.  We were both amazed how much we enjoyed the bike ride this morning!

Mandala Hotel Hi All,   Randal and I survived the bike trip, but really pooped out during our tour of the Tibet Museum.  And now we both seem to have stomach issues….A couple of wrecks!  Tomorrow we’re going by car for a 2 hour drive along the river to a monastery.  That should be quite interesting.   I’m about to go off to the market down the street to see what I can find for dinner.  Both of us need a rest from the spicy noodle shop and spicy anything.  Maybe I can find some yogurt.  There’s lots of it here and I had some for lunch with my special healthy chicken soup and brown bread.  They have the best bread here in Tibet.  Of course lots of years ago I did eat enough Tibetan barley bread to gain thousands of pounds.   So hope you enjoy the train photos and see the changing scenery.  Next some photos of Lhasa. Ru

Just some photos of our Chinese friends and then scenery from the train.

Before we left for Tibet we spent some time with our friends Bill and Stella who incidentally built our wonderful boat, DoraMac! Goose and lamb and greens were cooked in the center pan on the wok. It was our last really good meal until we ate dinner in the noodle place just across the street from our hotel in Tibet.

Three very lovely young friends, Zoey, Singkey, and BoBo.

We took them to dinner one evening and listened to Zoey’s and BoBo’s tales of work life and job hunting. Both graduated this past June. Singkey is in her first year at University. We have known all three since 2006 when they were all school girls!

The small symbols say Doumen and the time is 6:19 am. We were at the Doumen bus station at 5:30am waiting for the bus to Guangzhou. You can see we are definitely at sea level as we cross one of the many rivers that make up the Pearl River Delta.

Traffic into Guangzhou.

The waiting station in Guangzhou.

One of the station attendants came to tell us when our train had arrived and we were able to follow some other folks looking for the Tibet train since it was a bit confusing. Randal is looking at a map of the train route. We made several stops and I don’t know if anyone got off but lots more people got on.

Low land scenery.

Changing scenery.

Towns seemed to pop up in the middle of nowhere.

The higher we went, the prettier the scenery.

Lower mountains.

During the night the scenery really started to change. I went to the “toilet” late at night and when I looked out it reminded me of flying over the North Pole. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera.

Lake and sky.

Glaciers and snow capped mountains.

Finally, the train station in Lhasa.