Day 9 Tuesday, October 29

Ken's 65th Birthday is been celebrated at the top of the world in Lhasa Tibet.

Today started out in a snow fall of about 2cm, just a dusting by Tibetan standards. Today we are driving about 100km on a road with so many switch backs that it would qualify as a "Tail of the Dragon" road except with limited guard rails.  We are going to about 5,000m up to Yumdrok Lake which is a the base of the  

Himalayas mountains.

Yumdrok Lake 

This is a Himalayan Dog, looks a bit like a Newfoundland to me, very friendly, but they don't move too fast, love the colour.

Ken with his new friend in Tibet, this one didn't bite my hand off. 

We stopped in a town on a different route back to Lhasa, for Lunch, this were I found an ant in my noodles, and it was a bit of a hole in the wall place in a back alley.

Coffee and Yak milk, that was great, no napkins are ever provided in China nor is toilet paper.

After lunch we visited a typical Tibetan Family's home, this was very different, BTW they do not sleep in a tent on the plains, but a two story house, made of cinder block and NO central heating and an outside toilet.  They offered us Yak Butter Tea and Barley beer, all brewed on location.  The young women had a 1 year old, child, and the husband's mother was there in the home as well.  They all (6 of them) sleep in one room under what looks like carpets, or big comforters.  The heat in winter is provided by a cast iron Yak dung stove, with no outside venting ??

Tibetan Family 

Tibetan sleeping room

A Yak on the shore of Yumdrok Lake.

Just some railway notes, the China Rail is extending the rail line from Lhasa to Nepal, through the 

Himalayan, a distance of 860km, tracks are down, tunnels in place for the first 100km from what I can see, how many years to construct, I was told another 10 or so.  It is an impossible  task, maybe.

China is very concerned that the US is trying to cut them off from the rest of the world, by blocking shipping routes.  This week in China they signedsome kind  of major boarder access agreement with Nepal, India, Russia. 

Karen and I did not celebrate my birthday dinner in Lhasa, as our choice was the Crazy Yak Restaurant, which has a kind of show of about 30 minutes.  So my birthday celebration will be in Xi'an on Wednesday.

Crazy Yak Dinner Show in Lhasa