Remember when I mentioned monasteries are best taken in small doses? Well, it was getting late and we were both a bit tired, hungry and thirsty. We went for a spot of tea at the local monastic restaurant. Two young girls, aged 5 and 7, kept me company. They were pretty grubby (I've included a photo of them on the main page). After giving them 1 yuan each and snapping their photo (very photogenic!), they were both very happy. Snapping gum, pulling it out to inspect it, and spitting contests seem to be their main method of fun.
We finished our drinks and returned back to the monastery, past it, and above. A prominent whitewashed building built to display a huge thanka of buddha each year during festival was our starting point for the kora. It was several stories high but only about 8 feet (2.5m) thick! From this vantage point we had an excellent view of the valley Lhasa is situated within, and the beautiful hills beyond. Behind us, steps were carved into the quartz rock, going up, up, up. I was struck with vertigo as I ascended. I don't know if it was due to going steeply up and having nothing flat to focus on or because of the quick increase in altitude.
After a bit of climbing I came upon a smaller temple building, closed, but with a few monks sitting outside. One pantomimed that ahead was good drinking water (point off in a direction, drink, rub belly, thumbs up... repeat), so off I went, dubiously in search of "clean" water. One of the tenants of third-world travel is NEVER drink unfiltered water. Never eat raw food unless you've peeled it yourself, and don't have ice in your drinks unless its from a place frequented by foreigners (it's likely they'll use filtered water before its frozen). You should even brush your teeth with bottled or filtered water.
From this point onward, the track stayed fairly level, so my panting was able to diminish. I guess the climbing was mostly over. Soon came the sound of running water - a pvc pipe was protruding from the rocks, with clear water shooting out - nothing seemed to be above it except a short bit of rock and vegetation before reaching the summit of the hill. The water was quite tasty and very clean! No need to worry about contaminated water. No animal or people pollution to worry about here. There was even a small depression, almost a cave, filled with still water, in which I could see many tadpoles growing stubby legs. Tibetans revere water, and all of a sudden, the earlier sight of people carrying gerry cans of something around the temple finally made sense - they were taking holy water back home. I drank my fill, filled up the water bottle, and continued on.
The track went around one pleat of the hill. From this vantage point, I had an even greater view of the valley. Unfortunately, the ominous thunderclouds and the obvious rain falling below them coming in from both ends of the valley also came clearly into view. It was a wonderful spot, though ruined a bit by the loud Chinese propaganda blasting from a nearby compound.
Around the bend, the track seemed to dissappate quite a bit. With the weather turning foul, the time being 7:30, and the trail becoming difficult to find, we decided to head back. Not in time to miss the rain, but at least it was brief. We followed the last few Tibetans out, hopped on a local bus, and 2 yuan and 15 minutes later were back in Lhasa.