15 January 2009
Another pre-dawn wake up to complete another kora. This time we circambulated the Jokhang monastery with the thousands of faithful who also brave the pre-dawn freeze. As we approached the Jokhang, we noticed a queue had formed; we later discovered the queue to enter the monastery was several hundred metres long and was under constant observation from the PLA snipers on the nearby rooftops.
We made comment to ourselves, we thought christian religions would be exceptionally jealous to see the number of people who will queue in the freezing dark to get into their monastery to make substantial cash donations.
It was cold and the light was not favourable for good photos, so after a single circuit we headed back to the hotel, stopping to buy some local fried breads for brekkie, which were eaten plain when they really needed anything to add flavour. We finalised our packing and waited in the foyer for our guide and driver.
We left Lhasa for the final time just after 10am and again noticed an increase in the number of military and police on the streets as we drove out of town. Chinese lunar new year is just over a week away and may be the reason for the increased presence?
We stopped at one of the checkpoints where we were lucky enough to be chosen to receive a speed/time ticket. These tickets are used to monitor the average speed between checkpoints on the Friendship highway; which has a 40kph speed limit. Of course no-one sticks to these limits, so we had to stop short of each next checkpoint to allow time to elapse so that we passed each place with the requisite average speed for the leg.
We were planning to get to Shigatse just after lunch, but because we were restricted to the speed limit we did not arrive until 1700, even having to stop at a small town for a large bowl of noodles.
When we finally made it into Shigatse, we were met by a chap who would be helping us with our visa extension. He took us to the”Service Office” (which if you didn’t know it was there, you would never be able to find it). We were told to wait for about 10 minutes, after 40 minutes we changed offices, where a police man gave us some forms to fill in, took our photos and after another 40 minutes we had our visa extensions; and got our passports back.
We were dropped off at a different hotel from the first one we stayed at here, it was definately more luxurious, although hot water is still ata pemium. We decided to “push the boat out” and visit the bar where SB had a local beer and TH tried the chinese wine (absolutely disgusting is one word for it). We adjourned to the room and tried to order room service and after many phone calls and visits by staff were told there was no food. So we just gave up and went to bed.