Billed as a trip to see Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, a snow capped mountain and the southern most glacier in the northern hemisphere. A 90 minute bus ride that was a thrill in it self, then a transfer to a chair lift for a 20 minute ride. Sadly, the heavy cloud cover did not make it promising that we would see anything.
Arriving at the top we were pleasantly surprised to find a small Tibetan monastery that was not mentioned in the itinerary. We are deep into the TAR, the Tibet Autonomous Region so it should not have been a surprise. They like to locate the temples as high as possible to be closer to heaven. It was a slow climb up to the monastery only to find it guarded by a very surly Tibetan chicken.
Saved by a friendly monk, we were given a personal tour of the monastery. Not sure of his language but it was definitely not Chinese. He kept up an on going monologue on all the monastery's features. Tibetan monasteries are always covered in prayer flags. The flags are never removed except by nature (wind, rain) and can be often found littering the landscape.
Saw our very first Yaks. The monastery had quite a herd. The candles in the monastery are made with yak butter. To be honest, not sure if I would ever consider trying to milk one of these brutes.
At around around 4000 metres, we were not moving or thinking as fast as we should have due to the low oxygen content. Had to be constantly vigilant to avoid stepping in Yak pooh.
Heading back to the Yangste River and onwards to Shangri La tomorrow.
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