12 Days in 'TIBET'

We had our lunch in a small town. After finishing
our lunch we rushed to Gyantse, and continued
our tough journey. The road was still bad, and we
had to bear for another 7 hours' suffering to Shigatse.
Throughout the afternoon journey, we saw a lot of
sheeps and cows enjoyed eating on the hill, and the
shadow of the blue sky reflected on the lake like an
attractive painting. However, our bus didn't stop for
our photo session, and I only took this wonderful
scenery through the bus window. Around 4p.m., we

( Yamdrok Lake)

reached Gyantse. It took one hour plus to visit ' Shiwan Buddha ' temple. Pa San, the tibetan
tourist guide hurried us to depart for Shigatse. After another 4 hours' journey, we were really
tired. We travelled in the dark rainy night, and the road was wet. We prayed in the dark that our

coach wouldn't break down. It would be a great
problem if the coach broke down now. We drove
past villages, streams, and mountains, we prayed to
see the lighting from town appeared immediately in
the distance, but it always disappointed us over and
over again. After 4 hours on the tough road, we
reached Shigatse, and we had our dinner at a
restaurant which was next to the hotel. The town was
dark, and the night was quiet and rainy. Since we had a
long tough journey today, so everyone was tired and
slept early.

Shigatse, a city 225km west of Lhasa, has the Tashihingpo Monastery, a very important religion
city. It was founded in 1447 and was the home of the Panchen Lamas, the reincarnation of the
Buddha of Eternal Light. The tenth Panchen Lama died here in 1989.

After a nice long sleep last night, everybody felt fresher. Today we visited ' Tashihingpo
Monastery ' , a famous temple as well. We had our lunch early and went back to Lhasa at noon.
It took about 5 hours from Shigatse, and the road was much better than last few days’. Coming
back to Lahsa again and in the evening, we visited ‘Noribulingka Park ’, once the summer
residence of Dalai Lama. It is set in a 100 acre garden. After the dinner, I went back to the hotel
early to call Wong since I had promised him to contact him when I went back to Lhasa. He
wanted to come to Lahsa to have a farewell drink with me. I appreciated his kindness but I
refused because it was very dangerous from Tsedang to Lhasa by 3 hours long driving in the dark
rainy night.

After shower, I went to the front of hotel to look for the Tibetan woman whom I had reserved
some goods in the first night in Lhasa. I saw a few members negotiating prices with the stall
owner. Lim and Cheeh showed me what they had bought. The woman really prepared the things
for me, and after some negotiation I bought a lot. Suddendly, the rain was coming, and before I
left the stall, the woman gave me a chain ' Buddhist Beads ' as a present.
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Correspondence to Ong Ka Seng @ ksong8@hotmail.com

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