"Tibet, Roof Top of The World" by MoeB52

We took a early morning flight from Chengdu to Lhasa and upon our arrival we headed straight to our hotel to take it easy . Suddenly finding yourself at 12,000 ft can wipe you out and it is best to take it slow for the first day or two .Alltitude sickness can be very serious and we felt very lucky that we had no problems acclimating . Our hotel , The Lhasa did have oxygen available ..if needed.

Just out side The Lhasa Hotel on the side walk are a string of street vendors . These ladies were so nice!

If you are into turquoise jewelry this is the place to buy.Their prices were very good and they would even give you a small gift when you purchased something from them!!

After spending 3 days touring in Lhasa we were off with a guide and driver to Shigatse., the second largest city in Tibet . This trip would take about 8 hours traveling over some very rugged and steep terrain.Our mode of transportation was a Toyota Land Crusier . No Russian jeep this time ..

The drive to Shigatse gave us the opportunity to see what life was like in the foot hills of the Himalayas . Most of the homes were built with rock . The roofs were flat and some had poles on each end with prayer flags .

We came across this gentleman and his two boys sitting on the side of the road so we ended up sharing our lunch with them .One thing I noticed about the people of Tibet are their incredible smiles. They have the whitest teeth I have ever seen !! Most of them looked like they could be ads for Crest White Strips ...

What can I tell ya.. but it only took our driver 15 minutes to change the tire .. Think flats are very routine on these roads . We just thanked God that the spare lasted for the next couple of days .

We stopped to take a break and met this woman carrying a large basket on her back filled with apples . It looked quite heavy but she some how had no problem walking up a steep hill !! She even insisted that I take a couple of her apples and would not take any money for them so we gave her our lunch .

Another thing that I noticed in Tibet was that the women were really into wearing hats and scarfs . In Lhasa most of the ladies wore beautiful hats . Hats similar to what you would see worn at The Kentucky Derby !! I was blown away by seeing these ladies donning very glamorous hats while even working in the fields! You will also see some ladies with elaborate turquoise braided in with their hair .The lady in the picture ,who we met on on the way back to Lhasa .. showed me how to wrap my scarf on my head in the style of that area .
In a nutshell ..Tibet in the past twenty years has become very popular and yet controversial . If you get a chance ..go !. It is a fantastic experience .