Day 195: The Friendship Highway – Yamdrok-tso to Gyantse
Time for a Tibetan Roadtrip! Even though today was essentially a travel day, we were driving down one of the most scenic parts of the “Friendship Highway” – the 865KM road from Lhasa to Kathmandu in Nepal (sadly, the boarder crossing into Nepal has not reopened since the 2015 earthquake). Today we covered 260KM, passing by the stunning Yamdrok Lake and Karola Glacier before ending the day in the charming city of Gyantse.
The road through Yamdrok-tso is incredibly scenic with lots of photo-op stops along the way. Almost all of these stops feature a handful of hawkers with gigantic Tibetan Mastiffs, with which you can pose for RMB 10. We’re suckers for 100lb. puppies, so we forked over the cash and cuddled the biggest bear-dog we could find!
Who’s a great, big slippery sweetheart? The one on the left, or the right? J
So there is a ridiculously slow speed limit up the Yamdrok-tso Pass, and the cops have nothing better to do than to photograph your license plate at two check points and calculate whether you were going faster than the speed limit. Because of this, we constantly have to pull off the side of the road and kill time so that we don’t get a ticket. Most of the time we stop at scenic spots and take photos, but at one point we literally pulled over and Samdup and the driver gave his minivan a thorough washing – and we weren’t the only ones! The green bus in the background was also getting a wash, while the passengers ran out to grab some ramen from a nearby noodle stand
Driving up the Yamdrok-tso Pass
When we reach the summit, we get our first glimpse of Yamdrok Lake
The stunning, turquoise waters of Yamdrok-tso
We watch a ferry boat chug across the blue water toward a small village on the side of the lake
Lindsay & Igor manage to dodge the crowds of fellow tourists and snap some lakeside selfies
The tranquility of the lake is beautiful…until you turn and see a bunch of goofy Chinese tourists giving peace signs from the back of a yak
It’s already 2:30PM by the time we reach Nangartse, a popular lunch stop along the road. We head upstairs to the Lhasa Restaurant – where we encounter an unimpressive selection of Chinese food and room-temperature Coca-Cola.
As we continue driving, we starting passing more and more snow-capped mountains
A beautiful stupa in front of the Karola Glacier
Next to the stupa, there is a rickety wooden walkway, taking us out for a close-up look at the Glacier
While our viewpoint is already at a dizzying 5,000m altitude, the Karola Glacier towers above us at 7,200m (23,600ft)
Looking back at the Karola stupa from the glacier viewing deck
Pulling over for yet another photo-op of the snowcapped mountain pass
Prayer flags flap around a prayer pole, which is covered by Buddha-tiles and prayer stones at the base
When we reach Manla Lake, we find the viewpoint *covered* in prayer flags
A narrow path in-between the prayer flags, gives us access to the viewpoint
Igor posing at the viewpoint above Manla Lake
We finally reach Gyantse late in the afternoon and check into the Yeti Hotel, a charming spot and our favorite hotel of Tibet so far!
Samdup and our driver join us for a DELICIOUS Indian food dinner at the highly rated Tashi Restaurant – the owners have another location in Lhasa, which we will *definitely* visit on our last night in Tibet!
As we walk back to the Yeti, we pass by the illuminated Pelkhor Chode Monastery