Earthquake Drama

The big talk over breakfast was, of course, the earthquake. We could catch all of the visuals on the Chinese news, but we couldn't understand the commentary. The quake was reported as 6.2 with its epicentre in eastern Nepal, which alarmed Norris when he found out, as that is where he lives. He scuttled off from breakfast to ring home. A number of deaths in his town, but his wife and house were ok.

We started off going to the Baiju Temple - similar to all the other temples we've visited, though it's smaller in size, so there is not much novelty. This one had a 7 storey stupa that you could climb up, but not much to see when you did. Seems it's claim to fame is that it was built by the first Panchen Lama.

Overlooking all of Gyantse, and especially the Baiju Temple, was the fort built by Colonel Younghusband of the British Army when they invaded Tibet from India in the late 1800s (its not just the Chinese who have invaded Tibet). It's rather imposing, but it's closed to visitors.

We only had a 90 minute journey today, but our guide likes stopping for a cigarette so we still arrived for lunch after 2pm at a Tibetan Yak restaurant in Shigatse.

We have been warned. If the power is on (and often it isn't) charge your batteries, have a hot shower, and use the internet, as it gets pretty basic from here on in. However, they've made a big deal of mothering us, so I don't expect that it will be as rough as all that, although several of the ladies seemed to be rather indignant that the guide couldn't promise hot water showers for the next two nights (as its solar and the sun is unpredictable).