20^th September

Visited the Potala Palace- the winter residence of the Dalai Lama, the Bakhor Street Market – selling mostly beads and curios for tourists and the Jokhang Temple- built in the 7^th century an important place of worship for the Tibetans.

At lunch met another waiter who spoke in Hindi. He used to work with a travel agency that organized tours to Mt. Kailash, which of course has majorly Indians as clients. All the restaurants at least in tourist areas, right from the small villages serve Indian as well as Nepali cuisine. I have though avoided this totally and have a staple diet of Yak meat in the form of curry / chowmein / steak / rice etc.

Indians here are liked and respected whereas in Nepal I wasn’t sure. In Nepal as I had no internet in the room, I used spend a lot of time in the lobby (where there was wifi) The night guard used to keep me company, he had served in India for thirteen years before coming back. He used to speak fondly about India and Indians but some others told me there was a slight rancor due to the migration from northern Indian states. Presumptuous me had thought only Nepalese come to India!

About 15 days before I had left India, I received a mail saying there were major mud and Landslides in eastern Tibet, hence my route had to be altered. I would have earlier from here, (Lhasa) gone west wards but now I will be heading north wards and then coming back south wards see diagram…this has increased my travel by about 1300 km !