25^th September

Rocinante always happens to attract a lot of attention. Yesterday, when I got back from the cyber café, There was a crowd of people around it. The lady behind the desk was nervous about the safety of the bike she asked me to bring it in… this was a slightly difficult proposition… you have see the photo to believe,,, but we did it all the same! While doing that I noticed that the tyre of the side car was quite worn out.  Asked Bian ba if we could find a mechanic in the neighbourhood and change the tyre, he thought it could be done at Tuotuohe where we were headed tomorrow (that is today). I couldn’t agree more as I was exhausted and wanted to get a nap.

 But today I wish I had been a little less slothful yesterday as about 100 Km from Tuotuohe there was a loud bang - I instantly knew what it was. I wobbled to a side, got the tools out and put the bike on the jack. Bian ba and Tenzin (the driver) arrived. We replaced the tyre and tube fixed the wheel on the bike and took turns at pumping air into it but it refused to inflate. Finally we concurred on the opinion that in our amateur free style 3 versus 1 wresting match with the tyre and tube we must have punctured the new tube!! We had to redo the whole job again. In the bargain we wasted 2.5 hrs.

We crossed two ranges and so two passes yesterday the Thaur chu la pass (17,061 ft) and the Tangula Pass (17,262 ft). After we crossed the Tanula pass we were out of Tibet and in the Qinghai province of China.