Cry off the trip to the Potala Palace which is seriously high up. Go to the Bank of China instead to change money and discover that Nepali rupees are unwanted in town. looks like a lousy day but Ahmed back at the hotel says his dad will probably change money fro me later. I hope so as am rich in rupees. Have a long walk to find internet but enormous success at the Snowland Hotel. Update blog, upload photos and burn CD. My card now has a virus which kind bloke gets rid of for me. Long wait for file transfer so happily have coffee and delicious apple pie in restuarant of Snowland.
Did I mention how stunningly beautiful Tibetans are?Noticeably handsome race even to us shallow tourists. Some of them are in full fig - men in a dressing gown-like coat loosely belted and maybe off one shoulder; women in dress and striped apron; both with hair plaited or coiled on top of the head; turqoise hair adornments and red ribbons; cheekbones; reddish-brown skin and black, black eyes. Very glamorous.
Later a visit to the monastery that holds a statue of the Buddha taken from life when he was nine years old. This is Jokhang Monastery - very old, very wooden, very No-Smoking. Gilt and gold and bells and smells - wonderful.
Much later coffee and boys in my room as we discuss the state of our respective countries, ie: not good. Sleep by 10.30 and woken at 6 by Devin who is off to Lhasa, bless him. Told him to write me from his Chinese prison. Earlier, you see, there was a tremendous row downstairs as the travel agency boss had ben unable to extend Devin's visa which expires minutes before he reaches Beijing on the train. Devin gets angrier and angrier as the Tibet tour arranger in Nepal knew he was taking the train after 8 days in Tibet. Madness. Finally, the assertive D. sayas he will leave a day earlier and gets refund for missed day in Lhasa and a larger refund for being ripped off on his train ticket by 200 per cent.
Thing is, the travel agents in KTM take money for a Tibet tour, keep some and pass the job along to someone else, who keeps a piece and passes it on again. By the time it gets to the Tibetans who are doing the job, they are getting very little. For example, with our trips, we all paid about $550 each and the Tibetans get $900 for the three of us. We vresolve to tip.
